CHAPTER III - THE CROSSING AND TRANSEPTS
The Crossing (where the transepts meet or cross the quire and
nave) was here—as in many other places—included in the monastic
or ritual quire of the priory church.
It is not square, for it measures 25 ft. 3 in. east and west and
28 ft. north and south; and it does not centre with the transepts,
though the transept arches do so. The centre of the crossing is
some 9 in. west of the centre of the transepts. Any reasons for these
irregularities are difficult to give as the transepts are practically
the same width as the quire and nave, and a square crossing centrally
placed would therefore have been expected.
The nave and quire arches are round, while those to the transepts
are pointed and stilted. The latter rise to a considerably greater
height than do those of the nave and quire.
The spandrels of the four arches, on the inner side, are enriched with
diamond-shaped panels, (fn. 1) one panel on each spandrel (pl. XXXIXa, p. 44).
The panels are filled with a device of four scrolls which vary in design.
In the angles, where the spandrels meet, there is a small mural arcade, (fn. 2)
one on each spandrel, the arches of which rise from a small round shaft
in the angle between the two arches. An interrupted zigzag ornament is carried over the arches and down the angle of the sides
opposite to the small shaft. This ornament, together with the plain
hood mould over the arches, though rich, is somewhat heavy. (fn. 3)
The cornice above, upon which the flat ceiling rests, (fn. 4) is enriched
with a very effective lozenge ornament. The four great arches of the
crossing have the horizontal zigzag ornament in the hood mould, (fn. 5)
and have a double rib on the soffit of the inner order, that of the
outer order being flat. The piers under the transept arches have
attached shafts corresponding to the double ribs in the arches above,
and also to the outer order of the arch. In the south transept the
shafts have Norman caps, which on the east side have two scallops,
and on the west side three scallops and the pellet ornament (pl. XXb,
p. 12). (fn. 6) The bases in the south transept are a plain Norman type of
about the middle of the twelfth century.
In the north transept the base of the west pier is similar, also the
base of one shaft only of the east pier, that is the one that was covered
by the screen wall under this north transept arch; but the remainder
of the base of this east pier, and the caps to the shafts of both the east
and west piers, are early Perpendicular work, marking the rebuilding
that took place about the year 1405 (pl. XLI, p. 46). The settlement,
damage by earthquake, or whatever it was that necessitated this
rebuilding, chronicled by the pope in 1409, (fn. 7) seems to have centred
in the north-east pier of the crossing, which still shows signs of the
trouble, especially in the cracks in its north face. The rebuilding
is further shown on the south side of the pier by the fact that the
stone string under the sill of the triforium is interrupted before it
reaches the transept, whereas on the south side of the church it is
continued to the corner. (fn. 8) It is also shown by the Norman pilaster
at the north-east portion of the pier having a Perpendicular cap and
base; and, if Coney's engraving in Dugdale can be relied upon,
the half-column on the east side of the pier, rebuilt in 1865, was
replaced by a corbel with fifteenth-century mouldings.
The variations in the levels of the bases of the piers of the crossing, (fn. 9)
and the question as to whether the tower was rebuilt over the crossing
or elsewhere, are considered later on. (fn. 10)
The quire and nave arches are carried on corbels, thus leaving
a flat wall surface for the backs of the quire stalls, as at Brinkbourne,
Lanercost, and elsewhere. The corbels of the quire arch are a repetition of the shafts and caps of the south transept piers (pl. XXXIX b),
the fact that the shafts were never continued down being shown
by the string at the triforium level which is continued beneath. The
corbels of the nave arch have been replaced in early Perpendicular
times and correspond to the caps on the shafts of the piers of the
north transept, and further mark the great work carried out about
the year 1405. At the close of the nineteenth century, these two
arches, which had been strengthened by iron trusses in 1828, (fn. 11) showed
signs of giving way, the key-stones having dropped for want of
abutment. This was remedied by building a shallow south transept
in 1891, and a similar one on the north side in 1893.
The arches of the north and south transepts are, as stated above,
pointed; and because they are somewhat stilted it has been thought
that they were originally round-headed (fn. 12) as at Malmesbury; but,
although there is evidence that the north transept arch has been
partially rebuilt, there is no such evidence as regards the southern one;
it may therefore be assumed that they were both built with a pointed
arch as at Christ Church, Oxford. In the north transept arch the
zigzag ornament, which is carried over the arch and down to the cap
on the west side, stops three-quarters of the way down on the east
side, and from there to the cap it is replaced by a Perpendicular
mould. In the south transept, the zigzag mould, although wanting
from about seven feet above the caps, has clearly been hacked off,
probably to allow the brick building erected after the suppression
to be placed against the face of the arch: there are no signs of any
rebuilding. It is not uncommon to find pointed arches stilted when
required to reach a given height.
