The Crypt, Holborn Circus, London

The Crypt, Holborn Circus, London

The Crypt, Holborn Circus, London, originally uploaded by Craig Grobler.

The sense of history lies heavy in the Crypt of St. Etheldreda's. Its foundations date back to the 6th Century; its rough stone walls, eight foot thick in parts, and its heavy blackened beams to the 12th Century when Ely Palace was constructed above The Crypt by the Bishops of Ely in Cambridgeshire as their London bishopric.

In 1531 Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon hosted a Grand Celebration in The Crypt which lasted for five full days and nights. They feasted on swans, stuffed with larks stuffed with sparrows.