church

Footsteps at St. Bride’s

October 16, 2024 By Glynn Young 1 Comment

During a recent trip to England, we took advantage of our trip coinciding with London Open House, two successive weekends where citizens and tourists alike can view many buildings usually closed to the public, or take walking tours, or get behind the scenes views of many places that are open to the public.

One of the places we visited was St. Bride’s Church on Fleet Street, known as “the journalists’ church.” Fleet Street as the home to Britain’s big newspapers is a memory; the newspapers and the journalists moved to other parts of the city decades ago. But St. Bride’s remains, and it’s still known as the place where journalists worshipped.

A church has stood on this spot since the late Roman / early Briton period. It gets its name from St. Bride, or Bridget, a nun who lived in the late fifth century but who may never have visited London or England. Several church buildings have been erected on the site. The old medieval church was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666 and then rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren. It was destroyed again, on December 29, 1940, during an incendiary raid by German bombers. But it was rebuilt as close to the Wren building as possible and reopened in the late 1950s.

It’s a beautiful church. We were able to descend through 2,000 years of history to see the crypt, with its old Roman wall, the nameplates found on old coffins, and two chapels, including a small medieval chapel whitewashed and made into an intimate worship space.

I had some to time to sit in that chapel, and I did. And it was there that I thought I could hear footsteps above and around me.

Footsteps at St. Bride’s

I hear footsteps here, overhead
and around, echoes of Celts.
and around. echoes of Celts
and Romans, Britons and
Saxons, Vikings intent on loot
and pillage. And the builders
and architects, bricklayers
and monks, whispering of
the Irish saint inspiring it
all. Footsteps become
louder, years passing,
building and tearing down,
rebuilding and reconstructing,
and footsteps running,
accompanied by screams
and the roar of fire. And more
rebuilding, with the Architect
himself stacking the spire
like tiers of wedding cake,
standing in splendor over
the newspapers of growth
and empire so pervasive they
defined generations. I hear
more footsteps, first those
running from the bombs and
then those running to fight
the fire, but above me is ruins.
Yet new architects and
new builders return, workmen,
intent on recreating what
was once there. Newspapers
move on, but the footsteps
remain. They never go away.

Dancing King Stories: Southwark, the Human-Scale Cathedral

April 2, 2018 By Glynn Young 3 Comments

When you visit London, especially for the first time or two, two great churches are on the must-see list – St. Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey. And with good reason. Both churches are known for their soaring architecture, structural beauty, and the fact they are filled with English and British history. Right down Victoria Street form Westminster Abbey is another monumental church – the Roman Catholic Westminster Cathedral. London is a big city with big cathedral churches.

Southwark Cathedral is another church, smaller than its more famous London relatives. But of all the churches and cathedrals I’ve seen in London and England, it may be my favorite. Size has something to do with it – it’s smaller, more human-scale, still impressive, but the human eye can take it in without being completely overwhelmed.

It’s not as well known for tourists. It’s partially location – on the South Bank near London Bridge tube and train station, it’s about a half-mile walk to the Globe Theatre and Tate Modern art museum. It’s only about two blocks from the London Bridge Experience, whose replicated blood and gore I’ve so far managed to miss. The cathedral is also adjacent (about as adjacent as you can get) to the Borough Market, full of produce, stands, food shops, and restaurants and also the site of a terrorist attack in June of 2017 (not to be confused with the Westminster Bridge attack in March of 2017).

Southwark’s official name is “the Cathedral and Collegiate Church of St. Saviour and St. Mary Overie,” the “overie” meaning “over the river.” A church has existed on the site since the 7^th century; archaeologists have identified the foundations of an Anglo-Saxon church there. It’s believed to have first been connected to a community of nuns, and later a community of priests. The first written reference to it is in the Domesday Book of 1086, William the Conqueror’s detailed assessment of land and resources.

In 1106, the church was reestablished as a priory and followed the Rule of St. Augustine. It was then that the church was dedicated to St. Mary Over the River. A hospital was established as well, and it would eventually grow and be transferred to what is now St. Thomas Hospital near Westminster Bridge and across the Thames from Parliament. (Incorporated into St. Thomas Hospital was the old Guys Hospital near Southwark Cathedral, where the poet John Keats studied to be a doctor.)

Southwark was the staging area for pilgrimages to Canterbury, and it was in this area that Geoffrey Chaucer launched the pilgrimage made famous in The Canterbury Tales.