The crossing in monastic times was enclosed on three sides by
stone screens. On the west side was the quire screen or pulpitum,
which here occupied the entire width of the bay westward of the
crossing. The present west wall of the church would appear, by a
drawing made in 1864, to have been built on the remains of the west
wall of the pulpitum (pl. XL). Its east wall was on a line with the
east jamb of the triforium arch, as is shown by the position of the small
doorway there. The top floor of the screen may be assumed to have
been on a level with the floor of the triforium, giving a screen 18 ft.
deep and 17 ft. high, with probably a parapet of 4 ft. above that
again. (fn. 13) The doorways in the triforium arch gave access to the screen
by doors opening outward on to it (pl. XIX b, p. 11). These doorways still remain, and at the south end the staple for the door hinge
is still in position. They probably date from the time of the
re-building, about 1405, as they have a four-centred arch, but the
east jambs on both sides of the church are twelfth-century work.
At the restoration of 1864 a portion of the base of this screen was
discovered in situ beneath the pavement. (fn. 14) 'It consisted of a massive
shaped stone which had supported the left angle of the structure
at the entrance into the quire. One arm eastward had carried
a buttress, the other westward had flanked the entrance passage,
while the stem extended northward, constituting part of the plinth
of the east face of the screen. A trefoil was deeply cut in the stone,
and a base moulding ran beneath: apparently work of the thirteenth
century.' It is a fair assumption from this description, and from the
character of the doorways, that the pulpitum was built at the same
time as the nave, about 1230. It was probably destroyed at the
suppression or in 1624, when Strype says 'the gallery at the lower
end was rebuilded'. (fn. 15)
The only record of a screen on the south side of the crossing,
under the south transept arch, is a statement in Hayter Lewis's
paper read before the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society (fn. 16)
in 1866, in which he says that the pulling down of the eastern wall
'and of another under the tower, erected probably to form the back of
the stall work there, afforded some interesting specimens of the capitals
and other enrichments of the old Norman church'. F. J. Withers
in his diary also wrote, under date January 25th, 1865, (fn. 17) 'Three
gigantic capitals and one smaller one had been discovered embedded
in the low fragment of wall remaining parallel with, and in, the
south transept'; and on March 27th following he wrote, 'the small
fragment of wall running across the lower part of the south transept
arch had been dug out and yielded two fragments of ornamental
columns and two plain ones'. The discovery of late twelfth-century
work embedded in this stone screen (or stone base for a wooden
screen) points to its having, like the pulpitum, been erected when the
nave was built, and when any twelfth-century work in the nave was
taken down. (fn. 18) Had the floor in 1865 not been lowered below the
original level these fragments of the two screens might have been
retained. The capitals referred to are preserved in the church (pl.
LXVI (6), p. 128; pl. LXVII (7), p. 129).
The screen on the north side of the crossing beneath the north
transept arch still exists. Like the two other screens it formed
backing for the stalls, and for that reason was built on its southern
face of plain ashlar, in line with the face of the great piers of the
crossing (pl. XLV b, p. 54; pl. XXVII, p. 21). (fn. 19) It may be assumed
that there was an earlier screen here, built at the same time as the
other two screens. The present screen evidently dates from the time
of the great rebuilding about the year 1405. It is 11 ft. 6 in. in
height from the present floor level. It is massive in construction
and is bonded into the columns of the main piers at each end to
give support, apparently, to the north-east pier of the crossing, the
dangerous condition of which is referred to above.
The description of the north side of the screen more properly
belongs to the north transept, but can be conveniently given here
(pl. XLI, p. 46). It consists of an arcade of two arches, as is the case
at Winchester, where it formed part of the chapel of the Holy Sepulchre; the centre pier has no capital, but is ornamented with the
ressault (or double ogee) moulding of the early fifteenth century.
It is in good preservation in its lower part, where, after the suppression,
it was covered with earth; but its upper portion was badly damaged
when the transept was occupied as a blacksmith's forge (pl. XLII a).
At the restoration in 1865 the ashlar face on the south side of the
screen was removed (fn. 20) under the impression, we must assume, that
it was post-suppression work. After this was done, a stone coffin (fn. 21)
was found which Withers describes as 'running under the blacksmith's shop'. It was in the western bay of the arcade and, for
some reason, was drawn out on this south side and was not replaced.
This coffin (now in the north aisle without contents or lid) probably
contained the remains of one of the priors, for in the adjoining bay
there is a similar coffin, the skeleton in which is believed to be that
of a prior because leather sandals are on the feet. Moreover, Stow
mentions that in his time there were memorials in the church to
a John Carleton and to a John Watford, and as there were priors of
these names it is possible that these were their coffins. (fn. 22) This second
coffin, which has a Purbeck marble top but no inscription, was not
found until the north transept was being excavated in 1893. When
discovered it was badly cracked across the centre, and in order to
repair it the lid had to be lifted, when a skeleton was disclosed in
a good state of preservation, but without a head. We have no
record of any beheaded person, prior or other, having been buried
in the church, so we must assume that the skull had been abstracted
at some earlier period.
