The Oldest Church In London Is Spooky... And Fascinating: Saint Bartholomew The Great

Now, regular viewers will know that I don't personally believe in ghosts, and I feel nothing but a lovely feeling in this church. Okay, I'm going to leave that in. It's sometimes called the fool's church because it was founded by a court jester turned pious monk. Here we've got everything, a haunting by a ghost missing his foot, weeping statues, beautiful memorials, a brawl between an archbishop and monks, and survival against all odds. This is Saint Bartholomew the Great. Jessica the Museum Guide and today I'm doing a video tour that I've been aching to make for years. We are exploring more than 900 years of history inside the oldest church in London, still in its original building, the ancient priory church of Saint Bartholomew the Great. Now, even though Henry VIII ordered the destruction of its nave and lady chapel, we'll come back to that a little bit later on. I'm actually standing in the space that used to be the nave right now. I mean, it ultimately survived the dissolution of the monasteries and then the Puritan iconoclasm of the 17th century. Its large old priory walls protected it from the Great Fire of London and it only had minimal damage during the Zeppelin air raids of 1916. During the Blitz in World War II, the Reverend Neville Wallbank kicked incendiary bombs from the church roof to save it from bomb damage. And of course, in addition to being a very well-known church and a filming location for a lot of movies you're going to recognize, it's also steeped in folklore and a folk saints history. So, let's go inside and have a look. We'll be soaking in all of the vibes and the, quite frankly, spooky atmosphere of the many eras of architecture here. Owing to constant turmoil in its past and a number of renovations and changes, the church is a checkerboard of different eras and time periods, with Victorian reconstruction cheek and jowl with authentic Romanesque and Gothic medieval architecture, and we'll see it all today. Let's just start with a very brief rundown of the history of the church. Now just look at this wall outside with its patchwork of different arch styles and different ages. This is incredible. It's just a very tactile reminder of the age and the many trials and tribulations of this church. Now the church was founded all the way back in 1123 by a monk called Rahier, or Rahirius. He hadn't always been a monk though. According to some popular legends, he was a minstrel or a jester in the court of Henry I. Here he is on the wall of the cloister performing his contortionist act. He might have already been a cleric at this point, too. An 1115 document in the archives of St. Paul's Cathedral describes him as a canon. He was also described as charismatic and flattering in the presence of royalty. He sought to place a pillow under every elbow. I love that. However, Henry I soon suffered a series of tragedies. His first wife, Matilda of Scotland, who was christened Edith, but then came to be known as Good Queen Maud, died in 1118. Then, just a few years later, in November 1120, the White Ship disaster occurred when the royal vessel, the White Ship, sank in the English Channel near Barfleur in France after striking an offshore rock. Henry's only legitimate son and heir, William Adelin, perished, as did two of Henry's illegitimate children, Richard of Lincoln and Matilda Fitzroy, Countess of Perche. Some say that Rahir found it too trite to continue a life in entertainment after the tragedy. In the wake of the king's immense grief, he is said to have had a revelation about his own life's purpose. He then undertook a pilgrimage to Rome, where he fell seriously ill, some think with malaria. And he was nursed back to health at the church and hospital of San Bartolomeo in Rome, and it's still there. As he prayed to God to save his life, he promised that he would build a hospital to tend to the poor upon his return to London. He recovered, and on his journey home, he had a vision of St. Bartholomew, patron saint of doctors and healers. And St. Bartholomew said, I have chosen a spot in a suburb of London at Smithfield, Smoothfield, where in my name thou shalt form a church. We can see this vision happening here in a panel on this choir screen. We'll come back to the choir screen a bit later on. Rahere then went to found not only a hospital, St. Bartholomew's, a.k.a. Bart's, next door, but here's a 19th century illustration of the Rahere wing in the hospital. But he also founded an Augustinian priory. A priory is like a junior abbey. A smaller monastic order that sits underneath a nearby larger abbey. Rahere was the prior and he was said to delight patients and local people. He passed on the street by performing circus acts. Kind of like Patch Adams. In 1133, when the church was consecrated, Henry I issued a royal charter promising to defend St. Bartholomew's church as he would risk his own crown. But another Henry would later destroy it. See, this is only half a church. I'll talk more about that in a short while. The priory lasted until 1539, and when Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries meant big changes here. If you're new to my channel, welcome, I'm delighted to have you here and I hope that you choose to like comment, subscribe and all that stuff. If you're interested in seeing even more videos, head on over to my Patreon channel, there I release at least one extra video tour every month. Last month, it was an extra spooky tour of objects that defy categorization in the Victoria and Albert Museum. And this month, for November, it's a tarot