London is known for his pubs. Its bucolic parks. His imperturbable guard. Or its flea markets. It is less so for its dozens of churches in which the Bibles have been replaced by food cards and benches by opulent beds. Transformed into restaurants, bars or hotels, these old places of worship concentrate behind their centenary walls many facets of the London spirit: the meaning of the community, an incredibly rich and varied culinary scene, a constantly renewed cultural creativity or respect for traditions and heritage.
The busiest, as much by well informed tourists as the locals, is a few steps from the famous Oxford Street, in the chic district of Mayfair. At first glance, the imposing neo-Greek style facade with colonnades, stuck against residential buildings in red bricks, is not a church. It was not by crossing the portal and then the narthex where a bar in Matcha and a plant shop focused on the sumptuous NEF of St Mark built in the 1820s. Disacralized in 1974, the building has welcomed the Mercato Mayfair restaurant since 2018, thought like a food market. The arrangements have been designed to be fully reversible. They concentrate on two floors and in the crypt of stands of all stripes. From lobsters and oysters to fresh pasta and pizzas, including Indian, Malaysian, Spanish, Mexican, Japanese, English, Thai and Chinese cuisine. But also several typical bars: sake, German beers, cocktails or world wines.