The work of demolishing the south face of the screen in 1865
revealed the backs of the two arches of the arcade, but the work
could not proceed further for fear of encroaching on the dwellinghouse which, with the blacksmith's forge, was on the north side in
the transept; the defaced wall was therefore left and simply screened
by a large benefactions-board until the restoration in 1893. It then
had to be decided whether to reface the wall on the quire side or to
pierce the filling in of the arches and rework the old stones of the
arches on the south side to a new face. As the filling in of the arches
on the north side was plain ashlar with no moulded stone, and as the
requirements of the day made it very desirable that worshippers
in the north transept should be enabled to join in the services in
the quire, the latter course was pursued; (fn. 23) a few shallow mouldings
were worked on the angle of the arches and a small battlement on
the top.
The appearance was greatly improved by the insertion of a wroughtiron grill in each arch, upon which were placed small shields emblazoned with the coats of arms of the more notable people present
at the opening of the transept in 1893 (pl. XLI a, p. 46). (fn. 24)
The coats on the upper shields are: the royal arms; those of
Albert Edward Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII), of the
priory, and of St. Bartholomew. Those on the lower ones are:
the hospital, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of London,
the City of London, and the Rev. Sir Borradaile Savory, Bart., and
the Rev. Canon Frederick Parr Phillips, rector and patron respectively at that time. (fn. 25)
After the suppression of the monastery the north transept was
demolished, which necessitated filling in the space above the screen
and below the transept arch. This was done with rough masonry,
in which a pointed arched window was inserted. The rear arch of
this window remained until the transept was restored in 1893, but
the window had been replaced in the eighteenth century in the same
style as the Georgian windows in the east end of the quire.
The only reference to the quire stalls in monastic times is that by
Matthew Paris in his account of the affray in the church when Archbishop Boniface crushed the sub-prior against one of them (fn. 26) in the
year 1250. The stalls at that time would have extended eastward
from the pulpitum half-way across the eastern pier of the crossing
to a point where the stone string from the ground arcade is stopped
on the face of the pier. The present stalls are in the same position,
but they do not extend beyond the eastern face of the western piers
of the crossing. They are of oak, nine on each side, and were erected
in 1886 by the patron, the Rev. F. P. Phillips, in memory of his
parents. (fn. 27) The back bench ends have an ornamental panel terminating in a carved poppy-head with a figure of an angel worked
on the arm below. There are two benches for six boys each, on
either side, in front of the stalls. The ends of these are ornamented
with traceried panels with rounded foliations on the top.
The present quire screen, which stands on the site of the east
front of the pulpitum, was erected in 1889 in memory of Rector
William Panckridge (pl. XVI, p. 8). (fn. 28) It is Perpendicular in design
and is entered in the centre through an ogee crocketed arch with two
cusped open panels in the spandrels. Above is a double row of five
open panels, each panel having two cusped openings. On either
side of the entrance is a richly canopied stall; the panel below the
canopy is pierced to form a double opening, and below that are
three solid panels with cuspings. On either side of the canopied
stalls are four open bays, each the width of a stall (2 ft. 3 in.);
the fourth is splayed eastward and encloses the stalls. Above these
is a frieze of a double row of two open panels, as over the entrance.
The organ gallery, as mentioned, (fn. 29) was rebuilt on the site of the
pulpitum in 1624 and the gallery was also continued across the south
transept (pl. XLIII, p. 52). A Conobles organ was ordered by the
vestry 'on approval' in the year 1715, to be placed in the gallery, and
in 1731 they purchased an organ built by Richard Bridge of Clerkenwell. (fn. 30)
In 1864 this gallery was removed and the then organ (a second-hand
one by Russell, reconstructed by R. H. South, of Gray's Inn Road)
was sent to South for safe custody during the restoration of the
church; but before the church was re-opened South had died intestate
and the organ had been sold as part of his effects. A small instrument had to be purchased in its place and was erected on the south
side of the sanctuary. At the restoration of 1886 this small instrument was disposed of and the present organ from St. Stephen's,
Walbrook, built by George England in 1765, was purchased. (fn. 31) A new
oak gallery, finely panelled, was erected for it on the site of the
pulpitum; and in 1893 an organ case was given by Mr. H. T. Withers
in memory of his brother John (whose diary has so frequently been
referred to). The case is of oak, divided into three compartments;
the central one is higher than the rest and is surmounted by a carved
figure (pl. XVI, p. 8).
