Symbols & Secrets

Walking the City of London

Trees, flowers and a Bunhill resident pictured on the £5 note.

The big news is that the Magnolia trees beside St Giles are in bloom – this lasts less than a month so has to be savoured …

The Silk Street beds are looking good …

Some rogue visitors among the Polyanthus (possibly bulbs from last year) …

Must be fun to play amongst the daffodils …

St Giles silhouettes at dusk …

From the St Alphage Highwalk …

Magnolia Stellata …

Another highlight of the week was a guided walk around some of the fenced off areas of Bunhill Burial Ground organised by the Friends of City Gardens. The bunting and brochures were out to greet us …

For a detailed history of Bunhill, do have a look at my February 2022 blog. Relevant to our stroll, however, is the Act of Uniformity of 1663. This established the Church of England as the national church and at the same time created a distinct category of Christian believers who wished to remain outside the national church. These became known as the nonconformists or dissenters and Bunhill became for many of them the burial ground of choice due to its location outside the City boundary and its independence from any Established place of worship.

First stop was the earliest grave with a legible inscription, that of Theophilus Gale MA, an eminent dissenter who died in 1678 …

It is rather tucked away …

He was a doctor of divinity, a classical scholar and a learned theologian and philosopher. Gale is held in high regard in America’s Harvard University since, when he died, he left his library to the College, more than doubling its collection of books.

This is the impressive chest tomb of theologian John Owen (1618-1683) …

He was a great friend of John Bunyan, author of Pilgrim’s Progress, whose elaborate tomb is nearby …

Bunyan spent more than ten years in prison for his beliefs and on one occasion Owen successfully negotiated his release.

This is the grave of Catherine (née Boucher; 1762 – 1831) the wife of the poet, painter, and engraver William Blake, and a vital presence and assistant throughout his life. Decorations have been laid on it by The William Blake Society

She was the pretty, illiterate daughter of an unsuccessful market gardener from the farm village of Battersea. Her family name suggests they were Huguenots who had fled religious persecution in France. It was a highly satisfactory marriage. Blake taught Catherine to read and write (a little), to draw, to colour his designs and prints, to help him at the printing press and to see visions as he did. She believed implicitly in his genius and his visions and supported him in everything he did with charming credulity. After his death she lived chiefly for the moments when, she said, he came to sit and talk with her.

William is buried elsewhere in Bunhill, outside the fenced area …

Catherine as drawn by William (circa 1805) …

This lady’s importance is reflected in the inscription on her gravestone …

It differs somewhat from the stone in this image showing John visiting her grave in 1779 …

John Wesley was the founder of Methodism and his chapel and former home are across the road from Bunhill. He could see his mother’s grave from his bedroom on the top floor …

You can read more about my visit to his chapel here.

The large tomb at the centre of the photograph is the last resting place of Thomas Fowell Buxton of the famous Truman Hanbury Buxton brewery …

Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, 1st Baronet Buxton of Belfield and Runton, was an English Member of Parliament, brewer, passionate abolitionist and social reformer. He married Hannah Gurney, whose sister became Elizabeth Fry, and was a great friend of her brother Joseph John Gurney and the extended Gurney family …

Buxton can be seen on the back of the (last ever) £5 note which commemorated Fry’s work with women prisoners. He is the tall gentleman with glasses standing with the group in Newgate Prison …

The engraving on which the note’s image is based …

It’s entitled Mrs Fry Reading to the Prisoners in Newgate, in the year 1816.

On the way out we passed this rather strange sunken tomb of the Pottenger family …

I have not been able to find out anything about the family but the tomb is Grade II listed. The official record gives the following information: The monument takes the form of a stone chest with a coped lid and moulded base, sunk within a rectangular brick-walled well about three feet deep. (This is said to represent the original ground level within the cemetery). The sides of the chest have incised panels bearing the names of various members of the Pottenger family. The two end panels read, respectively, ‘RICHARD POTTENGER’S Vault 1761’ and ‘The Within are Gone to Rest’.

Bunhill is always wonderful to visit, and we were accompanied for most of the way by the tap-tap-tapping of a resident woodpecker.

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St Benet Paul’s Wharf. Get a sense of what the geniuses Wren and Hooke wanted a church to look like .

Dedicated to the 6th century St Benedict who founded the original monastic code, St Benet’s stands rather isolated with the fast traffic of Queen Victoria Street flowing high above (EC4V 4ER) …

It was built between 1678 and 1684 under the auspices of Sir Christopher Wren (1632-1723) with original drawings by Robert Hooke (1635-1703). It’s one of the few City churches to survive Victorian reordering and 20th century bomb damage and remains much as it was built.

