  Formerly the Collegiate Church of St. Saviour; and St. Mary Overie, Southwark. Special features: Central Tower; Choir-Screen; Tomb of John Gower; Harvard Window; Windows to Elizabethan Dramatists. Although St. Saviour’s, Southwark, is one of the oldest buildings in London, it is one of the youngest of cathedrals in England, having been formally inaugurated as a Cathedral by King Edward on July 3, 1905. It was recently restored at a cost of £40,000. Parts of the Norman nave, dating from the Twelfth Century, were incorporated by Sir Arthur Blomfield in the new nave built in 1891-1896. St. Saviour’s stands on the south or Surrey side of London in the Borough, a district of very little interest in comparison with London north of the Thames; but very rich in historical associations. After crossing London Bridge we find this church on our right on a lower level than the road, which sunken situation prevents a good view of the venerable pile. Adjoining the church is the Borough Market for fruit and vegetables and west of it in Park Street, close to Southwark Bridge, is Barclay’s Brewery on the site of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. Going down Borough High Street we pass the site of the old Tabard Inn, from which Chaucer’s Canterbury Pilgrims started on their journey; and still lower down the street, the successor to the White Hart, where Mr. Pickwick found the immortal Sam Weller. In the vicinity St. Saviour’s is now almost the only remaining landmark of “Old Southwark.” Its early history is lost in legend. Stow, on the authority of Linstede, the last of the priors, attributed the building of the original London Bridge to the profits made by a ferryman here, who left his money to his daughter Mary. He tells the story as follows: “East from the Bishop of Winchester’s house, directly over against it, standeth a fair church called St. Mary-over-the-Rie, or Overie; that is, over the water. This church, or some other in place thereof, was, of old time, long before the Conquest, a house of sisters, founded by a maiden named Mary; unto the which house and sisters she left, as was left to her by her parents, the oversight and profits of a cross ferry, or traverse ferry over the Thames, there kept before that any bridge was built. This house of sisters was after by Swithun, a noble lady, converted into a college of priests, who in place of the ferry built a bridge of timber, and from time to time kept the place in good reparations; but lastly, the same bridge was built of stone; and then in the year 1106 was this church again founded for canons regular by William Pont de la Arch, and William Dauncey, Knights, Normans.” Modern historians have made a few corrections in this statement, particularly as regards the person who changed the nunnery into a college of priests. This was not a “noble lady,” but St. Swithun, Bishop of Winchester (832-856) (see page 46). It became a monastery of the Augustinian order in 1106, and the Norman knights who aided in its foundation also built the new Norman nave. After a severe fire that occurred early in the Thir Another fire in the reign of Richard II. occasioned other repairs in the new Perpendicular style which was continued by Cardinal Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester (1405-1447), who restored the south transept. The Cardinal was the son of John of Gaunt and Catherine Swynford. In this church he married his niece Jane Beaufort to James I. of Scotland in 1423, with whom the royal poet fell in love during his imprisonment at Windsor. After the Dissolution of the monasteries in 1536 St. Mary Overy, which had already been united with St. Mary Magdalene, was now combined with St. Margaret’s and in the year of Linstede’s surrender to Henry VIII. (1540) the three parishes were united under the name of the Collegiate Church of St. Saviour. St. Saviour’s was several times repaired and altered in the Eighteenth Century, and then fell into neglect. The East End is an enlargement or addition to the choir. It consists, as we see, of four bays separated by buttresses and surmounted by gables. Each gable is lighted by a triplet of lancet windows. Larger windows of the same general style light the bays below. At the north-east corner is a short hexagonal stair turret. Above the Lady-Chapel rises the East End or gable of the choir. This has also a three-light lancet window, with a small circular window with seven cusps above. On the The Tower at the intersection of the nave and transepts was partly built by Bishop Fox in the Perpendicular style. “At the intersection of the nave, transepts and choir, rises a noble tower, thirty-five feet square and one hundred and fifty feet in height, resting on four massive pillars adorned with clustered columns. The sharp-pointed arches are very lofty. The interior of the tower is in four stories, in the uppermost of which is a fine peal of twelve bells. Externally the tower, which is not older than the Sixteenth Century, somewhat resembles that of St. Sepulchre’s Church, close by Newgate. It is divided into two parts, with handsome pointed windows, in two stories, on each front; it has tall pinnacles at each corner, and the battlements are of flint, in squares or chequer-work.”