In the centre of the crossing there was, until 1919, a brass lectern,
the gift of Mrs. John Hilditch Evans in memory of her husband, who
was churchwarden here in 1869, and treasurer of the restoration
fund from 1868 to 1885. This has now been replaced by an oak
lectern, designed by Sir Aston Webb, and built out of old oak beams
from the original roof of the Lady Chapel.
The Transepts.
The south transept of the church as originally built measured
internally from the south face of the transept arch to the north face
of the wall opposite 50 ft., and in width 27 ft. 6 in. The length of the
north transept is not known; it was probably built in or about the
year 1148 (fn. 32) and the south transept soon after.
The North Transept.
Of the original north transept nothing remains but the south end.
In the case of the south transept, as will be seen presently, the ruins
of the original structure were standing as late as 1830, and they
figure in several engravings (pl. XLIV, p. 53); but we have no such
records concerning the north transept, and from other evidence
dealt with later, (fn. 33) there can be little doubt that the walls were pulled
down and removed by Henry VIII at the time of the suppression,
the space under the north arch of the crossing being filled in as
explained above (pl. XLV b, p. 54). (fn. 34)
The north side of the transept arch was thus exposed to the weather
from 1544 to 1893, which accounts for its extremely weather-worn
condition at the present time. The same applies to the north quire
screen, which thus became an external wall. The site of the transept
probably remained vacant for some time after the suppression, for
Agas's map of 1560, Hofnagel's of 1572, and Norden's of 1593, all
show the site as vacant land; but in 1658 Fairthorn and Newcourt
show it, and the whole of the parish, as densely packed with houses.
Before that date, however, houses had been built on the site, for
Holmes's buildings seem to have been there in 1602, and in 1631
Lady Saye and Sele bought a house at 'the corner of Church passage',
that is, at the south-west corner of the transept site, for an endowment
of her almshouses. In 1776 this same corner site was leased by the
churchwardens and overseers on a 61 years' building lease, (fn. 35) to continue the income of the almshouses (fig. 5, p. 128). (fn. 36) It was then known
as 9½ Cloth Fair. The blacksmith's forge, known as No. 10 Cloth Fair,
was probably set up in the transept in the first half of the seventeenth
century under a lease by the Earl of Warwick. As the anvil stood
close to the stone screen of the transept the hammer was heard very
plainly in the church (pl. XLII a, p. 47).
In 1884 No. 10 Cloth Fair was acquired (as explained later on), (fn. 37)
and in 1891 9½ Cloth Fair was bought back from the Charity Commissioners, (fn. 38) who had laid hands upon it. The two houses were then,
together with No. 11 Cloth Fair, (fn. 39) cleared away and the present
shallow transept was built, more particularly to give abutment to
the east and west arches of the crossing. The depth of the present
shallow north transept is 19 ft. 6 in.
The north porch to the transept is described later with the exterior
of the church (fn. 40) (pl. LVIII, p. 118).
The stone screen on the south side of the transept has already
been described. (fn. 41) Some old work still remains in the arched entrance
to the north ambulatory, though considerably restored. The pilaster
on the south side of the arch has a Perpendicular capital and base; (fn. 42)
that on the north side seems to have been restored in 1864. The
triforium arch above, with its subsidiary arcade, is a restoration of
1893, though the pilaster on the south side is apparently twelfthcentury work (pl. XLI b, p. 46). After the suppression this arch
was built up to form the west end of the boys' school.
During the building of the shallow north transept in 1893, the base
of a circular shaft was found in the east wall, with some 18 inches
of wall attached running eastward. This wall was plastered and
a portion of the colouring was still adhering. The opening probably
formed part of a doorway leading by a turret to the triforium
above, as occurs at Norwich in a corresponding position, and also
at St. Augustine's, Canterbury, though at St. Augustine's it is in the
south transept. To preserve this bit of old work intact, the recess
for the side altar was placed on the north wall of the transept, instead
of on the east wall as originally intended.
The remainder of this bay of the transept, together with the corresponding bay on the west side and the whole of the north end, are
the work of Sir Aston Webb in 1893. The style adopted is characteristic of its time. A feature is the way in which the slender shafts
penetrate the mouldings of the capitals and of the bases of the piers,
and in which these mouldings die away into the face of the adjoining
walls. The work is carried out, like that in the apse, in blue Bath
stone, whereby it harmonizes in tone with the older work.
The north end of the transept consists on the ground floor of two
bays; that on the east is recessed for the side altar; that on the
west contains the north door of the church leading through a porch
into Cloth Fair (pl. XLII b, p. 47). Beside this door is the entrance
to the present turret stair, which leads to the triforium and clerestory
passages and gives access to the chamber built over the porch.