The Dutch-influenced exterior is built of red and blue brick, with stone quoins on the corners and carved stone garlands over the winows …

The interior of the church retains substantial galleries on the west and north side. The north side gallery …

… which offers a striking view of St Paul’s Cathedral from the main aisle …

Original furnishings include the reredos, which displays the Ten Commandments, Creed and Lord’s Prayer, beneath the tetragrammaton (the name of God in Hebrew characters) …

The magnificent Communion table (possibly Flemish) with its carved angels and central figure of Charity …

The original elegant Communion rails with twisted balusters …

The pulpit, originally marked with the royal cipher and ‘Donum [given] 1683’ …

Some online guides attribute the carving to Grinling Gibbons but evidence is, apparently, not convincing. It’s still beautiful though …

The pulpit’s tester, or sounding board, is now located in the vestibule below the tower …

Another original furnishing is the octagonal marble font and its carved wooden cover …

Many of these furnishings were given by the lawyer and diplomat Sir Leoline (Llewellyn) Jenkins (1625-1685).

The splendid doorcase to the tower lobby is surmounted by the royal arms of Charles II …

View from the north gallery …

Balcony miscellany ..

Since 1555, St Benet has been the church of the College of Arms (the heraldic authority for England, Wales, Northern Ireland and much of the Commonwealth) which stands nearly opposite on Queen Victoria Street.

The view of the church from the College forecourt …

At least 25 Officers of Arms have been buried in the church …

Coats of arms of College officers …

There is a memorial in the church to John Charles Brooke …

It refers to a ‘dreadful calamity’ at the Haymarket Theatre on 3 February 1794 which resulted in Brooke losing his life …

On that date, George III and Queen Charlotte were attending the Haymarket Theatre for the first time that season, and the royal command performance attracted vast numbers of people. The crowds were so huge that when the door was opened, those in the front of the queue were pushed down the stairs leading to the pit. More than 70 people fell and at least 20 were fatally crushed to death or suffocated. You can read more about the ‘Haymarket Tramplings’ here.

There is a splendid white marble bust of Sir Robert Wyseman (d. 1684). Sir Robert was Dean of the Court of Arches, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s chief ecclesiastical court, once held at St Mary-le-Bow …

When looking for great descriptions of monuments I always return to Bob Speel’s website.

Here’s what he says about Wyseman: ‘The portrait is also excellent – a rather solid-faced man, given a look of pride and dignity, a stern man, with flowing locks of hair or wig, his throat covered by an ornate carved high collar, his chest within a heavy robe. Pevsner, the architectural historian, notes that the monument has been attributed to Grinling Gibbons and the bust to Arnold Quellin’.

Here’s a closer look …

My eyes were drawn to this old bible resting in a pew beside the altar …

Being nosey, I looked to see if there was anything of interest written in the flyleaves. And there was! It was a gift ‘Presented to Sir John Puleston by the aged Welsh poor of the East End on their 25th Annual Treat, January 21st 1896 as a small token of their Love and Esteem’. It’s signed (and presumably written) on their behalf by ‘R H Williams Missionary’. Isn’t that wonderful …

The left hand page explains how it has found its way to St Benet – a gift in 1945 from Sir John’s grand daughter.

It is, of course, a Welsh Bible, with this inscription inside …

Sir John’s life is so remarkable I can’t even begin to describe it here so have provided some links. To whet your appetite, here he is in Washington DC holding the rank of Colonel ..

On 19 October he 1908 he passed away at his home at 2 Whitehall Court, London. Every pilot ship around Britain’s coast flew its flag at half mast. After a memorial service in London, he was buried in the family vault at Llanfair Dyffryn Clwyd, a village and community in Denbeighshire, Wales. He died bankrupt.

Two links for you to follow if you want to know more about him – in Wikipedia and in a fascinating ancestry site.

In the aisle is the tombstone of an extraordinary woman …

The inscription reads as follows:

Here lieth the body of Mrs. DELARIVIER MANLEY, Daughter of Sir Roger Manley, Knight, Who, suitable to her birth and education, was acquainted with several Parts of Knowledge And with the most Polite Writers, both in the FRENCH and ENGLISH tongue. This Accomplishment, Together with a greater natural Stock of Wit, made her Conversation Agreeable to All who knew Her and her Writings to be universally read with Pleasure. She dyed July 11 Anno Domini 1724.

A little more about her from a review of an autobiography: ‘A Tory pamphleteer, playwright, and satirical historian, Manley was regarded by her contemporaries Jonathan Swift and Robert Harley as a key member of the Tory propaganda team. Her best-selling political scandal chronicle The New Atlantis (1709) helped to bring down the Whig ministry in 1710. Her reputation was tarnished, however, in subsequent generations and twentieth-century scholars often misread her works as under-developed novels rather than as complex works of political satire’.

