OTHER INTERESTING ASSOCIATIONS

“London! that great sea whose ebb and flow
At once is deaf and loud and on the shore
Vomits its wrecks, and still howls on for more,
Yet in its depth what treasure! "

-T. B. Shelley.

St. George's Church

REFERENCE has been made already to this Church, and its close associations with the Marshalsea Prison. The modern building dates from 1734 and, except for the Little Dorrit stories, has few historical charms. The old church, however, which occupied the same site, was distinctly interesting. The date of the original founding is unknown, but in the Annals of Bermondsey Abbey appears the following: "In the year of Our Lord 1122 Thomas de Arden and Thomas his son gave to the monks of Bermondsey, the church of St. George in Southwark"-which gift was confirmed by Henry I. The church therefore must have been built prior to this date. It is supposed to have had attached to it a Gild of brethren and sisters of Our Lady and St. George the Martyr, the duties of which, included:

(a) the providing of a priest to serve at the altar of St. George.

(b) the finding of candles and torches for services and burials.

(d) help to poor "bretheren and sisteren.'

The church is mentioned by Stow as a sanctuary for escaping pilgrims, and there are records of cases of penance, when the unfortunate victim, bareheaded and bare legged, clad in a white robe, stood in the church porch from bell-ringing to divine service or upon a stool in the middle aisle until the service was over. Many persons executed in the adjoining prison were buried in St. George's churchyard, and the entries in the registers for 1665, especially during August and September, tell a pathetic tale of the ravages of the Plague in Southwark.

The celebrated arithmetician, Edward Cocker, who died in 1675, was buried at the west end of the church, and Bishop Bonner, who died in the Marshalsea in 1569, is said to have been buried secretly at midnight in St. George's Churchyard. The secrecy was caused by fear of the people, who detested him for his share in the Marian persecutions. The tomb still standing in the little churchyard may or may not contain his body-opinions differ on this point.

St. Olave's Church

At the time of writing, this church, whose square tower has been so long a familiar sight as one crosses London Bridge, has passed into the hands of demolishers and soon everything but the tower will have vanished completely. Antiquarians are keenly interested in this demolition, for a church stood here before 1205, and excavations may reveal some treasures of the past.

The name, St. Olave, borne by church and school and corrupted into Tooley Street, is derived from St. Olaf, to whom reference was made in the chapter on London Bridge.

St. Margaret's Church

Another church which has vanished, leaving only a name behind, is St. Margaret's, once a parish church. It stood opposite the George Inn until the Reformation, when it was suppressed; part was pulled down and part used for secular purposes-Stow says, for the Assizes Court and for the Compter Prison. The Southwark fire in 1676 cleared away the old building, and in 1686 a new Town Hall was erected on the site, adorned with a statue of Charles II. This building disappeared in 1793, and since 1888 the site has been occupied by a branch of the London and County Bank, the building being called Town Hall Chambers. The people of St. Margaret joined with the parishioners of St. Mary Magdalene to secure from Henry VIII the old conventual church of St. Mary Overie as their parish church, renaming it, as we have learnt already, St. Saviour. Perhaps the new name was a compromise between the two parishes, for doubtless the people of St. Margaret's would resent giving in and losing their identity.

The Hospitals St. Thomas's and Guy's Everyone who knows Southwark knows Guy's Hospital, but what has St. Thomas's, now opposite to the Houses of Parliament, to do with this Borough? Those who know the history, claim St. Thomas's as a Southwark hospital. Here is the story in brief: The priory of St. Mary Overie, in common with other religious houses, had within its precincts a building for the use of the sick and poor. When in 1207 a fire destroyed the monastery, a temporary lodging was found across the road, and this proved so convenient that it was retained as an infirmary after the monastery had been rebuilt.