—(E. W.) The South transept, like the north transept, was built in the Decorated style in the first half of the Fourteenth Century, but was rebuilt by Cardinal Beaufort. It has been restored in the style of his time, and the window of five lights is Transitional in style from Decorated to Perpendicular. We enter by the Doorway at the south-west, the principal entrance to the Cathedral. “In all probability the door was placed in this position when the Norman nave was built by Bishop Giffard (circa 1106); but its character was altered by Peter de Rupibus, a century later, to bring it into harmony with the rest of his Early English work, when he remodelled the nave in that style. “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 On entering we get a fine view of more than two hundred feet. The Nave was rebuilt in 1890-1897 and is a reproduction of the Early English nave in nearly every detail. As we look down the long vista we are reminded of Salisbury. Here, however, we have the magnificent screen and the handsome East window above it. The clerestory is lighted by plain lancet windows, enclosed in an elegant arcading. Walking down the north aisle of the nave we soon come to the most interesting monument in the Cathedral—the tomb of John Gower, who died in 1408, eight years after his friend Chaucer, to whom the window above (1900) is appropriately enough a memorial and bears the latter’s portrait. “He had been a liberal benefactor to the Church, and founded a chantry in the Chapel of St. John the Baptist, where he was eventually buried. The chapel and chantry are no more, but the monument marks the spot, having been restored in 1894 to its first position. It is in the Perpendicular style, and consists of an altar-tomb, with a dado, ornamented by seven panels in front, on which lies the effigy of the poet, surmounted by a canopy of three ogee arches, with an inner order of five cusps, and terminating in crocketed pinnacles. There is a pilaster set angle-wise at each end, banded at the separate divisions of the monument, and also rising into crocketed pinnacles. There are similar pinnacles between the arches of the “The poet is represented lying on his back, with his hands joined in prayer, and his head resting upon the three volumes on which his fame depends, the Speculum Meditantis, Vox Clamantis, and Confessio Amantis. He is vested in a long dark habit, buttoned down to the feet, after the manner of a cassock, the ordinary dress of an English gentleman at the time. There is a garland of four roses round his head, and at his feet a lion couchant. The SS. collar adorns the neck, with a pendant jewel, on which a swan is engraved—the device of Richard II., to whom Gower was Poet Laureate. On the wall of the canopy, at the foot of the tomb, there is a sculptured and coloured representation of the poet’s own shield of arms, crest and helmet. On the back wall of the recess, above the effigy, there were formerly three painted figures, representing Charity, Mercy, and Piety, each bearing a scroll with an invocation, in Norman-French, for the soul of the departed. After undergoing repainting more than once, with modifications, the figures were scarcely recognisable in 1832, when the monument was repaired, but the figures were unfortunately obliterated. The inscription along the ledge of the tomb, which had also been destroyed, is now replaced: ‘Hic jacet I. Gower, Arm. Angl: poeta celeberrimus ac hoc sacro benefac. insignis. Vixit temporibus Edw. III., Ric. II., et Henri IV.’”—(Geo. W.) Now we have reached the North Transept, supposed to have been originally a chapel dedicated to St. Peter. It is now used as a sort of museum for the relics and antiquities of the church—old bosses, chests, stone-coffins, etc. The large north window was unveiled in 1898 to commemorate doubly the Prince Consort and Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. Its four lights depict Gregory the Great, King Ethelbert, Stephen Langton and William of Wykeham. Passing to the tower we can now look upward as far as the floor of the bell-ringers. The bosses on the new oaken roof date from the Fifteenth Century. From it hangs a fine Chandelier of 1680. The South Transept was rebuilt by Cardinal Beaufort, whose arms we see on a pier by the transept door. The great south window of five lights, described by Sir Arthur Blomfield, the designer, as “transitional between Flowing Decorated and Perpendicular,” is filled with modern glass. The design is a “Tree of Jesse.” Returning now to the Choir we pause here to study it in detail. It was built by Peter de Rupibus in the Thirteenth Century, and is Early English. It consists of five bays. The piers are alternate circular and octagonal, with plain capitals and well-cut base mouldings. Four arched openings occur in each bay of the triforium. Corbels with sculptured heads occur on the arches of the south side. The Altar stands on a platform and above it rises the wonderful Screen, erected by Bishop Fox in 1520. It almost fills the entire eastern end of the choir. “The screen is about thirty feet in height, and extends to the main arcades on either side. Three tiers of canopied niches, ten in each tier, divided down the centre by a Perpendicular series of three large