card history tour of some of the most important sites associated with the Rider-Smith Waite tarot deck throughout Kent and Sussex. Head on over to Patreon to learn more. I'm running a discount code right now, too. Remember, I also guide in-person tours, and you can even book yourself a fully customized online video tour. It's a perfect Christmas gift. If the church looks familiar to you, you've probably seen one of the many, many films and television programs that have been filmed here. The church is very welcoming to filming, and as it is the only Norman-era church in central London, it can stand in for a great many ancient locations. Elizabeth the Golden Age, or the BBC's Richard II, but it's also famous for being the site of the fourth wedding in Four Weddings and a Funeral. By the way, young people do not know that movie reference, which I have learned the hard way, but they do know Avengers Age of Ultron and the Transformers, and those both filmed here as well. Now, I think it's a good time to tell you about Saint Bartholomew, as we gaze upon this gold statue of the saint who was skinned alive. Saint Bartholomew was one of Christ's twelve disciples, and after the crucifixion, he travelled to Armenia and preached Christianity. Some accounts say he converted a king called Polymius to the faith, which angered local pagan priests and rulers, but no such king seems to exist in the historical record. No matter what, he angered the wrong people, and he was executed. And the popular belief is that he was skinned alive. Now Saint Bartholomew is a particular favourite saint of mine, mostly because of his attribute. And remember, a saint's attribute is the thing that they hold. It's sometimes a symbol of something that happened in their life, but very often it's a symbol of their execution and or torture. So Saint Bartholomew often holds a knife, like he is here in this Rubens painting because he was flayed alive. However, sometimes, and we can see this in Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel, And also in this statue by Damien Hirst, he holds his own skin, sometimes even wearing it as a shawl. He's recognized as the patron saint of tanners, leather workers and butchers, and that seems so on the nose. Now, our Saint Bartholomew here is of course a bit different. This statue is called Exquisite Pain, made for the church by controversial enfant terrible of the noughties, Damien Hirst, in 2006. It was originally a long-term loan, I think, but I think it's here permanently. Look here at what he's holding. These are key. He has a scalpel in one hand representing the medical history of St. Bartholomew's Hospital next door and scissors in the other hand representing the cloth fair that used to occur outside and we'll speak about that. Here's a quote here from Damien Hirst by the way. I like the confusion you get between science and religion. That's where belief lies and art as well. Now remember, Rahir is said to have had a vision, well he had malaria, of St. Bartholomew and we're going to come back to talk more about Rahir a little bit later on when we visit his tomb. He's believed by many to haunt the church, looking for his missing foot. Now this here is the font where satirical painter William Hogarth was baptized. He is in so many of my videos about the 18th century. I literally cannot talk about the 18th century without bringing up Hogarth. He was born in Bartholomew Close just behind the church and he was baptized here on the 10th of November 1697. He also painted this majestic staircase at Barts Hospital which you can now see as a part of the hospital museum and it's also in my surgery history video too by the way. The font itself dates to 1405. It's thought to be one of only two pre-reformation fonts in London. The other is at St. Dunstan's in Stepney. A lot of them were smashed and destroyed by iconoclasts in the 17th century because they viewed them as being too superstitious I'm too religious, I'm too connected to Catholicism, but this one managed to survive. We can see the memorial to Elizabeth Freshwater dating to 1617. She's kneeling beside her prayer desk showing that she was a devoted and pious woman. She had married twice to two different London lawyers and died so young at age 26. Now this is actually one of the earliest examples of Baroque sculpture in England. It's a classic kneeler monument that will become so popular in the next centuries and it shows us the style just before true English Baroque takes over in the mid to late 17th century. This is the tomb of Sir Walter Mildmay. It's quite grand for St Bartholomew's Church actually, which doesn't have that many over-the-top graves or monuments. I would also expect to see a tomb effigy right here, but there isn't one. I find that a little bit unusual. Mildmay was a Tudor politician who somehow managed to survive the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary and Elizabeth I, which was a very difficult thing for anyone of status or title to do. This dramatic altar tomb was originally made for his wife, Mary Walsingham, the sister to Sir Francis Walsingham, Secretary of State to Queen Elizabeth I. Mary died in 1576 and Walter joined her 13 years later in 1589. This painting is called Golgotha by British artist Richard Harrison. It's hung here since 2003 and it's really raw, almost disturbing. Of course, we don't normally see Jesus like this with his genitals exposed and also in this stark red, white and black color palette and the deep impasto on the paint. Now here's one of my favorites. This is the memorial to Edward Cook, who was interred here in 1652. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, this monument was known throughout London for its strange ability to weep. Now, we tend to think of the past and Christian churches as being very conservative and serious time. But remember that medieval and even into the early modern period, Christianity was imbued with a lot of magic. Of course, the Puritans did their best to get rid of that. But people genuinely believed in the kinds of things that we often mistake as pagan influences in the church were actually just... Part of the church. So people really believed that this was indeed a crying statue. However, I hate to say it, but we now know that the thick stone walls of the church here in humid old London were keeping the air of the church very moist and the porous marble of the monument was absorbing it which would sometimes condensate and turn into tears. This radiator was installed in the Victorian era and sadly the tears stopped, but At some point after its construction and the tears the text on the plaque says In sluice your briny floods what can ye keep your eyes from tears and see the marble weep burst out for shame or if ye find no vent for tears yet stay and see the stones relent Interestingly, this memorial to James Rivers, a Puritan MP, though very similar, was never reported to weep. No magic here. I mean, with him being a Puritan, that's very fitting. Here we have a very small holy icon chapel. And this wooden door is actually the door that would lead up to Prior Bolton's lodgings. We'll talk about those shortly. They're upstairs in the Triforium. On the floor here, you can actually see some of the only original medieval tiles that remain in the church. You can see there are a lot smaller squares than the later ones added. That's fascinating to see it. And here, the original medieval wall tiles. There's a helpful sign to help us find that. Well and also here, this little wall right behind the icon on the desk, looks like it's been part of this church forever. Nope, it was actually added by one of the many filming crews that were here. I'm talking about this box here. It was added by one of the many film crews and the church went, oh you know what, that actually looks pretty darn good, and they decided to keep it. But it's just a bit of wood added and painted. I know that little piece from Jack from Living London History. He's great. He's over on TikTok TikTok and Instagram, you should give him a follow. Now we're here at the Lady Chapel and I have a few things to tell you here. First of all, this is the site of the only confirmed vision of the Virgin Mary here in London. The 12th century Book of the Foundation records the early history of the Priory and it related the miracle that occurred here when the Virgin Mary appeared to Canon Hubert, one of the Austin Canons in residence. She wasn't just here for a nice visit though, she is said to have berated the Canons for their laxity in devotion to her and her son. They didn't need to be told twice so they built this large chapel at the back of the church. By the way this painting here it dates to 1999. It's oil on canvas and was commissioned from artist Alfredo Roldan and the description says that it evokes Modigliani and one could certainly see that in Mary's face. You can see the M for Mary down here on the altar. But when we're in this chapel, we need to bring up Henry VIII again. Of course we do. Now he didn't order the destruction or the full closure of this church and its priory. He did order for the priory to be shut down, but he wanted to punish the church and dress them down a little bit for their recalcitrance, their reluctance to go with his plans. Henry VIII ordered that the church be sold, and it was purchased by royal courtier Richard Lord Rich. He ordered the destruction of the nave. You can see it all open here. It was a huge loss because it's the main part of the church, where people worship, sit, and listen to services. Richard Rich was, as his name suggests, driven by money, and so he wanted to remove the nave in order to build Tudor houses and collect rent. And then there was a very brief time as a Dominican priory under Mary the First The priory survived in the form of a parish church, and it is a parish church to this day. So yes, as I mentioned, and as you might have noticed, the church doesn't have a nave. Look at this entry arch. It was built a bit later than the Romanesque body of the church. You can see that it has a gothic arch here. This is the only part that remains of the original great facade of the church, the main entrance before the destruction of the nave. You can see a floor plan of what it looked like at the time of the reformation here. So all of this was originally the nave. So the church's entry porch was pushed back here to the entrance of the court. Choir in the narthex, the little hallway that runs between the choir and the door. The current standing church contains only the eastern portion of what was originally the Norman Priory. All that remains is the choir, transepts, and the apse. So this path I'm walking from the porch to the church door used to be roughly the south aisle of the nave. It feels so strange. We would have been inside the church. Now, Back inside here to the Lady Chapel. To add insult to injury, the Lady Chapel was separated from the remaining parish church and used and rented out for commercial premises. In 1725, American founding father and polymath Benjamin Franklin worked here in a printing workshop. There were lots of other commercial businesses here when Ben Franklin was here too. Businessmen began to live away from their work. They didn't