The bay adjoining contains, on the west wall, a deeply splayed
window with a stone bench. The other bay contains the arched
entrance to the north aisle of the nave. The arch is pointed, it is
the work of 1893 and is similar in style to the rest of that time; but
it is very massively built, and the great pillar on its south side seems
to be a natural extension upwards of the remains of the twelfthcentury pillar which were found beneath the flooring of No. 9½ Cloth
Fair. The height of the remains of this twelfth-century pillar is
5 ft. 7 in. from the present floor level and indicates the present height
of the road outside the church.
The triforium of the north wall is divided into three bays, each with
a subsidiary arcade of three pointed arches. The same arrangement
is carried along the west wall.
The clerestory of the east and west sides of the transept has in
each inner wall two plain oblong openings to the clerestory passage,
corresponding with the two light cusped windows in the outer wall.
On the north wall, the three outer windows of the clerestory run up
into the gable and have double tracery. Each consists of a single
light, but the corresponding openings in the inner wall form an
arcade of three arches, corresponding with the triforium arcade below,
except that each arch is furnished with open tracery. The shafts
between these clerestory inner windows end in the sill of the triforium
arcade.
The roof is open and has twelve rafters.
The finding of a portion of a lid of a coffin of one of the priors on
the site of this transept was referred to when speaking of Prior Hugh, (fn. 43)
who died in 1295.
The small wooden altar against the north wall of the transept
appears to date from early in the seventeenth or late in the sixteenth
century, and served as the altar of the church until 1885. It now
serves in its present position as the altar of a chapel, named the
Chapel of Sacrifice, in memory of those who in connexion with the
church fell in the Great War.
The South Transept.
The south transept originally extended to the railings on the south
side of the small burial-ground known as the green churchyard. It
would seem that at the suppression in 1539 the lead was stripped
from the roof of the transept and the walls were allowed to fall into
ruin, as happened in the case of the majority of the monasteries.
There are several engravings of the south and east walls when in
ruins, but not of the west wall, which had no windows, as it backed
on to the cloister and its gallery over; it is, however, picturesque
enough now with its worn bricks and large fig tree. The oldest of
these engravings is in the Gentleman's Magazine of 1790, but the
best is in Malcolm's Londinium Redivivum, (fn. 44) 1803, with a drawing by
Carter in 1781 (pl. XLV a, p. 54), here reproduced (pl. XLIV): the
views differ slightly in detail. A drawing by Nash in 1821 (fn. 45) is
evidently to some extent imaginary and may be disregarded.
Malcolm's engraving shows on the east wall the wide arched entrance (fn. 46)
to an eastern chapel, and on the triforium level an irregular arcade
along the entire length. The two large openings were presumably
windows with a passage in the thickness of the wall, the roundheaded arch of which was then alone standing. Between these windows, and on either side of them, is an arcade opening into a mural
passage. Two of the arches have a subsidiary arcade of two smaller
arches with a central shaft, a heavy capital and a pierced tympanum.
The arcade probably dated from the second quarter of the twelfth
century. The two arches of the arcade between the windows are of
unequal height, somewhat like those in a similar position at St. Cross
by Winchester.
On the south wall is shown on the ground floor a central roundheaded doorway which must have led into the slype as at Tewkesbury;
on the right of it in the engraving, nearly in the corner, is a smaller
door, as at Christchurch, Hampshire: this may have been the night
door from the dorter.
Above on the triforium level are shown three windows; the central
one is higher than the others: the one on the right is bricked up on
the outer face and shows a deep splay on the church side; but no
passage is shown in the thickness of the wall. There is a mural arch
between the central and eastern windows. The two latter windows
probably had a deep splay like the third, but being bricked up on
the church side the splay is not seen.
The clerestory on both walls had fallen before this or any of the
drawings were made. Rising behind the east wall is seen, in the
engraving, a timber building on the site of the sacristy, which we
assume was part of the Nonconformists' meeting-house; and behind
the south wall the top of the chapter-house, where the disastrous
fire originated on the 3rd May 1830. (fn. 47) This fire, which seriously
damaged the south side of the church, was made the occasion of
removing the ruined walls of the transept. There is a receipted account
of that year in the belfry cupboard for 'cutting up the foundations of
the south wall and clearing away in the green church yard'. The
walls must have required much labour in clearing, as they were
4 ft. 10 in. thick. (fn. 48) A brick wall was then erected in their place round
the green churchyard. The still more destructive fire, which occurred
on the 11th August of this same year at Houghton & Messenger's in
Bartholomew Close, (fn. 49) does not seem to have touched the church. We
hear nothing of the parish fire engine on either of these occasions.
One had been bought as early as 1668 and another in 1730. In 1862
we hear of it being housed in the north aisle of the church. (fn. 50) At
Malmesbury an engine of that period was, a few years ago, still
housed in the north transept of the abbey. The church at the time
of the outbreak in 1830 was not insured, and in consequence £1,000
had to be borrowed for the repairs.
