Seventy Years after the Blitz

29 December, 2010

Seventy years ago tonight, German bombers unleashed devastation on the City of London. The blitz had begun in earnest. The iconic image of St Paul’s standing amidst the smoke and flames is justly famous, but what of London’s other churches? Few escaped the war unscathed.

St Mary Abchurch was one of the least damaged, but even that suffered some damage to the dome. Many others were not so lucky. Of the 701 churches in the Diocese of London, 624 were damaged including 99 that were totally destroyed.

Most of the rebuildings were conservative, with Wren architecture and plasterwork, and Grinling Gibbons woodwork, lovingly recreated. One of the most dramatic and extreme examples of this wholesale reconstruction is St Mary-le-Bow, reduced to no more than its tower and outer walls, and entirely rebuilt to the original Wren designs by Laurence King. Only a few of the fittings, notably the new stained glass and the chairs that replaced the pews, are a reminder that in its present form the church is almost wholly post-War.

Some of the non-Anglican churches saw most imaginative and innovative rebuildings, including the City Temple, where a concrete nave by Seeley and Paget is sandwiched between the west and east facades of this extraordinarily grand non-Conformist chapel of 1873-4 by Lockwood and Mawson. At the Dutch Church in what had been the medieval church of the Austin Friars, the destroyed church was wholly rebuilt on a much smaller scale by Arthur Bailey c.1950 and has good post war glass and a fine tapestry by Hans van Norden. The rest of the site was redeveloped with an office building.

Truly good architecture stands the test of time, but which is a truer monument to the Blitz? King's careful recreation of an entirely lost past at St Mary-le-Bow? Or Bailey's wholly new building for the Dutch Church? Much as I love seeing St Mary-le-Bow's tower on Cheapside, and beautiful as the recreated interior is, I can't help but feel that the new Dutch Church is a more genuine building. 

All Hallows 'een

Next time you pass through London Bridge station or shop for goodies at Borough Market, spare a thought for the 15,000 paupers and prostitutes buried in Crossbones Graveyard. In existence by the 16th century, Crossbones was finally closed in 1853. The site, on Redcross Way, a narrow lane parallel to Borough High Street, still exists and its gates are marked with an ever changing array of flowers and memorials.  

Most of those buried there were "single women", a polite way of saying prostitute. A royal order of 1161 allowed prostitutes to be licensed, and throughout the middle ages, the bishop of Winchester held these rights in Southwark. The women, known as Winchester geese, congregated in the narrow alleys around Bankside and Southwark priory, alter Southwark cathedral. 

The London historian John Stow noted in his 1598 Survey of London that, "I have heard of ancient men, of good credit, report that these single women were forbidden the rites of the church, so long as they continued that sinful life, and were excluded from Christian burial, if they were not reconciled before their death. And therefore there was a plot of ground called the Single Woman's churchyard, appointed for them far from the parish church."

Paupers and others too poor, or too socially unacceptable, for church burial, also ended up in this small patch of unconsecrated ground. Some of them had an additional afterlife, too, being dug up and used as anatomy specimens at nearby Guy's Hospital in the Old Operating Theatre. 

Newton-le-Willows, Northamptonshire

I've been working on Northamptonshire churches of late, and came across this excellent little article on St Faith, Newton-le-Willows. Now redundant and reused as an activity centre, it was built in the 14th century. The tower was added in the 15th century. By 1848 'its appearance [had] been much injured by stucco on the walls, and by late repairs', and it was restored and the chancel entirely rebuilt in 1858 by William Slater. 

The church has associations with Frances Tresham, one of the Gunpowder plotters, and in 1607, Newton was the site of an armed rebellion by diggers and levellers that saw over 40 people killed or executed. 

Church and State

Another oldie but goodie, this time a series of articles I wrote for the BBC website on the relationship between the English Church and the English State. By looking at the buildings and their architecture, I explored how secular and religious power came together to create England's churches, both large and small.

There were four main articles, looking at cathedrals and parish churches in both the medieval and post-Reformation periods. Here are the links - just click on the titles.

Medieval Cathedrals and Monasteries

Medieval Parish Churches

Cathedrals after the Reformation

Parish churches after the Reformation

I also did two articles on how to "read" a church, one using a cathedral and the other parish church, both looking for clues in the architecture that can tell us about the history of the building. Here they are...

Clues from the Past: Ely Cathedral

Clues from the Past: Kirtling parish church

And some of the fun stuff that went with the series. Test your knowledge with these quizzes, also written by me!

Church architecture quiz

Medieval church quiz

Modern church quiz

Medieval Masons

It seems appropriate to start this blog with a look back at past things. I don't get that much fan mail, so it is always gratefully received. This morning's letter liked an article I wrote for the BBC website ages ago on medieval masons http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/middle_ages/architecture_medmason_01.shtml. It originally accompanied a series that Janet Street Porter did on cathedrals for the BBC, but has had a long after life, including a lovely electronic facelift a few months ago. Mr P wanted to know what else he should read to learn more about masons and medieval building practices. Here are some suggestions:

Nicola Coldstream, Masons and Sculptors (1991)

Malcolm Hislop, Medieval Masons (2009).

Jean Gimpel, The Cathedral Builders (1961)

D Knoop and G P Jones, The Medieval Mason (1967)

More technical things, and things in other languages, include

J S Alexander, ‘The Introduction and Use of Masons' marks in Romanesque buildings in England’, Medieval Archaeology 51 (2007), 63-82

John Harvey, English Medieval Architects: A Biographical Dictionary (1984)

S Kostof, ed. The Architect. Chapters in the History of the Profession (1977)

L R Shelby, 'The role of the master mason in medieval English building', Speculum 39 (1964), pp. 387-403

P Colombier, Les chantiers des cathedrals: ouvriers, architectes, sculpteurs (1990)

R Recht, Les bâtisseurs des cathédrales gothiques (1989)