Mediæval London, Volume 2: EcclesiasticalBesant, Walter
History
Mediæval London, Volume 2: Ecclesiastical
Besant, Walter
London (England) -- History -- To 1500; London (England) -- Social life and customs -- To 1500
These are quite the most important (archæologically) of any of the
illustrations in this book. Neither of them has been reproduced
elsewhere. The originals are in the Marquess of Salisbury’s Hatfield
House MSS., and the late Marquess gave permission for them to be used.
They were sent to the British Museum for safety and were photographed
there. It will be noticed that these plans show not only the
disposition of the whole of the priory buildings, church, chapels,
cloister, dormitory, etc., but also the ground plan of St. Katherine
Cree, the position of the upper bastions of London Wall, and the
direction of the lanes and streets thereabouts. They provide the basis
for a wealth of discovery.]
The second plan is labelled, “This second story or grownd Plat of
Creechurch is drawn by J. Symans.” In it we see “Ivy Chamber” and
close by the south transept let to “Darsey.” The upper floor of the
Dorter, with “the gallery to the Dorter,” “a great Kitchen,” “a privy
Kitchen,” and “The Great Tower,” which stood at the north-west corner
of the nave, so as to be close to the entrance to “the body of the
church,” by the west door, are all seen.
In both the plans the parish church appears where the present one
is still, at the corner of Leadenhall Street and St. Mary Axe. This
street is inscribed “A lane to London Wall from Allgat Streat”; and,
after a turn past one of the smaller priory gates, “The waye from
the monastary in to Allgat Streat.” The church fills a corner of
the priory wall and is irregular in shape, with apparently a tower
at the corner, under which is an entrance to the street. From the
frequency of the window openings it would appear to have been in the
Perpendicular style. It was in this building that the body of Hans
Holbein, the artist, was buried at his death of the plague, while
painting in Lord Audley’s house in November 1543. This church was
ruinous in 1624. Two years earlier the parishioners nearer Aldgate
built themselves a church, St. James’s, Duke’s Place, which stood very
near, if not exactly on, the site of the Lady Chapel of the conventual
church. It also fell out of repair and was pulled down in 1874, the
parish being united with St. Katherine’s, which meanwhile, namely,
in 1631, had been rebuilt by Archbishop Laud, and occupies the space
shown by Symans, together with a narrow aisle taken from “the church
yarde,” on the north side. This may perhaps be defined by a narrow
passage shown in the ground plan along the wall of the church, and has
hitherto been supposed to have formed part of the cloister. Churches,
like this one for parishioners, occur in many other convents—St.
Alban’s and Westminster Abbey, for instance.
CHAPTER IV
THE CHARTER HOUSE
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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