Catholic Church of St Mary & St Ethelburga, Barking

The pair of names on the door - St Mary and St Ethelburga - tells you this church has been through a lot. Barking's ancient parish church sits on a site that's been sacred for roughly 1,400 years, though what you see today is mostly medieval, with Victorian bits bolted on because that's what Victorians did to everything.

Walk inside and you're struck by the sheer space of it. High ceilings, decent stained glass, and the kind of quiet that makes London feel very far away even though you're barely six miles from the City. The church has genuinely interesting bones - look up and you'll spot the hammerbeam roof, which is the sort of detail that makes proper church nerds happy.

This is one for architectural history types rather than casual tourists after an Instagram moment. You won't spend hours here unless you're seriously into medieval churches, but twenty minutes to half an hour gets you a real sense of the place. Free to visit, naturally.

If you're based at Abbey Wood Experience Freedom Glamping, which sits just a few miles west, it's a worthwhile diversion on a Barking-focused day. Combine it with the Barking Abbey ruins across the way - another medieval site - and you've got enough to fill an afternoon without stretching yourself. The church itself tells the story of London's eastern margins better than most of what you'll find in trendier parts of the capital.