Read Ebook: Bell's Cathedrals: Southwark Cathedral Formerly the Collegiate Church of St. Saviour Otherwise St. Mary Overie. A Short History and Description of the Fabric with Some Account of the College and the See by Worley George

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"That the whole of the roof, from the western door to the west end of the tower, called the nave, consisting of ceiling, roof, walls, and pillars, as far as dangerous, be sold and cleared away; the remainder of the walls, pillars, and family vaults to be left open to the weather. And that the choir, north and south transepts, be enclosed, to the eastern part of the church, for divine service; and that the pews, situated in the nave, be removed into such part, for the accommodation of the inhabitants."

In 1838 the nave, having been sufficiently operated on by the climate and other destructive forces, was taken down; and in the following year the foundation stone of a mean and flimsy substitute, in the "Gothic" of the period, was laid by Dr. Sumner, then Bishop of Winchester. The interior, thus limited and reduced, was fitted up with timber staircases, wainscoting, galleries, high pews, and a "three-decker" pulpit, which answered the double purpose of obscuring the sanctuary and enabling the preacher to command his audience in the galleries.

The barbarous result did not escape the sensitive eye of Mr. A.W. Pugin, the great Gothic revivalist, who gave vent to his indignation in a scathing article in the "Dublin Review." He said:

"It may not be amiss to draw public attention to the atrocities that have lately been perpetrated in the venerable church of St. Saviour's, Southwark. But a few years since it was one of the most perfect second-class cruciform churches in England, and an edifice full of the most interesting associations connected with the ancient history of the Metropolis. The roof was first stripped off its massive and solemn nave; in this state it was left a considerable time, exposed to all the injuries of wet and weather; at length it was condemned to be pulled down, and in place of one of the finest specimens of ecclesiastical architecture left in London--with massive walls and pillars, deeply moulded arches, a most interesting south porch, and a splendid western doorway--we have as vile a preaching-place ... as ever disgraced the nineteenth century.

Strange as it may appear, the seating accommodation under this arrangement was even greater than it is at present, and the congregations at the Sunday services were almost as large as they are to-day. It would be quite wrong, therefore, to suppose that no religious work was going on in the parish. But beyond the parishioners, and the few antiquaries who visited the church from time to time, it was scarcely known to the outside world, except when the bells rang out the old year on the 31st of December, or when a dismal light in the windows proclaimed the Christmas distribution of bread, coals, and blankets to the poor of the neighbourhood.

On Tuesday, 16th February, 1897, the building was reopened after restoration, and reinstated in its position as a Collegiate Church, with the added dignity of a pro-Cathedral, in anticipation of its becoming the Cathedral Church of the new diocese of Southwark already in view.

The Lord Bishop of Rochester, the Rt. Rev. Edward Stuart Talbot.

The Lord Bishop of Southwark, the Rt. Rev. Huyshe Yeatman-Biggs.

The Collegiate Church and Chapter, being dependent on voluntary contributions for their maintenance, a fund was raised which assured a sum of about ?2,000 per annum for all purposes for five years. As that period has already expired, a like sum has again to be secured. It may be added that this fund does not suffice to meet the expenses incurred by the daily choral Evensong, which was started in June, 1899. The contributions received for this purpose have hitherto been just sufficient, and it is hoped that by help from a somewhat wider circle of those interested in the efficiency of the Collegiate Church, this service, which has been increasingly appreciated, will not have to be discontinued. The Treasurers are the Bishop of Southwark and the Precentor.

"As a Thank-offering for many blessings during a long life, a merchant of the City of London constructed this Meeting Hall, and munificently contributed to the purchase of the Collegiate House of St. Saviour, Southwark, Sep 4, 1898," surmounted by his arms and the legend "Watch and be ready."

The work of demolition dates from that time, and the old buildings have gradually disappeared to make way for the modern wharves and warehouses which have since occupied the ground. The finishing strokes were put to the destruction during the first half of 1835, when Mr. E.J. Carlos, the archaeologist, visited the ruins, and describes them as then showing "scarcely one stone upon another." They had previously been visited by another antiquary in 1797 and 1808, when there was a little more to be seen. Both gentlemen gave their experience in the pages of the "Gentleman's Magazine," with a conjectural description of the group of buildings as it had been, contrasted with the desolation they then witnessed.

FOOTNOTES:

See a paper read before the Society of Antiquaries, in 1833, by Mr. A.J. Kempe.