The order at Southwark was dissolved along with orders across England by Henry VIII in 1539, part of the English Reformation and likely inspired by Henry’s desire to get his hands on the churches’ and orders’ prodigious wealth. The building was rented to the congregation and called St. Saviour’s; in 1611, the congregation purchased the church from James I. One of the notables buried in the church is William Shakespeare’s younger brother Edmond (1607).

The church officially became “Southwark Cathedral” in 1905. Today, the Diocese of Southwark encompasses a rather large area (and includes Lambeth Palace, the home of the Archbishop of Canterbury). It covers 2.5 million people and more than 300 church parishes.

Southwark Cathedral nave — This would be Michael Kent-Hughes’ view as he speaks from the pulpit

In Dancing King, Southwark Cathedral is the place where Michael Kent-Hughes begins his series of sermons at London churches, two days before Christmas Eve. The photograph here of the nave is the view Michael would have as he’s speaking to a packed church. And it is here, the next night, where almost 1,200 people will show up for a Bible study, filling the church past overflowing, beginning what will become a religious revival in the Church of England. But it will be a revival matched by intense opposition from the senior church hierarchy.

If you visit the cathedral (and it’s well worth a visit), the entry fee is a pound (a bargain compared to the big churches). You pay your fee in the gift shop, where in return you’re given a cathedral guide. You also usually warned to make sure your guide is visible when you enter the church; one of the church wardens will politely ask to see it or send you to the shop to buy one if you don’t have it. The fee doesn’t apply during church services.

Top photograph: a view of Southwark Cathedral, with one of London’s tallest office buildings, known as “The Shard,” in the background.

Dancing King Stories: St. Martin-in-the-Fields, and the Crypt

March 26, 2018 By Glynn Young Leave a Comment

Trafalgar Square in London is highlighted by three landmarks – the statue of Nelson in the square itself, the National Gallery on north side, and St. Martin-in-the-Fields Church at the northeast corner.

At ground level, you have to look up (way up) to see Nelson atop his column. The National Gallery is huge, running the entire length of the square, including both the original building and the relatively new (and contemporary) Sainsbury Wing. St. Martin’s, however, has always seemed the most striking building, perhaps because of its steeple and its architecture, which has inspired thousands of church buildings in the United States.

St Martin-in-the-Fields — The church nave

The church is named for St. Martin, born about 316 A.D. in what is now Hungary and right when Christianity was legalized in the Roman Empire by Constantine. He was originally in the Roman army but left because of his faith and settled at Poitiers in France, where he founded the first monastery in France. The monastery lasted until the French Revolution in 1789. Martin was almost kidnapped by the people of Tours to become the bishop. He refused the bishop’s lifestyle and actually lived in a cave outside Tours. He was associated with many acts of healing, including raising the dead to life. He died in 397; the day of his burial, Nov. 11, is still his feast day.

A church has existed on this spot since at least 1222, when it’s first noted in the records. As the area grew in population, an official parish was organized. By about 1544, the old church building was torn down and a new, although small, church was built in its place. In 1603, when James I became king, a considerable number of Scottish nobles settled in the Charing Cross area. The church building was too small, so James had it enlarged.

Finally, in 1720, Parliament passed an act approving the construction of a new church. The architect was James Gibbs, a friend of Sir Christopher Wren. Gibbs built the church known today. The large clear glass window, rather modern in style, behind the altar was added after World War II bombing destroyed the originally stained glass.

The church today is known for its outstanding classical music ministry, with both paid concerts inside the church and free lunchtime concerts outside in the courtyard. Below ground, in what was the church crypt, there is a restaurant, Café in the Crypt, serving lunch and dinner at generally more reasonable prices than can be found nearby (this area is close to being ground zero in London for tourists from around the world).

The café and the church are among our favorite places in London. We’ve eaten here numerous times, had our first real Victoria sponge cake here, used the crypt as a refuge from the rain, and attended concerts and lectures. St. Martin-in-the-Fields is like our home away from home. (The church also has a great shop next to the crypt, and I’ve found numerous books there.)

The church has a small reference in my second novel, A Light Shining, and then only being noted as one of the places damaged during The Violence, a jihadist uprising that happens in London and other cities in Britain. In Dancing King, Michael Kent-Hughes and his chief of staff meet with the church vicar for lunch in the crypt, and Michael commits to underwrite the rebuilding and to help with the fundraising effort. This has its origin in the historical fact that the church and the area have long been associated with Britain’s royal family (the land on which the National Gallery sits was known as the Kings Mews or stables).

If you visit London, St. Martin-in-the-Fields is a must-see, and the Victoria sponge cake in the Café in the Crypt is a must-eat.

Top photograph by Robert Cutts via Wikimedia.

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