The Norman Prior of Bermondsey also had built an Almonry attached to his priory and a few years later the Bishop of Winchester, Peter de Rupibus, re-endowed and incorporated the two under the title of St. Thomas' Spittal, so named after Thomas of Canterbury. For many long years the work of healing was carried on by the monks in this building near the foot of old London Bridge, nor did they disregard the claims of art, for we read that in 1527 the contract for the painted windows of King's College, Cambridge, was signed in St. Thomas' Spittal; and again that in 1537, the first entire Bible printed in English is inscribed: "Imprynted in Southwark in St. Thomas's Hospital by James Nycolson."

At the Reformation, the hospital shared the fate of other conventual institutions, but so great was the loss that the citizens appealed for its restoration. Edward VI accordingly granted a charter by which the rights and privileges of the ancient hospital were transferred to the Mayor and Corporation of London who thus became Governors of the Hospital.

From the date of its reopening in 1553, the hospital continued a magnificent work, but with the increasing population of the 17th century, the demands upon its resources became too great, and additional accommodation was necessary.

Thomas Guy, an apprentice, successful business man and generous benefactor in Southwark, leased ground opposite to St. Thomas's and built a hospital in 1722. The original building called after its donor, Guy's House, was enlarged in 1758 by the addition of an east wing. In 1829 a munificent bequest from a London merchant, William Hunt, provided for further extension.

Meanwhile the new London Bridge had been built, and great railway developments necessitated the removal of the parent hospital, St. Thomas's, which finally took present abode in 1871. "Guy's" continued to develop and to-day is an imposing building, as well as an efficient and much valued hospital. The courtyard contains a statue of the founder, Thomas Guy, whose remains are buried in the crypt below the Hospital chapel. On the front of the main building are figures representing Esculapius, the god of medicine, and Hygeia, goddess of health, also three quaint carvings illustrating the old time custom of blood letting. Not the least interesting part of the hospital is the "Park" which is built on the site of an old plague pit, where bodies were buried hurriedly in the dreadful days of 1665.

Another hospital with an interesting history is Bethlehem Hospital or Bedlam, as it is sometimes called. This stands in St. George's Road in the midst of a district originally known as St. George's Fields. The hospital has stood here since 1815, but it was founded as far back as 1246, when it was attached to the Priory of the Star of Bethlehem at Moorfields. It was one of the three hospitals reopened by Edward VI, a fact which links it closely with St. Thomas's. It is now a very well-managed institution, but terrible stories could be told of the treatment of its lunatic inmates in former days-stories of chains and manacles, of floggings and other cruelties, which characterised the so-called "good old days."

On the boundary wall of the hospital is a stone sign of the Dog and Duck with the date 1617. This is an interesting link with the past. The hospital site was occupied formerly by a tavern called the Dog and Duck. Its name probably came from the fact that in the neighbouring fields the sport of hunting ducks with spaniels was carried on. Around the inn were pleasure gardens and one of the attractions was the presence of mineral springs, the use of which was recommended by Dr. Johnson to Mrs. Thrale.

The gardens suffered the same fate as those in the neighbouring borough of Lambeth. They acquired a disreputable character and were finally suppressed in 1799.

"The obelisk which stands within the hospital grounds, stood until 1905 where the clock tower now is. It was erected in 1771 during the mayoralty of the courageous Brass Crosby, Lord Mayor of London, who refused to convict a printer for publishing reports of Parliamentary debates. This was an important step in the establishment of freedom of the press.

St. George's Fields

This district, now so densely populated, remained, until 150 years after Elizabeth's time, open country. It consisted of "acres of meadow land in divers parcels," and was granted to the Corporation of London by Charter of Edward VI. Perhaps it was used as a camping ground by the Romans, for in the eighteenth century a Roman urn was dug up there. It remained a 'no man's land," occupied by vagrants and gipsies. John Evelyn says that after the Great Fire "many poor people who had lost their homes in the fire found shelter in St. George's Fields, under miserable huts or hovels, some without a rag or any necessary utensils, many without bed or board."

