NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 157, 31 December 1940, Page 8

NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

LONDON DAMAGE

FAMOUS STRUCTURES

CHURCHES BY WREN

Striking again at London, recklessly and uselessly, the Nazi bombers have failed to do damage of military importance but have robbed the British people of =some of their most prized treasures in public buildings, monuments, and churches. The news of the latest big raid includes names which are familiar around the world.

The fires started by Nazi incendiary bombs in London's famous Guildhall were by no means the first that had raged in that historic edifice. The Guildhall is the hall of the Corporation of London: It faces a courtyard opening out of Gresham Street and is so ancient that the date of its original foundation is not known. The ancient crypt has remained, but otherwise the building underwent much alteration in the course of the centuries. The Guildhall was rebuilt in 1411, beautified by its gifts of successive officials, damaged in the Great Fire of 1666, restored in 1789 by George Dance, and restored again in 1870. A new roof was added in the year that the ancestors of the latest attackers were invading France. * "A Fearful Spectacle)' The masonry was so solid that the Great Fire was resisted, though the woodwork was destroyed and Vincent in his "God's Terrible Voice in the City" declared that "the sight of the Guildhall was a fearful spectacle which stood, the whole body of it together, after the fire had taken it, without flames (I suppose because the timber was of such solid oak) in a bright shining coale, as if it had been a palace of gold or a great building of burnished brass." The marks of the Fire of London remained on some columns in the crypt. The famous Gog and Magog were not the first of their name. These wooden figures were made in 1708 to replace two wickerwork predecessors which were carried to the Lord Mayor's Show and were familiar to many generations of Londoners. Gogmagog was originally the name of one giant who is supposed to have fought against the Trojan invaders, but the names were divided and given to the two figures.' Notable Trials. The hall was 152 ft long and has been the scene of many banquets. It was richly panelled and had many old stained glass windows, portraits, and monuments, also the arms of the livery companies of London. A tablet recalled the notable trials held there. They included those of the Earl of Surrey in 1547, Lady Jane Grey in 1554, Dr. Lopez in 1594, and, Dr, Garnett in 1606. Surrey was famous as a writer of sonnets. Dr. Lopez, a Spanish Jew-physician, was accused of attempting to poison Queen Elizabeth, whose servant he was. He was hanged at Tyburn, with an accompanying outburst of anti-Semitism, which led to the revival of Marlowe's play "The Jew of Malta." Garnett, who was Superior of the Order of Jesuits in England, was accused of complicity in the Gunpowder Plot. On the scaffold he defended equivocation. There was also the Aldermen's Court Room, the most sumptuously decorated apartment in the Guildhall, a museum with a fairly representative collection of Roman antiquities, an array of old London signs, and a fine collection of old jewellery. The crypt was the most extensive in London and was latterly used as an extension of the museum. The great treasure of the Guildhall rests in the custody of the Town Clerk. It is the charter grant- j ed to London by William the Con-! queror about 1066. \ There was an art gallery, first established in 1885, with pictures of general interest, portraits of the Judges who adjudicated in matters arising out of the Great Fire, paintings of London scenes, and designs and statues. Church of St. Bride. The Church of St. Bride, in Fleet Street, was dedicated to a sixth-cen-tury Irish saint, St Bridget. It was the only London church dedicated in this fashion and was mentioned as early as 1222. It was destroyed in the Great Fire and rebuilt by Wren, the new structure being completed in 1680 at a cost of £12,000. It was always regarded as one of his finest works, ranking'perhaps next to St. Paul's.Cathedral and St. Stephen's, Walbrook. It was when St. Bride's was damaged by lightning in 1764 that Benjamin Franklin sought to have lightning conductors with pointed ends installed; j and George 111, hostile to anything j American because of the rebellious behaviour of the colonists, made an effort to have blind-ended ones instead. Samuel Richardson, the novelist, was buried here, and at his tomb Madame de Stael hastened to prostrate herself when she arrived in London. It was from the font of St. Bride's that Samuel Pepys received the water of baptism in 1633. St. Lawrence Jewry. St. Lawrence Jewry, in Gresham Street, had been in existence since at least 1136, and was dedicated to a saint who was martyred in Rome about 258 A.D. It got its name from "Jewry," the Jews' quarter. It was also destroyed in the Great Fire and was rebuilt in 1680. Since the Great Fire the Lord Mayor and City Council have attended service at .St. Lawrence Jewry each Michaelmas Day. The famous Dr. Tillotson was lecturer here until he was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in 1691. In the church which existed before the fire Sir Thomas More delivered a course of lectures on St. Augustine's "City of God." Charles II is said to have sat in the church in an old chair which has been carefully preserved. St. Lawrence Jewry is the New Zealand official church in London. Two Wren Churches. St. Mary Aldermary was another church burnt in the Great Fire (which spared only the Tower) and rebuilt by Wren. It stood in Queen Victoria Street, and while destitute of historical monuments was rich in architectural beauty. St. Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe also stood in Queen Victoria Street. "The Wardrobe" was a house in Blackfriars built for Sir John Beauchamp in 1359 and later sold to Edward 111, who converted it into the office of the Master of the Wardrobe. Wren also rebuilt this church, completing it in 1692.

The latest Old Bailey, or Central Criminal Court, was completed in }905 and has been the Chief Criminal