Mad Travel Guides: Southwark Cathedral

Quick Info

• Hours: The Cathedral is open between 8 am and 6 pm daily, but don’t forget that it is also a working Cathedral so there may be religious services taking place. You can wander round the Cathedral at your own pace or book a guided tour via the Visitors’ Officer (020 7367 6734).
• Contact: 020 7367 6700 or http://cathedral.southwark.anglican.org/
• Address: Southwark Cathedral, London Bridge, London SE1 9DA (Google map)
• Cost: There is no admission charge although donations are appreciated/expected. Group tours charge £5 per person and £4 for senior citizens.

History

Southwark Cathedral continues a history of more than a thousand years during which religious buildings have occupied the same site on the south bank of London’s river Thames. Saxon foundations were discovered during an archaeological dig in 1999, The Domesday Book (1086) alludes to a monasterium (‘minster’) at Southwark, and this monasterium became the priory church of St Marie. Following a fire, the church was rebuilt by 1273; the present Cathedral is the earliest surviving Gothic building in London. During the fourteenth century the church came to be known as St Marie Overie (‘over the river’) as there were other churches dedicated to St Mary within the City of London.

Despite suffering later fires the priory was rebuilt thanks to the influence and financial backing of Cardinal Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, who resided in Winchester Palace in nearby Clink Street; the Palace was home to the Bishops of Winchester between 1144 and 1626. Beaufort was King Henry IV’s illegitimate half-brother, and his character plays a prominent role in the Henry VI plays, dying in Part 2 (as pointed out by John Zinn in his recent article). The Bishops of Winchester were also the licensors of the Southwark brothels, whose prostitutes were commonly known as ‘Winchester Geese’. During an altercation between the Duke of Gloucester and the Bishop of Winchester in 1 Henry VI, the former refers to the latter as a ‘Winchester Goose’ and a ‘scarlet hypocrite’ ‘that giv’st whores indulgences to sin’, alluding to his connections with, and licensing of, the bawds and whores. The playhouses were located near to the Bankside stews as both were outside the jurisdiction of the City authorities. One of the brothels was called ‘The Cardinal’s Hat’, a clear allusion to the Bishop’s headgear. The Beaufort coat of arms, which can be seen in the south transept at the site of the original entrance to the parish chapel of St Mary Magdalene, is topped by the cardinal’s hat.

In 1539, following his disagreement with Rome over his divorce from Catherine of Aragon, King Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries. Within a few years, Catholicism was outlawed and Anglicanism became the official religion of England. The priory church of St Marie Overie was renamed the parish church of St Saviour’s. The church received financial support from wealthy parishioners during the seventeenth century but started to fall into disrepair by the early nineteenth century. It narrowly avoided demolition and was fully restored by 1897. In 1905, Parliament created the new Diocese of Southwark, stretching from the River Thames and reaching out to Surrey, encompassing 2.5 million worshippers and 306 parishes. The humble parish church was now elevated to cathedral status.

What to See

Because of its location on Bankside, Southwark Cathedral has enjoyed a long connection with literature and the theatre: in Elizabethan England church attendance was compulsory and non-attendance was punishable by fines. The Shakespeare memorial (designed by Henry McCarthy in 1911) can be found at the east end of the south aisle. The poet is shown resting in a Bankside meadow against a background of St Saviour’s Church, Winchester Palace and both the Globe and Rose theatres. On 23 April (both his acknowledged birthday and St George’s Day) the memorial is adorned with red roses and sprigs of rosemary (Ophelia reminds us in Hamlet that the herb is ‘for remembrance’). Above the memorial can be seen the Shakespeare Window. Originally, the south aisle contained a series of nineteenth century windows portraying Elizabethan dramatists, but this was destroyed by a bomb in 1940. The replacement was designed by Christopher Webb in 1954 and comprises characters from many of the plays. To the right of the reclining Shakespeare sits a memorial to Sam Wanamaker, the American director and actor responsible for the reconstruction of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, a short walk away from the Cathedral.

Three Shakespearean connections can be found in the choir floor. A tablet is dedicated to the playwright’s actor brother, Edmond, who died in 1607 aged 27 and was buried in the church. Several biographers have commented on his funeral on New Year’s Eve with ‘a forenoon knell of the great bell’ at a cost of twenty shillings. William must have taken care of the extra expense incurred in burying his brother in the church and not outside in the churchyard. St Saviour’s register also records this burial of ‘Edmond Shakespeare, a player: in the Church’–an internment not usually accorded to a mere actor, but reserved for members of the gentry. Near to this tablet is another dedicated to John Fletcher (1579-1625), who collaborated with Shakespeare on Henry VIII and The Two Noble Kinsmen, and a third commemorates Philip Massinger (1583-1640), who also co-wrote with Fletcher and later became the main playwright for the King’s Men.

