Qualla: St Clement Danes https://qualla.com/st-clement-danes en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:15 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/st-clement-danes-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: St Clement Danes https://qualla.com/st-clement-danes St Clement Danes: Introduction https://qualla.com/st-clement-danes/ Photo credit Jordiferrer, CC BY-SA 4.0. Four times a day — at 9am, noon, 3pm, and 6pm — the bells of St Clement Danes play "Oranges and Lemons." The nursery rhyme's connection to this church may be apocryphal, but the bells play it anyway, because the association is older than anyone alive and the people of London have come to expect it. On 10 May 1941, the bells fell silent when the Luftwaffe gutted the interior and brought them crashing to the ground. They were recast after the war. In 1958, St Clement Danes was reconsecrated in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II as the Central Church of the Royal Air Force. The bells play again, four times daily, as they have for centuries.

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Image: Jordiferrer | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/st-clement-danes-wp/gcpv-st-clement-danes-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full St Clement Danes: Built by the Danes, Rebuilt by Wren https://qualla.com/st-clement-danes/ Photo credit Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0. The story of the Danes' connection to this church is ancient enough to have several competing versions. The most popular holds that Viking settlers established a church in the village of Aldwych in the 9th century, during the Danelaw period when London sat on the boundary between...

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Image: Diliff | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/st-clement-danes-wp/gcpv-st-clement-danes-built-by-the-danes-rebuilt-by-wren.mp3 0:06 2 full St Clement Danes: The Night the Interior Burned https://qualla.com/st-clement-danes/ Photo credit Stephen Richards, CC BY-SA 2.0. On the night of 10 May 1941, Luftwaffe bombers hit St Clement Danes. The outer walls, the tower, and Gibbs's steeple survived. The interior did not. Everything inside — the woodwork, the furnishings, the organ, the ceiling — was destroyed by fire. The ten bells fell to the ground...

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Image: Stephen Richards | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/st-clement-danes-wp/gcpv-st-clement-danes-the-night-the-interior-burned.mp3 0:06 3 full St Clement Danes: A Floor Made of Memory https://qualla.com/st-clement-danes/ Photo credit Basher Eyre, CC BY-SA 2.0. Walking into St Clement Danes, the first thing to register underfoot is the Welsh slate floor — inscribed with the badges of over 800 RAF commands, groups, stations, squadrons, and other formations. Near the entrance, a ring of Commonwealth air force badges surrounds the RAF badg...

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Image: Basher Eyre | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/st-clement-danes-wp/gcpv-st-clement-danes-a-floor-made-of-memory.mp3 0:06 4 full St Clement Danes: The Contested Statue and the Notable Dead https://qualla.com/st-clement-danes/ Photo credit Eluveitie, CC BY-SA 3.0. Outside the church stand two statues of RAF wartime leaders: Hugh Dowding, who commanded Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain, and Arthur "Bomber" Harris. Both were sculpted by Faith Winter. Harris's statue, erected in 1992 by the Bomber Harris Trust, generated protests f...

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Image: Eluveitie | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/st-clement-danes-wp/gcpv-st-clement-danes-the-contested-statue-and-the-notable-dead.mp3 0:06 5 full