BARTHOLOMEW THE GREAT

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 5, 7 January 1930, Page 3

BARTHOLOMEW THE GREAT

KAHERE'S -LIFE IN PAGEANT

It is a.fragment only, this church of St. Bartholomew-the^Great in -Smithfiijld—but ,a; wonderful fragment. The Normans ;have left in London three examples ■of their skill in ehurcn building, and this one stands intermediate. Earliest ia the Chapel of St. John, built into the Keep of the Tower of London, of which it forms an integral part. The Conqueror himself built that, presumably with Gundulf as his architect. The Knights Templars a century later gave us the Round of the Temple, writes Walter Bell, in the "Daily Telegraphs

Early and late Norman styles are exemplified in these two, the. heavy semi-circular arch giving character to St. John's; at the Temple the pointed arch and clustered column have been introduced. -St.-Bartholomew~the-Great 4 retains the semi-circular arch, for the Priory was founded, by Rahere. in .1123, but the austerity so notable in the Tower :church;was ""y^ready^passihg. There is rare beauty in these massive columns and moulded-arches. '-■■■'

Large as the church seems, it is little more than what was originally the chancel and ambulatory of. a .. much greater structure." ■ -The conventual churches were the largest. in London, and in magnificence St. Bartholomew's compared well with the.richest. When the heavy hand of King "Henry VIII. fell upon the. monastic houses, the Priory of St. Bartholomew's suffered' with the rest. The chancel he allowed for us&'as a -parish" *ch'urch,-and for that reason alone it stands to-day, little harmed after, prolonged [ misuse, for at different times portions have served .for a fringe factory, a school house, and one transept for /» "' blacksmith's forge..' Th,e great,"nave was quickly destroyed'for its building materials, and. is represented" solely by the fragment seeii at. the arch through which 'entranceis gaine3 by' the pretty sixteenth-century gatehouse, and the big open churchyarbV-'which. once its roof covered. ' * ■ '• • • v

Slowly, since the 'sixties of- last century, other portions of the church and priory buildings have- been recovered and restored;, in our own .time, under the careful and expert supervision of Sir Aston Webb, the Jtoyal Academy's recent president. The Lady- Chapel has been built up above what was left in the ground, the northern, transept, with its porch again keeps its proper place and the visitor is able to seeenough of the cloister ;tihut "has been recovered to give "him an'idea of its original extent. ; _ _ ;

Only- last year Princess Mary ; opened, the east cloister after excavation; it had been used over a long period as stables for horses. Fortunately seven feet of earth with which the pavement was covered had left largely- in'ta&t the bases of the piers. ,