niches, all occupied by statues, made up a composition which was at once ‘a thing of beauty’ and an object lesson on the Incarnation. The total number of niches (thirty-three) suggested a mystic reference to the years of our Lord’s earthly life, while the image of the Pelican ‘in her piety,’ here and there, besides being a reminder of Bishop Fox (whose peculiar device it was), also typified the sacrament of the altar. The original materials of which the screen was built are quoted as ‘Caen and fire-stone,’ for which Mr. Wallace substituted “The doors on each side will be noticed, with their depressed ogee headings, which indicate that this screen is of somewhat later date than the corresponding one (also by Bishop Fox) at Winchester. Another indication to the same effect has been detected in the grotesque carvings in the spandrels, which are here of a humorous character, whereas at Winchester the minor decorations are entirely sacred, e.g., the Annunciation and Visitation.”—(Geo. W.) The East Window above contains three lancets, the glass representing the Crucifixion in the centre with St. John on one side and the Virgin on the other. It is placed in a quintuple arcade. The prevailing colour is blue. On the north side of the choir under the first arch we notice the Monument of Richard Humble, a good specimen of the Jacobean period. Here, under an arched canopy, Richard Humble is kneeling before an altar, with his two wives behind him. The second one wears a conical hat. The Retro-Choir, now called the Lady-Chapel, was erected by Peter de Rupibus. It is one of the best examples of Early English extant. Six slender columns support the groined vault. If we look at it from the south-east corner we gain a good view showing the altar on the north side and the tomb of Bishop Andrews (died 1626) on the west, an example of the Renaissance style, with a painted effigy. This Bishop of Winchester (who often visited St. Saviour’s, the most important church in his diocese after the Cathedral of Winchester) was buried in a little chapel east of the retro-choir. The “Bishop’s Chapel,” as it was called, was destroyed in 1830 and the body of Bishop Andrews was transferred to its present place. Of the windows in the Retro-Choir the most admired is the one in the north side of three lights containing figures of Charles I., Thomas À Becket and Archbishop Laud. The tracery is in the Decorated style. Walking along the north-choir-aisle we pass the effigy of a knight and soon come to the most conspicuous monument in this aisle, that of John Trehearne, servant to Queen Elizabeth and “Gentleman Portar” to James I. On the top of the tomb are Trehearne and his wife with big ruffs. They proudly hold a tablet which is a eulogy of Trehearne’s remarkable qualities. Their four children kneel on a bas-relief below. It is a very interesting example of Seventeenth Century mortuary art. A door leads from the north-choir-aisle into the Chapel of St. John the Divine, now famous for the Harvard Window in its eastern wall. “Henceforth the chapel will be associated with the name of John Harvard, who was born in the parish, and baptised in the church on 29th November, 1607, and its restoration is intended to take the form of a memorial to that great and good man. “The first practical step in this direction was taken by the Hon. Joseph H. Choate, who manifested great interest in the ancient fabric while he was American Ambassador, and presented the east window to the chapel in commemoration of John Harvard, founder of the renowned university which bears his name. The window, unveiled by Mr. Choate on Monday, 2nd May, 1905, is of three lights, transomed, as designed by Sir Arthur Blomfield and Sons, the glass being made in America under the supervision of Mr. Charles F. McKim, the famous American architect. The design is by Mr. John La Farge. In the central light of the lower division the Baptism of Christ is depicted, attendant angels occupying the sides. The upper division contains the arms of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where John Harvard was educated, and of the “The window is a noteworthy example of modern work, and the treatment of the familiar subject is distinctly original, in which respect, as well as in colouring, it presents a very striking contrast to the other windows, especially to those of mediÆval character, throughout the church. Perhaps it is fortunate that it occupies an isolated position in the chapel, where the brilliance and peculiarity of the colouring are seen to full advantage without detriment to the other windows.”—(Geo. W.) We again find our way back to the tower and into the south-aisle of the nave for the particular purpose of looking at the windows representing the Elizabethan players and dramatists, associated with the Southwark theatres. Some of them, John Fletcher, Philip Massinger and Edmund Shakespeare, are buried here. The first of this series of windows is a memorial to Edward Alleyn (1566-1626); next to Francis Beaumont (1585-1616); next to John Fletcher (1579-1625); next to Philip Massinger (1583-1639); next to Shakespeare, who lived not far from his theatre, the Globe, in the parish of St. Saviour’s Church. |
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