Sadly no picture of her exists but you can read more about her here.

For a great guide to the many other interesting monuments and memorials in the church, have a look at Bob Speel’s website.

Located as it is, on the south side of the busy Queen Victoria Street below the level of the road, St Benet looks rather inaccessible, but this is misleading. To visit, just cross at the pedestrian crossing leading to the Millennium Bridge, turn right, walk down the steps and you’re at the church in less than five minutes.

A magnificent eagle lectern …

Times to visit are restricted to when the Friends of City Churches are available to welcome visitors and at the moment this is on Thursdays between 11:00am and 3:00pm. They do a super job keeping churches open for visitors and the members who were on duty when I visited last Thursday were splendid company and very informative guides. There is a service there every Sunday. It’s primarily in Welsh since, by an Order in Council in 1879, St Benet became the Metropolitan Welsh Church after Queen Victoria was petitioned to prevent its demolition.

It is difficult now to imagine now what the area looked like before post-war development but this photograph, probably taken in the 1920s from the north across Queen Victoria Street, gives some idea (© The London Museum) …

A painting by Rev John Louis Petit (1801 – 1868). He records it as having been made at mid-day, 22 June 1856 …

An engraving of St Benet’s Paul’s Wharf (c1rca 1838) reproduced from Godwin, ‘The Churches of London’ Vol I, 1838 …

In August 1952 …

The church amidst 1960s redevelopment …

For even more information, visit the excellent London Inheritance blog entitled The Lost Wharfs of Upper Thames Street and St. Benet’s Welsh Church.

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Things that cheered me up!

It’s a bit of an understatement to say that these are not very happy times but, being an optimist by nature, I have been looking for things to cheer me up. Here are some of them (organised totally at random).

This year the Lord Mayor’s Big Curry Lunch commemorates the 85th anniversary of the Battle of Britain. If you are able, do pop along to the Guildhall and view the super garden that has been created there to recognise the occasion …

I think it is sweet that people still leave small tokens on this memorial to William Blake in Bunhill Burial Ground, even though his grave is now marked out elsewhere …

His actual burial place (photographed shortly after a marker was placed there) …

A couple of my attempts to photograph both the new Moon and the planet Venus (the slightly smudged light in the sky on the right) …

A better picture from early January …

Our Orchid Christmas present from 2023 has flowered again …

High point of the week, the arrival of a fresh set of cards from brilliant local artist Jill Green …

Check out her website for lots of other handcrafted goods, including lovely leather items : www.shopjill.com

I visited the Threadneedle Hotel for the first time and encountered this magnificent glass dome …

I’m going to visit again and write more about its history (and the cocktail bar looks tempting) …

Another splendid dome at 10 Trinity Square …

Read more about it, and the building it is in, here.

A time-travelling office worker from the 1970s would look at this picture and wonder why everyone in the office seemed to be watching TV …

The power and attraction of sporting competition. Advertising board outside a bar/restaurant in Madeira in Febrauary …

Funchal Botanical Gardens …

I found this ice cream cone really scary …

Portuguese knick-knacks …

City church weathervanes glimpsed from a distance.

St Giles Cripplegate …

The St Lawrence Jewry gridiron weathervane …

St Lawrence was martyred in San Lorenzo on 10 August 258 AD in a particularly gruesome fashion, being roasted to death on a gridiron. At one point, the legend tells us, he remarked ‘you can turn me over now, this side is done’. Appropriately, he is the patron saint of cooks, chefs and comedians.

The Minotaur at dusk with the Roman/Medieval wall in the background …

A cormorant glides past Mrs Coot sitting on her nest …

Mr Coot is pottering about nearby at the top of the picture.

Aquatic themed corridor in Tonbridge Grammar School …

A favourite ghost sign at Finchley Road Underground Station …

The Bryant family produced three generations of chimney sweeps and the family history is, according to one researcher, a tale of ‘intrigue, betrayal and bigamy’. You can find their research on Instagram. Another person was curious enough to trace the family history using various databases such as Ancestry UK. You can read what they discovered here. A visit to Finchley Road Station will never be the same again!

The London Jewish ‘Mural’ on Finchley Road …

Spooky charity shop models …

48-inch waist, I reckon …

Six’, the musical, at the Vaudeville Theatre, put us in a great frame of mind. And they allow pictures to be taken of the finale …

I’ll finish the blog with a laugh from one of the best political cartonists …

If you would like to follow me on Instagram here is the link …

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