[Illustration: ST. SAVIOUR, SOUTHWARK.]
The Engraving represents the interior of the Virgin Mary's Chapel,
commonly called the Lady Chapel, and appended to the ancient collegiate
church of St. Saviour, Southwark. The exterior view of the Chapel will be
found in No. 456 of _The Mirror_. About eighteen months since part of the
western side of the High-street was removed for the approach to the New
London Bridge, when this Chapel was opened to view; but its dilapidated
appearance was rather calculated to interest antiquarian than public
curiosity. The London Bridge Committee recommended the parishioners of St.
Saviour to cause the Chapel to be pulled down, and their selfish
suggestion would have been complied with, had not some enlightened and
public-spirited individuals stepped forth to frustrate the levellers. The
parishioners now became two parties. One contended for the restoration of
the Chapel, as "one of the most chaste and elegant specimens of early
pointed architecture of the thirteenth century of which this country can
boast." The levellers, whose muckworm minds, and love of the arts is only
shown in that of money-getting--maintained that the demolition of the
Chapel would be "a pecuniary saving;" but theirs was a penny-wise and
pound-foolish spirit; for, by removing the Chapel, a greater expense would
be incurred than in its restoration. The folks could not understand plain
figures, and so resolved to take the sense and nonsense of the parish, and
the subject has been decided by a majority of 240 in favour of repairing
the Chapel. The funds for this purpose, it should be understood, were in
course of provision by public subscription, so that the blindness of party
zeal threatened to reject a special advantage--the public would find the
money if they would allow the Chapel to remain--whereas, had the
demolition taken place, the parishioners must themselves have defrayed the
consequent expenses. Historians loudly condemn the royal and noble thieves
who plundered the Coliseum and the Pantheon to build palaces, yet there
are men in our times, who would, if they could, take Dr. Johnson's hint to
pound St. Paul's Church into atoms, and with it macadamize their roads; or
fetch it away by piecemeal to build bridges with its stones, and saw up
its marble monuments into chimneypieces.
The church of St. Saviour is built in the form of a cathedral, with a nave,
side aisles, transepts, a choir, with its side aisles; and the chapel of
St. John, which now forms the vestry, and the chapel of the Virgin Mary,
or Our Lady. To the east end of the latter there has since been added a
small chapel, called the Bishop's Chapel. Another chapel, (of St. Mary
Magdalen,) was also connected with the south aisle of the church. The
parishioners seem to have hitherto neglected the Lady Chapel, and to have
shown their cupidity in ages long past. Through the influence of Dr.
Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, they were allowed to _purchase_ the church
of that wholesale sin-salesman, Henry VIII.; but after the parish had
obtained the grant of the church, they let the Lady Chapel to one Wyat, a
baker, who converted it into a bake-house. He stopped up the two doors
which communicated with the aisles of the church, and the two which opened
into the chancel, and which, though visible, still remain masoned up.[1]
In 1607, Mr. Henry Wilson, tenant of the Chapel of the Holy Virgin, found
himself inconvenienced by a tomb "of a certain cade," and applied to the
vestry for its removal, which was very "friendly" consented to, "making
the place up again in any reasonable sort."[2] In this state it continued
till the year 1624, when the vestry restored it to its original condition,
at an expense of two hundred pounds. "More than that sum," observes the
Rev. Mr. Nightingale, "I should conceive would now be required to repair
this venerable part of St. Saviour's Church in such a manner as is
absolutely necessary. The pillars have in a great degree lost their
perpendicular position: the mouldings and mullions of the windows are
distorted in the most shameful manner; the walls are rapidly hastening to
their final decay; and the whole place appears to be destined to become
once more the resort of hogs and vermin of every description. That this
should be the case is a great disgrace to the parish, and an insult
to the diocese, in which St. Saviour's Church holds so conspicuous a
character."[3]
The roof of the Chapel is divided into nine groined arches, supported by
six octangular pillars in two rows, having small circular columns at the
four points. At the back of the altar-screen of the church[4] are some
tracery compartments, probably, according to Mr. Bray, once affording
through them a view of this chapel. In the east end, on the north side,
are three lancet-shaped windows, forming one great window, divided by
slender pillars, and having mouldings, with zig-zag ornaments. The tracery
windows on the south side are masoned up, but much of the original tracery
remains. At the north-east corner are remains of sharp-pointed arches;
here also is an enclosure with table, desk, and elevated seat. This part
is, properly speaking, the Bishop's Court; but this name is common to the
whole chapel, in which the Bishop of Winchester holds his Court; and in
which are held the visitations for the Deanery of Southwark.
The annexed view was taken from the north-west entrance, and shows the
character of the groined roof, the supporting pillars, and the entrance to
the Bishop's Chapel adjoining, by an ascent of two steps; this Chapel
being named from the Tomb of Bishop Andrews, formerly standing in the
centre of it. We recommend the reader to a clever paper in the _Gentleman's
Megazine_ for the present month, in which the writer proves that Our
Lady's Chapel, so far from being an excrescence, as has been idly stated,
"bears the same relation to the church an the head does to the body."
[1] Stow--These have lately been re-opened.--ED. M.
[2] Parish Books.
[3] Hist. and Antiq. Paroch. Church, St. Saviour, Southwark, 4to. 1818.
[4] This Screen is about to be partially restored at an expense of about
£800. now in course of subscription among the more respectable and
intelligent parishioners.
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