Paternoster Square

Paternoster Square is an urban development north of St Paul’s Cathedral in the City of London.

In 1942, the area, which takes its name from Paternoster Row – a street down which the monks of the medieval St Paul’s would walk, chanting the Lord’s Prayer (Pater Noster being its opening line in Latin) – was devastated by aerial bombardment in The Blitz. From 1961-1967 the entire superblock between St Paul’s churchyard and Newgate Street was redeveloped according to a scheme by William Holford. The new Paternoster Square soon became immensely unpopular, its grim (in the eyes of many) presence immediately north of one of the capital’s prime tourist attractions an embarrassment.