The London Traveler

The Place Below - lunch in the crypt

by Andrea on April 5th, 2008

Fancy lunch in a crypt? If you want to mix some history into your lunch break, you can eat in the Norman crypt of St Mary le Bow, which dates back to before 1100.

If you’re looking for the macabre, though, you’ll be disappointed. This crypt has never been a plague pit or full of coffins, as it was used for many years as a church law court - the meeting place of the Court of Arches.

It now contains a fine vegetarian restaurant run by Bill Sewell, called ‘The Place Below’. (I wonder if there’s just a slight allusion in the name to the ‘downstairs’ establishment run by Lucifer and Beelzebub?)  It serves breakfast from 730 in the morning - early hours for City finance workers - but the biggest attraction is the excellent lunches, served from 1130 to 230.

The menu changes every day, but there’s always one home made soup on offer, and wholemeal sandwiches to eat here or take out as well as a selection of filling main courses. It’s lively cooking - cheddar and curried fruit chutney sandwiches, for instance, or a leek and emmenthal wholemeal sarnie, an imaginative cut above what you’ll get in Pret a Manger.

And if you think a healthy vegetarian lunch is just a bit too goody-goody - you can finish with one of the very, very wicked and calorie laden desserts, or a brownie.

The prices are not high for the City - you can have a decent lunch for between five and ten quid depending on your choices - and even better if you’re trying to save, you get two quid off the main courses if you turn up before 12 o’clock or after 130.

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POSTED IN: Food & Beverage, Just a Little Bit Weird - Fun & Quirky Places, Lunch Hour Fun