Half of the actors named in the First Folio of 1623 also appear in the parish registers of St Saviour’s, although the players were often denounced by the church’s chaplains. In time some of those connected with the playhouses became vestrymen of their parish church. Among them were Edward Alleyn (the principal actor from the rival Admiral’s Men) and his father in law, Philip Henslowe, the owner of the Rose Theatre, who lies beneath an unmarked grave in the Cathedral.

Moving around the Cathedral, the windows of the north aisle commemorate other men of letters who have connections with Southwark. The Geoffrey Chaucer window is situated above the old Norman entrance to the cloisters and shows the Canterbury pilgrims departing from the Tabard Inn in Southwark on their pilgrimage to Canterbury. Chaucer’s narrative poem, Troilus and Criseyde, was one of Shakespeare’s sources for his own play, Troilus and Cressida. Below, the Gower window is a monument to the medieval poet and contemporary of Chaucer, John Gower. Shakespeare took the tale of Apollonius of Tyre from Gower’s Confessio Amantis and used it as the source for his own play, Pericles, Prince of Tyre, a drama in which the older poet returns to relate the prologue and epilogue and to introduce several scenes throughout the play. Other literary characters depicted in stained glass include Samuel Johnson (of dictionary fame), who was a frequent visitor to Southwark, and Oliver Goldsmith (the dramatist), who was a Bankside doctor for a brief time.

American visitors to the Cathedral will also be interested to find links to John Harvard, the founder of the university bearing his name, and to Oscar Hammerstein, the lyricist. Harvard was baptised in the Cathedral in 1607 (the year of Edmund Shakespeare’s death) and emigrated to the New World in 1636. Upon his death in 1638 he left half his fortune (£799 17s 2d) and his books (only one now remains) to the college of Newtown for the ‘education of English and Indian youth in knowledge and godliness.’ Newtown became known as Cambridge, Massachusetts and the college became Harvard University. René Weis conjectures that Edmond’s funeral was held in St John’s Chapel off the north transept and this is the chapel that was later renamed the Harvard Chapel. However, the Shakespeare connection can be traced back to Stratford where Harvard’s grandfather, Thomas Rogers, lived. To the right of the Chapel entrance is a tablet to Oscar Hammerstein, who was so entranced with the choral singing when he first visited the Cathedral, that he left money to the choir for the training of two choirboys, who are now known as the ‘Hammerstein Chanters’.

What’s Around

A visit to Southwark Cathedral can easily be combined with a visit to the sites of the original Globe theatre (as outlined by Stefanie recently), and to Shakespeare’s Globe theatre, including taking in a play. A walk between the three sites passes the remains of the Palace of the Bishops of Winchester.

The Cathedral has its own shop and a Refectory (open between 9 am and 5 pm) where you can purchase hot and cold drinks, lunches and afternoon teas. When the weather is fine you can enjoy these outside in the Millenium Courtyard. Alternatively you may want to sample the food at the many restaurants, cafes and stalls in nearby Borough Market, or you could take a short walk down Borough High Street to The George, London’s only remaining inn that boasts a galleried courtyard. Early modern players, such as the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, would have toured their productions in venues like this one.

How to Get There

The Cathedral is easy to reach from London Bridge Station via British Rail trains or the Northern or Jubilee lines (but the website gives many alternative routes). Take the Tooley Street exit (ignoring the ‘ghouls’ and ‘zombies’ who want you to visit The London Dungeon), cross the road by the traffic lights and turn left into Joiner Street, walk under the bridge, continue past The London Bridge Experience on your left and Glazier’s Hall on your right, take a left at the Mudlark pub and access the Cathedral by the Millenium Courtyard (this was opened by Nelson Mandela in 2000). If you enter the doors ahead you will find yourself in Lancelot’s Link, where there is an archaeological chamber revealing past history dating back to Roman times. Turn to the right, walk to the end of the passage and you will find the Cathedral’s North West door on your left. If you exit the link at the far end and turn to your left you will come round to the churchyard and the South West door.