Old St Paul's Cathedral

Old St Paul's Cathedral
History
Authorising papal bull	None
Significant events	Cathedral and chanonry destroyed by fire—1087, 1666
Significant associated people	John of Gaunt John Beauchamp John Donne
Administration
Deanery	City of London Paddington St Margaret St Marylebone
Diocese	Diocese of London (Londinium)
Clergy
Bishop(s)	William Warham Edmund Bonner Edwin Sandys William Laud

Old St. Paul's is a name used to refer to the Gothic cathedral in the City of London built between 1087 and 1314.^[1] At its peak, the cathedral was the third longest church in Europe, had one of the tallest spires and some of the finest European stained glass.

In addition to its purpose as the mother church of the Diocese of London, the building developed a reputation as a hub of the City of London, with the nave aisle "Paul's Walk" becoming known as the centre of business and the London grapevine. Following the Reformation, the churchyard, St Paul's Cross became the stage for radical evangelical preaching and Protestant bookselling.

Already severely in decline by the 17th Century, the cathedral was destroyed in the Great Fire of London of 1666, and the current domed St. Paul's Cathedral — in an English Baroque style — was subsequently erected on the site by Sir Christopher Wren.

Construction

Engraving of Old St. Paul's prior to 1561, with intact spire

The cathedral was the fourth church on the site at Ludgate Hill dedicated to St Paul, and was begun by the Normans following a devastating fire in 1087 (detailed in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle) which destroyed much of the city. Work took over 200 years, and a great deal was lost in another fire in 1136. The roof was once more built of wood, which was ultimately to doom the building. The church was consecrated in 1240, but a change of heart led to the commencement of an enlargement programme in 1256. This 'New Work' was completed in 1314 — the cathedral had been consecrated in 1300. It was the third-longest church in Europe.^[2] Excavations in 1878 by Francis Penrose showed it was 586 feet (179 m) long (excluding the porch later added by Inigo Jones) and 100 feet (30 m) wide (290 feet across the transepts and crossing). The cathedral had one of Europe's tallest spires, the height of which is traditionally given as 489 feet (149 m), however, Wren judged that an overestimate and gave 460 feet (140 m).^[1] By way of comparison, the current cathedral is 574 feet (175 m) in length including the portico, and 246 feet (75 m) across the transepts.

Interior

1658 plan of the cathedral

The finished cathedral of the Middle Ages was renowned for its interior beauty. William Benham wrote in 1902: "It had not a rival in England, perhaps one might say in Europe."^[1] The nave's immense length was particularly notable, with a Norman triforium and vaulted ceiling. The length earned it the nickname "Paul's walk". In the 15th Century, the cathedral was the centre of the London grapevine. "News-mongers", as they were called, gathered there to pass on the latest news and gossip.^[3] Those who visited the cathedral to keep up with the news were known as "Paul's-walkers".

According to Francis Osborne (1593–1656):

It was the fashion of those times, and did so continue till these . . . for the principal gentry, lords, courtiers, and men of all professions not merely mechanic, to meet in Paul's Church by eleven and walk in the middle aisle till twelve, and after dinner from three to six, during which times some discoursed on business, others of news. Now in regard of the universal there happened little that did not first or last arrive here...And those news-mongers, as they called them, did not only take the boldness to weigh the public but most intrinsic actions of the state, which some courtier or other did betray to this society.^[4]

St Paul's became the place to go to hear the latest news of current affairs, war, religion, parliament and the court. In his play Englishmen for my Money, William Haughton (d. 1605) described Paul's walk as a kind of "open house" filled with a "great store of company that do nothing but go up and down, and go up and down, and make a grumbling together".^[5] Infested with beggars and thieves, Paul's walk was also a place to pick up gossip, topical jokes, and even prostitutes.^[6][7] John Earle (1601–1665), in his Microcosmographie (1628), called Paul's walk "the land's epitome . . . the lesser isle of Great Britain . . . the whole world's map . . . nothing liker Babel".^[8]

Rose window of Old St. Paul's Cathedral

The cathedral's stained glass was reputed to be the best in the country, and the east-end Rose window was particularly exquisite. Indeed, in The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer uses the windows as a metaphor in "The Miller's Tale":^[9]

The walls were lined with the tombs of mediæval bishops and nobility. Two Anglo-Saxon kings were buried inside, Sebbi, King of the East Saxons, and Ethelred the Unready. A number of historic figures such as John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster and John Beauchamp, 3rd Baron Beauchamp de Somerset had particularly large monuments constructed. The cathedral was also to later contain the tombs of the poet and clergyman John Donne and the Crown minister Nicholas Bacon.^[1]

According to Harvey (1978), the octagonal chapter house (built circa 1332 by William Ramsey), was the earliest example of Perpendicular Gothic^[10]. The foundations of the chapter house were recently made visible in the redeveloped south churchyard of the new cathedral^[11].

Decline

Classical-style West Front by Inigo Jones added between 1630 and 1666

By the 16th century the building was decaying. Under Henry VIII and Edward VI, the Dissolution of the Monasteries and Chantries Acts led to the destruction of interior ornamentation and the cloisters, charnels, crypts, chapels, shrines, chantries and other buildings in the churchyard. Many of these former religious sites in St Paul's Churchyard, having been seized by the crown, were sold as shops and rental properties, especially to printers and booksellers, such as Thomas Adams, who were often evangelical Protestants. Buildings that were razed often supplied ready-dressed building material for construction projects, such as the Lord Protector's city palace, Somerset House.^[2]

Crowds were drawn to the northeast corner of the Churchyard, St Paul's Cross, where open-air preaching took place. It was there in the Cross Yard in 1549 that radical Protestant preachers incited a mob to destroy many of the cathedral's interior decorations. In 1561 the spire was destroyed by lightning and it was not replaced;^[12] this event was taken by both Protestants and Catholics as a sign of God's displeasure at the other faction's actions. Queen Elizabeth contributed towards the cost of repairs.^[13]

England's first classical architect, Inigo Jones, added the cathedral's west front in the 1630s, but there was much defacement and mistreatment of the building by Parliamentarian forces during the English Civil War, when the old documents and charters were dispersed and destroyed and the nave was used as a stable for cavalry horses.^[14]

The Great Fire

Old St Paul's Cathedral in flames, 1666

Remains of the Cathedral after the fire drawn by Thomas Wyck, c. 1673

Restoration of old St Paul's finally began in the 1660s but only had time to be sheathed in wooden scaffolding before being completely gutted in the Great Fire of London of 1666. The fire, aided by the scaffolding, destroyed the roof and much of the stonework along with masses of stocks and personal belongings that had been placed there for safety. Samuel Pepys recalls the building in flames in his diary:^[15]

Temporary repairs were made to the building, but while it might have been salvageable, albeit with almost complete reconstruction, a decision was taken to build a new cathedral in a modern style instead, a step which had been contemplated even before the fire. Following the appointment of Sir Christopher Wren, the Surveyor to the King's Works, demolition of the remains of the old cathedral began. Wren initially utilised the then-new technique of using gunpowder to bring down the surviving stone walls. Like many experimental techniques, the use of gunpowder was not easy to control and nearby residents complained about noise and damage. Eventually, Wren resorted to using a battering ram instead. Building work on the new cathedral began in June 1675.^[16]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Old St Paul's Cathedral

Anglicanism portal

• Official website, with history of Old St. Paul's
• Three paintings of Old St Paul's from the Society of Antiquaries of London (4th row down)
• History of Old St Paul's

Coordinates: 51°30′49″N 0°5′54″W / 51.51361°N 0.09833°W / 51.51361; -0.09833