Here came the rebels of Wat Tyler; later those led by Jack Cade, and later still, the Gordon rioters assembled round their leader, Lord George Gordon, on the spot where now the Roman Catholic Cathedral stands. Dickens' Barnaby Rudge recreates the scene.

St. Olave's Schools

Schools in olden times were attached to monasteries, and the monasteries of St. Mary Overie and St. Saviour's, Bermondsey, each had its school, in fact the latter is considered by Stow to be the one mentioned by Fitz-Stephen as the third school in the metropolis, ranking after St. Paul's and Westminster. They were of course swept away at the Dissolution, but the citizens of Southwark soon set about acquiring property for the re-establishment of a school. In 1562 they bought land near St. Mary Overie's Church and the seal affixed to the deeds was that of the old monastery of Bermondsey-hence the name of St. Saviour's. Queen Elizabeth granted a charter in which is stated that "Thomas Cure, William Browker, Christopher Campbell, and other discreet and more sad inhabitants of St. Saviour's had, at their own great costs and pains, devised, erected and set up a Grammar school wherein the children of the Poor as well as of the Rich inhabitants were freely brought up."

St. Olave's School owes its foundations to Henry Leeke Brewer, who left a bequest of £8 a year to St. Saviour's school, unless within two years one was established in the neighbouring parish of St. Olave's. This provided the necessary stimulus, and the "Free School of Queen Elizabeth in the was established. Parish of St. Olave's" Charles II granted a further charter in 1674, which resulted in a greatly increased revenue. Among other endowments was the "Horseydowne" field for a term of 500 years "at the yearly rent of a red rose payable at midsummer The old school, if lawfully demanded."

which stood opposite St. Olave's Church, was demolished in 1850 and, after temporary Tower established near habitations, was Bridge. In 1899 it was amalgamated with St. Saviour's Grammar School, which had been driven from its original home by the extension of the Borough Market. The seal of the school gives a part of the arms of Southwark (a rose displayed), and represents a master at a desk with book and rod to terrorise the five scholars before him. The Girls' School, although established as late as 1903, has a share in the great tradition of St. Olave's. Unfortunately, in the Stuart times, when charters were granted to the school, the education of girls was not considered of supreme importance, and no one seems to have thought that "younglings" for whom the school was formed might include girls as well as boys. We live in better days, and when the two boys' schools were amalgamated, a companion girls' school was founded which, with its charming customs and splendid scholastic attainments, is a worthy descendant of its Elizabethan ancestor.

Winchester Palace and The Clink

In common with the theatres, the inns, and the prisons of old Southwark, this palace has vanished, leaving only very few traces behind, but it played in its day so important a part in the life of the Borough that reference must be made to it. It was built in 1107 by William Gifford, Bishop of Winchester, and stood close behind the church on the ground now occupied by Clink Street and Winchester Square, its park of 60-70 acres extending to the south and west. Many distinguished men lived here; Peter de Rupibus, who founded the hospital of St. Thomas; William of Wykeham, who left bequests for the prisoners in the Marshalsea; Cardinal Beaufort, who took part in the trial of Joan of Arc; Bishop Gardiner, who is associated with the Marian persecutions; and Launcelot Andrewes, whose tomb is in the cathedral hard by.

In 1642 the Parliamentarians used the palace as a prison, and a few years later it passed into private hands. Eventually streets were built all round, and the ruins of the palace were transformed into warehouses. The remains of the great rose window of the palace banqueting hall and the upper part of a Gothic doorway may still be seen in the warehouse of Messrs. Pickford. Clink Street takes its name from the Liberty of the Clink in which was a prison, the private property of the Bishops. Here were received "such as would brabble, frey, or break the peace." The Clink prison was abandoned in 1745, and the building destroyed by the Gordon rioters in 1780.

Many other interesting facts in the history of Southwark might be mentioned.

At the beginning of this book will be found a list of those dealing with the subject. They are all available in the local libraries or at the Guildhall, and this little story will have done its work if it causes any readers to go to these for further information on a most fascinating subject.