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 SeeWorley, George
History
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
Worley, George
Southwark Cathedral (London, England)
Above the Lady Chapel, as it is now called, we have a view of the
=East End of the Choir=, as restored by Mr. Gwilt at the same time.
This part of the church having been considerably altered by Bishop
Fox, in or about the year 1520, the restoring architect, though
anxious to go back to the thirteenth century work, had scarcely any
data to guide him to its reproduction. The result was the more or less
original elevation that we now see. It consists of a three-light
lancet window at the east end of the choir, with a small circular
window, with seven cusps, in the gable above, surmounted by a cross,
and a stair-turret, terminating in an octagonal pinnacle at each end
of the elevation.[16]
The pitch of Mr. Gwilt's gable was below that of its predecessor; but
with this exception (the responsibility for which lies rather with the
building committee than with him) 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.
The =South side of the Lady Chapel= contains a central window of three
lights and geometrical tracery, with a lancet window on the right and
left. The mouldings of these side windows are not exactly alike, that
on the right (of the spectator) being extremely plain, while the other
is supported by slender shafts, terminating in delicate floral
capitals.
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.
The =South Transept=, which has a public doorway on its eastern side,
was erected, with its companion on the north, in the first half of the
fourteenth century (_circa_ 1300-1350) in the Decorated style of that
period. It was rebuilt by Cardinal Beaufort in the following century,
which accounts for certain architectural differences between the two
transepts, chiefly noticeable in the windows and in the interior
walls. The front of this transept was repaired in brick in 1735, and
the restoration of both was taken in hand by Mr. Wallace in 1830. At
the earlier date the original window in the south elevation was
"enlarged and beautified," which means that the tracery was taken out,
and a cheap substitute inserted, without tracery, and with plain
mullions instead of the original elaborate lights. Mr. Wallace
improved upon this feeble design by introducing another window, on a
pattern partly of his own invention, partly based on a circular window
in the adjacent Winchester Palace, which is said to have been
singularly ill adapted for stained glass.
[Illustration: _Photo._ _G.P. Heisch._
THE CATHEDRAL FROM THE NORTH-EAST.]
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