Burnham-Overy, in Norfolk, and Barton-Overy, in Leicestershire, show that the suffix is not peculiar to St. Mary's, Southwark.

With very few exceptions the English "Colleges" were suppressed by an Act of 1545. The name seems to have clung to St. Saviour's through all its subsequent changes, rather by old association than as having any practical value, till the collegiate character, as well as the title, was formally restored to it in 1897 by Dr. Talbot, then Bishop of Rochester.

The dedication of the hospital was altered to "St. Thomas-the-Apostle," in 1540, when the official title of the church was changed to St. Saviour. To make way for the line of railway between London Bridge and Charing Cross, a wing of the hospital had to be pulled down, and the whole was transferred to the Albert Embankment, where the new buildings were opened by Her late Majesty Queen Victoria in 1871.

In 1900 the number of churchwardens was reduced to five, of whom two only discharge ecclesiastical duties.

The viscera of his successor, Bishop Horne, are also said to have been buried at St. Mary's in 1579.

We have a striking illustration of the joint pastorate at the same period, when the judicious Hooker was Master of the Temple, and Mr. Travers the Lecturer. The result was that "the forenoon sermon spake Canterbury, and the afternoon Geneva."--Walton's "Life of Hooker."

It may be mentioned, as throwing some light on the above, that the Bankside had acquired an evil reputation through the brothels and other iniquities tolerated in that quarter, and more or less recognised in the Acts of Parliament for their regulation. The north side of a church was in the Middle Ages usually appropriated to women, as inferior to the south, which was reserved for the opposite sex. The north side of the churchyard was used for the burial of ordinary people, a fact which explains St. Swithun's humility in choosing it for his own resting-place.

His words are these: "Supposing Hollar's and other views of the church to be correct, the buttresses as well as the pinnacles were then removed."

The space was eventually left at 130 feet, as it now stands.

Mr. Dollman, who probably knew more about the ancient fabric than any living man, was heard to express his regret that his own great age prevented his active co-operation, but he was delighted that the work of restoration had fallen to such competent hands.

THE EXTERIOR

At the present day St. Saviour's Cathedral is most unfortunate in its surroundings, and cannot be seen as a whole from any point, near or distant. Hemmed in as the church is by London Bridge on the east, the Borough Market and railway arches on the south, and by tall warehouses on the other sides, the confined space in which it stands is a decided hindrance to the near perspective, while the surrounding buildings shut off the view from a distance in all directions.

The railway line from Cannon Street commands a fairly good prospect from the south-west, as it passes the church in its course. A closer prospect is to be obtained from the London Bridge approach which takes in the Lady Chapel, the east and south sides of the choir, the tower and south transept. A few yards further up the slope we, of course, lose the south aspect, but get a fair view, from the north-east corner, of part of the east front and the north transept, including the new Harvard window in the chapel beneath it. If we descend the short flight of steps at the foot of the bridge, and take up a position in the south-east corner of the open ground outside the church railings, we get a fairly good view of the south side from the Lady Chapel to the south-west porch, but lose sight of much of the east end, and therefore of one of the most characteristic external features.

The church lies in a general east and west direction, and is cruciform in plan, consisting of a nave, north and south transepts, a central tower, and choir, beyond which is the retro-choir, or so-called Lady Chapel. The nave and choir have aisles, but the transepts have not. While strict orientation has been secured in the main building, it will be noticed that the chancel is slightly deflected towards the south, in supposed mystic allusion to the drooping head of the Saviour upon the Cross, a piece of symbolism very frequent in Gothic churches, and here rendered peculiarly appropriate by the dedication.

The pitch of Mr. Gwilt's gable was below that of its predecessor; but with this exception his work must be considered very satisfactory. His body now lies at rest in the family vault in the south-east corner outside his work, and he is commemorated in a window within, as well as in a marble tablet behind the altar-screen.

This aspect of the chapel was completely hidden by the parish church of St. Mary Magdalene Overy, erected against it in the thirteenth century, and destroyed in 1822, after having undergone many alterations. The choir entrance, at the intersection of the choir and south transept, is not remarkable, and need not detain us.

When the restoration was undertaken by Mr. Wallace, enough of the old work remained to show that the original design had a high-pitched roof, with a gable recessed behind a straight parapet, and that the large window, though all cusping and tracery had disappeared, was similar, in its main divisions, to that which Sir Arthur Blomfield has inserted. Mr. Wallace's restorations, here and elsewhere, were made quite independently of the suggestions to be found in the ancient work, which Sir Arthur was before all things anxious to reproduce. In the present window we have a practical reproduction of the original, as far as its features could be ascertained. It consists of five lights, combining the earlier geometrical with the later flowing tracery of the Decorated period, and an element of Perpendicular.