After the suppression, the ruined transept was cut off from the church
by the erection of a brick wall in line with the outer wall of the south
aisle, with a door for access, and was used as a graveyard. Between
this wall and the crossing, on the triforium level, a gallery was placed,
a continuation, as has been stated, of the organ gallery in the west
end (pl. XLIII, p. 52). This gallery, we assume, was destroyed in the
fire of 1830, for in the year 1836, when the select vestry were dissatisfied
with the St. Stephen's chapel for a vestry room, they resolved to form
a more convenient room 'in the vacant space above the south aisle'. (fn. 51)
This vacant space must have been the space occupied by the old
gallery, for it was there that this vestry room was erected.
A floor was thrown across from the sill of the triforium arch on
the east side of the transept to that of the one opposite. The great
arch of the crossing was filled with a wooden frame, on which canvas
was stretched on both sides. The triforium arch on the east side was
filled with a fireplace; that on the west side with the parish safe;
the hood moulding of the arch of the crossing was hacked off and the
walls were plastered over so that no signs of any arches were visible,
and the room was then wainscoted (pl. XX b, p. 12). (fn. 52)
The transept remained in this condition for over fifty years, until
1890, when the Restoration Committee removed this temporary
structure, restored what remained of the northern bay, and added
a new bay to give abutment to the arches of the crossing, forming
a shallow transept only half the length of that originally built. It
provided a much-needed baptistry, but the requirements of the day
did not call for a new building of the same size as the old; indeed,
the adjoining buildings had acquired rights of light over the site
which could have been extinguished only at great cost.
The transept as it now stands measures 21 ft. 6 in. north to south;
27 ft. 6 in. east to west on the ground floor. On the east side, the
twelfth-century arch into the aisle remains, refaced in 1865; the redness of the stones at the base of the wall below is the effect of the fire
of 1830. The triforium arch above is twelfth-century work; the
hood and other mouldings of the arch are quite plain. The subsidiary
arcade was inserted in 1890, when the fire-place was removed. The
arcade consists of two slender shafts with capitals and three lesser
arches as in the quire.
In the corresponding bay on the west side, the arch into the nave
aisle is original, and has a square chamfered hood mould. The
triforium arch above is also original work of the second quarter of
the twelfth century. It has an interrupted zigzag ornament worked
on a moulding of the arch, and is characteristic of that period. (fn. 53)
This outer order of the arch also differs from that of the one opposite
by springing from a slender shaft at each end. The shafts are new,
but the capitals and bases are old. When the plaster was removed
the hood mould was found to have been hacked off. There is no
subsidiary arcade on this side, but the arch is filled in as is the triforium
arch opening into the nave, and no doubt for a similar reason (pl. XX b,
p. 12). In the south jamb of the arch there is an arched opening to
a passage in the thickness of the wall. This passage was blocked
with an encroachment on the church wall by the owners of the rooms
over the cloister until the year 1905, when that portion of the east
cloister was recovered.
The second bay on this west side of the transept still retains some
of the original work, owing to the cloister with its gallery over not
having been entirely destroyed. Thus, adjoining the triforium arch
some of the plaster still retains its original red colouring marked out
in brick pattern. South of this again is an original shallow lancetshaped mural arch with a slender shaft on its north jamb, much
weather-worn from exposure; the capital has gone. The ashlar
filling of this arch was inserted in 1891, as the fireplace of the encroaching tenement on the other side was at that time only 9 in. away.
The recessed mural arch below, the south wall, and the southern bay
on the east wall are entirely Sir Aston Webb's work and are similar
in style to that in the north transept. The latter bay has an entrance
door to a small spiral stair, also built in 1891, which leads to the
triforium of the quire. The door is within a recessed mural arch
similar to the one opposite. In the triforium above is a narrow arch
of the same date containing a lesser arcade of two arches, similar to
those in the north transept. Between it and the old arch described
above there is a recess of about 5 ft. high caused by a splay, but for
what purpose the wall was splayed at this point is not clear: it is
not shown in any of the old prints.
The south wall consists of three bays. On the ground floor the
three deeply-recessed arched openings are projected for some six feet
southward into the graveyard; the central one to form an inside
porch to the south door of the church; the eastern one to form
a baptistry; the western to give additional seating accommodation.
The deep flat-sided piers between these three bays are pierced with
small crocketed openings. The east wall of the baptistry has an
'aumbry' or locker.
Above this ground arcade on the south side three lancet-shaped
windows run from the triforium sill right into the gable. They are
each divided by a mullion into two simple cusped lights with tracery
in the heads. The inner jamb shafts stop at the sill, but the outer
ones are carried to the ground, penetrating the mouldings of the
capitals and the bases of the piers below.
