St Andrews Under Gherkin

St Andrews undershaft in the city was so named because it used to be underneath an enormous maypole. Maypole dancing was the rave of its time, ruthlessly supressed because of illegal drinking, perhaps substances and almost certainly sexual shenanigans. At the same time, just like rave, when the authorities turned up it was usually almost over.


Today the church nestles in the shade not of a maypole but the gherkin, and is used by St Helens, Bishopsate.