St. Mary Le Strand

We set our first big battle in the streets of London. Specifically, we set it in the vicinity of the church of St. Mary Le Strand.

The church was built to replace a medieval parish church pulled down in 1594 to make way for Somerset House.

The church was designed by the architect James Gibbs and built between 1714 and 1717. When Queen Anne died in 1714, they were going to erect a giant column in her honour, with a big statue of her on top, but that [project] fell apart, and instead, St Mary Le Strand got a steeple.

Charles Dickens has a very close connection to this church. According to church registers, his parent John and Elizabeth were married here on June 13th, 1809. The place is steeped in history.

These days, the church has become the official church for the WRENs, the women's Royal Naval service. During World War II, when London was heavily bombed by the Germans, this church was left undamaged.

Sadly, the church fell into disrepair afterwards, and it was only a campaign led by Poet Laureate Sir John Betjemen that brought it back to its original glory.

We chose this church because it's beautiful - and you can imagine all kinds of craziness happening around it. It's on its own little island [in the Strand]. It was kind of cool to imagine scary things running around it and trying to take over the world, in the presence of God.