The clerestory windows are similar to those in the north transept.
There is, however, no window over the north bay on the west side.
The wall above the triforium at that point has apparently been rebuilt
of a less thickness, and no windows inserted. On the opposite side
the original clerestory window remains, also the Norman string
below it.
The roof, restored in 1890, is similar to that in the north transept.
In the north-west angle of the transept, on the south side of the pier
of the crossing, the abacus of the last capital ends in a grotesque head,
such as frequently occurs about the years 1150 or 1160. Here it is
a corbel and merely serves to screen the termination of a member
which is carried up, but to carry nothing (pl. XX b, p. 12). At Christ
Church, Oxford, and at Cartmel there is a member with its cap in this
position in each of the four piers of the crossing, inserted apparently
merely to fill up the space.
The Font.
The font stands in the baptistry in the south transept (pl. XLVI a,
p. 58). This and the font of St. Dunstan's, Stepney, seem to be the only
two pre-Reformation fonts in London. It is an octagonal basin set on
an octagonal pedestal, devoid of ornament but with mouldings of the
second half of the fourteenth, or quite early in the fifteenth, century.
It probably dated from the great restoration of about the year 1405.
The dimensions are 3 ft. 4 in. high and 2 ft. 6 in. in diameter. The
marks of the staples for locking the font, in conformity with the order
of the Archbishop of Canterbury in the thirteenth century, are still
visible on the south-west face of the bowl, and there is a matrix of
a brass 10½ in. x 2 in. on the north-west face, but there is no record
concerning the inscription. (fn. 54)
The present font cover is pyramidal in form and has eight crocketed
ribs, each terminating in a man's tonsured head. But it has hardly
a sufficient air of antiquity to warrant the suggestion of its being
pre-suppression. On the top is a detached triangular box with winged
cherub heads, which seems to be later. The cover is carried by an
iron crozier round the upper part of which is twined a stem with
narrow leaves and berries which may be intended for a vine.
In the year 1712 _he church very nearly lost its font, (fn. 55) for the vestry
Minutes of February 6th that year record: 'Tis ordered yt ye do buy
a new fount instead of ye old one and cause it to be set up against ye
green churchyard dore or thereabouts.' But on April 12th following
better counsels prevailed, for it was 'ordered yt ye churchwarden do
cause ye old fount to be set up again against ye old green churchyard
dore'.
We have three references to the font in wills. In the year 1450
John Goldyng, who was living in the Close, desired ' to be buried
before the font under a marble stone'. (fn. 56) In 1455 Richard Ryder
desired 'to be buryed behynde the funt within the church of the
priory'. (fn. 57) And in 1538 Richard Bellamy, who lived within the Close,
desired to be buried in the body of the church 'between the font set
there and the holy image of our Lord Jesus Christ'. (fn. 58) From this we
may infer that the font was, in monastic times, in the nave and not
in the parish chapel. There was the same arrangement at Holy
Trinity, Aldgate; for when the pope consented to the building of
St. Catherine's (Cree) as a parish chapel within the precincts of the
monastery, owing to the smallness of the parish church and to the
noise made by the parishioners, he directed that the font should
remain in the church. (fn. 59)
After the suppression, according to John Coney's drawing in Dugdale, 1818, and Thomas Malton's in Beauties of England and Wales,
1804, the font was placed under the crossing near the south-west pier.
Hatton, writing in 1708, indicates the same position by describing
it as 'directly westward from the Communion Table.' (fn. 60)
Some additional interest attaches to the font from the fact that
William Hogarth, the painter, was baptized in it on the 10th November, 1697 (pl. XCV, p. 286).
The Sacristy.
The Sacristy was in the external angle formed by the junction of the
south transept with the quire aisle, being an extension of the Norman
apsidal transept chapel. It was entered by the large round-headed
archway in the east wall of the transept, shown by Carter and by
Malcolm; and by the present pointed arched doorway from the south
aisle which was opened out in 1914 (pls. XLVI b). This is the position
of the sacristies at St. Mary's Abbey, York, at St. Albans, at Fountains
and at Hereford. According to Carter the sacristy was built in the
Decorated period, and if that is so the benefactions made by William
de Wibsuade, temp. Edward I, (fn. 61) by J. de Honnesdon in 1307 and by
Richard de Ewelle in 1314, (fn. 62) for the maintenance of the works of the
church may indicate the date of its building.
The first reference to the sacristy is in Lord Rich's grant to Queen
Mary made in the year 1555, (fn. 63) in which mention is made of 'the
building late the sacristy or vestibule of the late priory in a measure
used as the sacristy of the church '.