As explained in the introductory chapter, the nave had been walled off from the eastern portion of the church and allowed to drop into ruinous neglect from 1831 till 1839, when a flimsy substitute was begun. The foundation stone was laid by Dr. Sumner, then Bishop of Winchester. The fragile nature of this work may be inferred from the fact that it was finished in the following year, and as the floor was raised seven and a half feet above the old level it was impossible to use the new nave in connection with the choir and transepts.

Guided by the ground plan of the thirteenth-century nave, showing the position of the columns of the arcade, and the outer walls generally, as revealed when the modern brickwork was removed, Sir Arthur has succeeded in giving us a practical reproduction of the original, both in character and material. It will be no disparagement to his admirable work to say that it was made more easy by the labours of his predecessors, Mr. Gwilt and Mr. Dollman, and especially by the careful plans and drawings which the latter gentleman left behind him after fourteen years' patient study of the fabric. The south elevation exhibits seven bays, divided and supported by flying buttresses, each bay of the clerestory being lighted by a plain lancet window.

The flying buttresses had been removed from the old nave, with disastrous consequences to the original roof, as already stated. They are now replaced, and at once give strength and effect to the elevation, besides bringing it into harmony with the architecture of the choir, where the flying buttresses were never removed. The wall spaces in the aisle below are occupied by five lancet windows, matching those in the clerestory, except in the bay next the transept, where there is a beautiful window of three lights. Before describing it, the interesting fact may be mentioned that the window in the westernmost bay of this aisle had been concealed and protected, while its neighbours were destroyed, through having a small wooden house, or shed, built up against it. The single window thus accidentally preserved, was taken as a model for the new ones throughout the aisle and clerestory, with the exception of the larger aisle window just referred to. This, though also entirely rebuilt, is a modified reproduction of that which filled the same space in the time of Edward II--a fine example of the Decorated style. Divided by sub-arcuation into three lights, surmounted by circles of quatrefoil tracery in the spandrels of the arches, and supported by composite shafts, with moulded bases and foliated capitals, this elegant window had been allowed to drop into a ruin. Drawings of it had fortunately been taken before it was too late, and the present work gives us the leading features, and practically the details, of the original.

The porch that we now have agrees in its main features with the drawings taken of the earlier one before it was destroyed. A deeply recessed and acutely pointed arch is divided into two by a central shaft, with moulded base and foliaged capital. The jambs contain five shafts on each side, which differ from that in the centre, in that they are of Purbeck marble, and banded, in pleasing contrast to the plain stone of their own bases and capitals, and of the central shaft. In the tympanum of the double doorway thus formed, there is a pointed arcading, consisting of a central arch and two smaller arches on either side. The deep soffit of the arch in which this elegant arcading is enclosed, is adorned with a series of quatrefoil panels.

From the remains of a bracket discovered in the ruins of the former arcading, it is obvious that the central space was intended for a statue. We are not left to mere conjecture on this point, but have documentary evidence to confirm it, which shows that the recess held a seated figure of the Blessed Virgin, the patroness of the church. The arch is now vacant, though supplied with a suggestive pedestal; and there is one other detail in which the restorer appears to have departed from his original, viz., in not reproducing the small clusters of foliage that were distributed along the hollows of the mouldings.

The same uncertainty attends the history of the great west window; all traces of the original having disappeared when a window of the Perpendicular style was introduced in agreement with the doorway below. Before the alterations, or mutilations, of the seventeenth century, this window was of six lights transomed, with cinquefoil tracery at the heads of the lower lights, as inferred from the fragments which survived its mutilation.

In the absence of data as to the Early English fa?ade, the architect for the restoration has been thrown to a large extent upon his own resources. The question of the doorway he has answered in the negative. The window he has given us consists of three lancet lights corresponding with those at the east end, but considerably longer, with an unglazed panel of similar design, on either side, diminishing in height from the central light outwards in harmony with the lines of the roof. The north and south ends of the fa?ade are flanked by stair-turrets, square in their lower portion, rising into octagons, and surmounted by sharply pointed roofs. To relieve the monotony of the horizontalism, a simple arcading has been inserted in the wall spaces above the central window, and above the aisle windows on the right and left. Independently of the question of precedent, the absence of a doorway in this front is quite intelligible at the present day, when the church wall almost touches the narrow public pavement, and the close street of lofty business houses allows no room for perspective, or even convenient access.

