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)
[13] 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.
[14] Perhaps the deflection is more frequently towards the north.
[15] A converse instance of mistaken nomenclature occurs at Westminster
Abbey, where the Lady Chapel is commonly called after Henry VII, who
began its erection, in place of the earlier chapel, and is buried in
it.
In an inventory of 1538 the "Bishop's Chapel" at St. Saviour's is
styled "the little Chapel of our Lady," which perhaps indicates that
there was an altar to the Virgin in the retro-choir. Two Lady Chapels
in one church are not unknown, as, _e.g._, at Canterbury Cathedral,
where there was one in the north-west transept, now called "the Dean's
Chapel," and another in the crypt under the high altar.
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. (_Vide_ "The Observances in use at the Augustinian Priory of
Barnwell," by J. Willis Clark, and the accompanying plans.)
[16] The pinnacle at the south end was removed a few years ago to
prevent its falling.
[17] 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 (D# and C#) were
slightly reduced in weight.
[18] The builders of 1839 fortunately contented themselves with
building round the bases of the piers, which they left on the old
foundation.
[19] _E.g._, in the will of Joan de Cobham, dated 1369, the testatrix
expresses her wish to be buried before the door of St. Mary Overie,
"where the image of the Blessed Virgin sitteth on high." It will be
noticed that this is the principal feature in the Priory seal.
[20] Drawings of the Perpendicular doorway are given by Moss and
Nightingale (1817-1818), and by F.T. Dollman (1881). The ruins of the
old nave, including this fine doorway, were finally removed towards the
end of 1838, to make way for the _pure Gothic_ structure (as it was
called in the newspaper descriptions of the day), which was commenced
in the following year.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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