It is again referred to in the year 1784 in Vetusta Monumenta, (fn. 64)
where it is misnamed the ' priory hall', but it is properly described
as on the east side of the south transept. It was ' then being used as
a carpenter's shop, where, till within a few years, were the twelve
apostles or saints painted on the walls '. This carpenter's shop would
have been, as shown below, in the basement of the Dissenters' meeting-house. (fn. 65)
The entrance arch from the transept is shown in the drawings made
by Hardwick in 1791 for the Society of Antiquaries (pl. LXXII, p. 136),
in whose library they now are. When Malcolm wrote in 1803 this
lower part of the building was occupied by deal board scantlings and
carpenters. He says that in the time of the convent it measured 26 ft.
in length by 21 ft. in breadth, but he misnames it the 'Frater'.
The best description of the chapel is that given by John Carter
in 1809, (fn. 66) in which he writes: ' Directly against the wall of the south
aisle of the quire of the church is a magnificent small chapel with
a grand arch of entrance from the south transept (latticed up), a doorway from the church (stopped up), and windows on the east and
south sides. The design is of the time of Edward III's reign (1326–1377). Its use is now a store-room for hops, etc.'
Later on, when describing the exterior of the church, he says: (fn. 67)
'A magnificent chapel on the south side of the quire. The windows
on the east and south sides have lost their arched heads; the columns
and architraves to the jambs remain; they are very delicate and
beautiful; the dado mouldings are remarkably so. The large archway
from the transept has columns and a fine architrave. The upper
part of the chapel is destroyed.'
Thomas Allen in 1809 writes (fn. 68) of the sacristy as ' the chapterhouse', but like the others describes its position correctly. He
repeats Malcolm's dimensions, but, not being an architect, as was
John Carter, his description is not so valuable. He writes: 'The
original pilasters, buttresses and the small square masonry of the
Norman architecture of the church is well preserved in this place,
and a pointed door communicating with the church exists in the
south wall of the latter, and at the east end are remains of columns
in the early pointed style; eastward, in a portion called the south
porch, is the upper part of a window of the sixteenth century. It is
at present filled with logs of mahogany'!
The arrangement of the east end here described and the south
porch, which was not apparently an entrance to the church, is shown
in the plan published by Wilkinson in 1821 in his Londina Illustrata
plan (pl. LVII, p. 111), and also by Hardwick (p. 136).
In the year 1612 the sacristy was occupied by Arthur Jarvais, who
was Clerk of the Pipe from 1603 to 1624, and who was also the occupier
of the prior's house. Lord Holland's Rental describes it as 'one very
faire large cellar with a large room over the same where the office of
the pipe was lately kept; out of this last mencioned room up a paire
of staires on the north side are two pritty chambers one within another
for lodging or other use'. From this it is evident that the ground
outside the chapel having risen, here as elsewhere, a floor had been
formed a little above the ground level, thus making a basement or
cellar probably about six feet or more high. From Carter's account
the old walls seem to have existed to the springing of the window
arches, but as he says the upper part of the chapel was destroyed we
suppose that 'the roof supported by large beams after the old manner',
as described by Wilson, (fn. 69) could not have been the original roof, though
it sounds much as if it were so.
In the second half of the seventeenth century this building was
converted into one of the many Nonconformists' meeting-houses
that were set up at that period. It will be found fully described later
on with a conjectural plan and section of the building. (fn. 70)
Wilson writes of it: (fn. 71) 'In a corner of the meeting-house there
used to be seen some years back a very antique sculpture, representing
the figure of a popish priest, with a child in his arms; and there are
several arches which appear to have been filled up with the same sort
of trumpery. Underneath appear several vestiges of an antique
chapel, though now used for no higher purposes than a cellar. From
these remnants of ancient superstition, there is every reason to suppose
that, in the days of Romish ignorance, this place was devoted to the
purposes of religious worship.' We may forgive Mr. Wilson for his
own ignorance and for his contempt of the art of sculpture, because
he has preserved for us a record that this beautiful building was
apparently enriched with a series of sculptured figures in niches in
addition to the wall paintings referred to in Vetusta Monumenta.
The figure mentioned by Wilson was probably a representation of
Simeon with our Saviour in his arms.
After the fire of 1830 Knight wrote 'not a vestige remains'; but in
1914, the greater part of the site of the sacristy having been secured (as
described later on), (fn. 72) Pope's cottages were pulled down, and remains of
the east wall of the sacristy, with foundations of what was apparently
a stone altar on the west side of it, were discovered. In the wall
are the jambs of a doorway leading into what is described above as
a porch, the floor of which, paved with red tiles, was on a level with
the sill. The foundations of an altar in the sacristy contain fragments
of twelfth-century worked stones. On the north wall is the remnant
of a Norman pilaster buttress with a fragment of the stone string
badly burnt, like the rest of the wall, by the fire of 1830.