A few yards westwards we are reminded of the antiquity of the site by a mass of Roman tiles, arranged herring-bone fashion, as if they had been used in the wall of some earlier building on the spot. They are now tightly packed in a case, exactly as they were discovered, for their better protection against relic hunters, whose ideas of property, when it happens to be of a portable kind, are a constant source of anxiety to the vergers.

Our progress along the north wall is here interrupted by the projecting transept, which touches the wooden fence separating the Cathedral from private property. Neither the north end of this transept, nor the north side of the "Lady Chapel," is to be seen from the exterior. It may be mentioned, however, that the windows on the east and west sides of the north transept are extremely simple compared with that in the end of the same transept or with those in the south arm; and that the north side of the "Lady Chapel" differs slightly from the south in the disposition of the windows. Here the largest is in the easternmost bay, the other two bays being lighted by simple lancets, whereas on the opposite side the largest window occupies the central bay, with a lancet in the bays on either side of it.

Before entering the church, it may be well to walk once more along the east front to see the outside of the new Harvard window in the chapel below the north transept, which stands out in marked contrast to the older work around it. It may also be noticed that while the windows in the choir clerestory are all plain lancets, like those in the restored nave, there is a considerable difference in the glazing. In the choir we have an ornamental pattern of Mr. Gwilt's invention. In the nave Sir Arthur Blomfield has preferred small square panes of glass, as more in character with the lancet type of window, and the other Early English work, which he has so well reproduced.

FOOTNOTES:

There is a further disadvantage, of a more material kind, in the encroachments. The smoke and soot from passing trains on one side, and the dust from a coffee-roasting establishment on the other, are having a sufficiently obvious effect on the fabric, as well as on the surrounding grass-plats. The latter require frequent renewal in consequence.

Perhaps the deflection is more frequently towards the north.

A case more directly to the point may be quoted from Barnwell Priory, where the Lady Chapel is known to have occupied a similar position to the retro-choir at Southwark, with a "little Lady Chapel" appended to it.

The pinnacle at the south end was removed a few years ago to prevent its falling.

The original number of bells, in 1424, was seven, and their names were Nicholas, Vincent, St. Lawrence, Anna Maria, Stephen, Maria, Augustine. In the same year the bells were increased in weight and one more added to the number. The names were then changed, and became Christ, St. John-the-Evangelist, All Saints', Gabriel, St. Lawrence, Augustine, Mary, St. Trinity. They were recast, with 64 cwt. of fresh metal, in 1735, when the peal was brought up to its present number. More recently the two largest of the treble bells were slightly reduced in weight.

The builders of 1839 fortunately contented themselves with building round the bases of the piers, which they left on the old foundation.

Mr. Dollman holds that the cinquefoil tracery occurred in both divisions, but has omitted it from the upper lights in his drawing of the west elevation, as it appeared before it was finally destroyed.

THE INTERIOR

Ancaster stone has been chiefly employed, except in the roof, where the ribs of the vaulting are of Bath stone, the filling being made up of chalk and firestone.

The nave consists of seven bays on each side, divided by piers, alternately circular and octagonal, like those in the choir, with triple vaulting shafts on the north and south sides , and a single shaft on the east and west, corresponding with the interior order of the arches. The vaulting shafts are banded. The deeply moulded arches are somewhat loftier and more acutely pointed than those in the choir, placing the triforia on a slightly higher level, but the triforia of nave and choir are alike in that in both cases they consist of four arched openings in each bay. Every bay is walled off from its neighbours on either side, but has an opening at the back into a passage above the aisles, which is continuous throughout nave and choir. In the westernmost bay on either side, the triforium arcade has a wall immediately behind the shafts. In the other bays it is recessed, and open above the level of the aisle vaulting. In these respects the architect has reversed the old arrangement, as in the original nave the two westernmost bays had open triforia, the others simply containing a shallow arcading. This arrangement, taken in conjunction with traces of an incipient tower discovered within the two western bays, seems to show that these bays were intended to form a narthex, or vestibule, to the church, but it does not appear that the tower was ever erected, or that the vestibule ever went beyond the conception. The clerestory is lighted by plain lancet windows, enclosed in an elegant arcading.

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