[This is the seventh of 10 articles briefly describing the
39 functioning historic Anglican churches in the City of London]
Smithfield (a corruption of
Smooth Field) was in medieval times outside the old City of London walls. It was a place for rowdy weekly
fairs, revelry (Cock Lane
nearby hosted the only licensed brothels) and a livestock market; but it was
also a place of execution. It is a particularly melancholy place for a Scotsman
as it was the site of the cruel traitor’s death meted out to the Scots patriot
William Wallace in 1305. During The Peasants’ Revolt, Wat Tyler was fatally
stabbed here by the Lord Mayor in 1381 and in Tudor times many Catholic and
Protestant martyrs were hideously burnt at the stake.
In the 12th Century a Hospital connected to a
large Augustinian Priory was founded by Rahere in Smithfield,
now known as St Bartholomew the Great, and although much diminished, it
remains the most significant Norman church in London.
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| Interior of St Bartholomew the Great |
Rahere had seen a vision of St
Bartholomew on a pilgrimage to Rome
and both the Hospital and Priory were credited with miraculous cures. In the 16th
century a Prior inserted an elegant oriel window within the church so that
supposedly he could spy upon the monks. At the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1543
the nave of the Priory was pulled down and all that remains is the ancient
choir and chancel with some traces of the cloisters. The Priory became a parish
church, with a half-timbered Tudor entrance. The church was neglected and was heavily
restored externally by prolific Ashton Webb in the late 19th
century. Yet uniquely among the City churches, with its Norman piers and
soaring triforium, St Bartholomew the Great exudes medieval sanctity and
devotion. I have attended several Livery services there and the atmosphere is
spine-tinglingly memorable.
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The splendid St Bartholomew’s
Hospital (always known as “Barts”) flourished after the Dissolution and it is
the oldest hospital in London
and a distinguished teaching establishment. It was unaffected by the Great Fire
and beautified by James Gibbs and William Hogarth in the 18th
century.
There were various chapels within
the medieval precincts but the Hospital’s own parish church, St Bartholomew the Less, retained the
15th century tower but was built in 1793 within the shell of just
such a chapel. This small but airy church, by George Dance the Younger, has a
pleasing octagonal shape. There are monuments to many distinguished physicians
and, as Catholics are also allowed to worship here, there was a distinctive aroma
of incense when I recently visited.
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| Dance's Octagonal St Bartholomew the Less |
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Opposite the Old Bailey on
Holborn Viaduct stands the church of St Sepulchre-without-Newgate, one of a
trio claiming to be the largest in the City.
 |
| St Sepulchre-without-Newgate |
There was a Saxon church here,
then a Crusader Church before a 15th century
rebuilding, only for that church to be gutted by the Great Fire. There was
further remodelling in the 18th century and an extensive Victorian
restoration. The end result is rather odd internally; the proportions seem out
of key with the side aisles perhaps too wide and with rather a clutter of
monuments. Externally it is more elegant although the watch tower area beside
the fine doorway looks out of place.
The church has
long been associated with musicians with Henry Wood, John Ireland and Nellie
Melba being commemorated. The church was outside the New Gate of the City and Newgate
Prison stood where now The Old Bailey, otherwise the Central Criminal Court,
asserts its impartial authority. The
bells of St Sepulchre tolled every morning a miscreant was to be hanged and
within the church is a hand-bell rung by a sexton on the eve of an execution
who cried out the dubiously comforting words “Prepare you, for tomorrow you
will die”. The last public execution was at Newgate in 1868.
St Sepulchre is today
a busy City church with traditional Livery and Regimental connections. The
amusing writer and Daily Telegraph
commentator Peter Mullen was recently Rector here.
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Almost up to
the City border at High Holborn and not far from the jewellery streets of Hatton Garden
stands St Andrew Holborn, the
largest City church designed by Christopher Wren. A church site of some
antiquity, the medieval wooden St Andrew Holborn was replaced by a stone church
in the 15th century. Although it survived the Great Fire of 1666, it
was in poor repair and Wren rebuilt it anyway. Thanks to a 14th
century legacy St Andrew was well-endowed then and remains so to this day.
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| St Andrew Holborn |
Like many City churches, St Andrew
is plagued by beggars. I recall a persistent lady claiming to be a refugee from
Kosovo, being turfed out of the church unceremoniously by a rather beefy
church-warden; apparently she was a well-known professional beggar, a resident
of Southend!
SMD
27.03.13
Text Copyright Sidney Donald 2013
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