necessarily live in the building that they had their shop or office in. And so, around here, a pub opened up using the original guesthouse of the Priory. These cloisters were used for other businesses. And the old chapter house, which is sadly gone, became a Methodist chapel. The church was almost swallowed up. by the other businesses and buildings around it. The Lady Chapel was bought back for the church in 1883 but by 1891 it was in horrible condition and quote liable to fall at any time. You can see it being demolished here in 1894 with just the medieval buttresses remaining. The present chapel was designed and built by Aston Webb in 1897 and I'll tell you a little bit more about him shortly. So Bartholomew has their Lady Chapel once again. You can see here the back of the Lady Chapel. When I used to guide school groups, which was many years ago, I used to ask kids what they thought this lower level or surrounding the church was. And of course, they would inevitably say a moat. Kids love moats, but it's not. This is just street level from a thousand years ago. Today being used as a lovely little allotment garden. Now as I walk down the choir aisle here, I want to draw your attention to the architectural style. Most of the building is done in Romanesque architecture. It's a style of medieval architecture defined by its attempt to harken back to the greatness of Roman buildings of yore using ancient Roman engineering elements. So that's these heavy stone walls, the thick pillars and these rounded archways that you can see here. In the choir, up here in the next level, the Triforium, and very up at the top called the Clerestory, they're all rounded. Sometimes this style of architecture is called Norman architecture because it replaces the Anglo-Saxon architecture when William the Conqueror comes here in 1066. Anglo-Saxon buildings were like a lot squatter, a lot of them made of wood. They couldn't support huge stone roofs. They just didn't have the engineering techniques. But Romanesque later morphs into Gothic design in the 12th and 13th centuries. You can see all of this barrel vaulting. This is all typical of Romanesque, aka. Norman architecture. But after Rahir died in 1143, the construction of the church was taken over by Prior Thomas, and he did all of this Romanesque architecture we've been talking about. Prior Thomas added great arches in order to support the central tower and transepts that go to the north and the south. The nave then made the whole church into the shape of a cross. After his death, construction was halted for decades and didn't pick up again until the 1220s. When it did, a whole new style of architecture was popular, gothic. In 1220, construction began anew and you can see the pointed arches and more delicate decoration. Now this would have been most noticeable in the now destroyed nave. But we can see some of these gothic arches here. The Priory wasn't very wealthy and they couldn't afford to knock down Prior Thomas's architecture and to replace it with the new style, so they just had a blend of both, which you can still see side by side. A pointed gothic arch on the right and a rounded romanesque arch on the left. Again, look at this massive pillar here to support the heavy roof. Right in the narthex, and remember, this would have led to the massive nave right in front, we can see a surviving Gothic column. Look how skinny this one is in comparison to the huge Romanesque column next to it. The nave, done in the new style of the 1230s, would have featured many columns like this one, rather than the big thick boys. Now, let's just duck into the cloister here. This is the perfect place to talk about what it was like for the monks who actually lived here for the 400 years between the construction and the dissolution of the monasteries. A cloister is a quadrangle made of arched passages that surround a central garden called a garth. Monks and nuns used cloisters as a place for walking or even working on illuminated manuscripts. Here, they were physically isolated from the outside world and secular workers. Only one pane, that's the name for a section of a cloister, survives after the destruction of the monasteries. But it is still used today. You can even order a bottle of wine, a gin and tonic, or an Negroni here. Very civilized. Now, with the life of a monk living here at St. Bartholomew the Great, Prior Rahier, Prior Thomas, or any of the many priors who came later. It was a strict life. You prayed eight times a day. You only got your sleep in kind of little chunks. And you spent a lot of time working, illustrating manuscripts, cleaning, brewing beer. Maybe you were working in the hospital. And remember, when Rahier had his vision and St. Bartholomew commanded him, or told him to go and build a church in London. He also said that it should be for healing the sick. And so St. Bartholomew the Great Hospital is just right next to us. And it was founded at the same time as this church. Together, just three years ago, they celebrated their 900th anniversary. So that was also something a monk could be spending their time doing, caring for the sick. Think about the word hospital, hospice, hotel, and hostel. Very ill people often came on pilgrimage to big major churches near monasteries. Those people wanted to die near an important saint and the monks and nuns set up places to care for them, hospitals. Those later become the word used for a hotel or a dormitory and we still use it today in the word hospitality. We know at some point in the church's history that there was a tower as part of the design. The Priory's seal has a church with a spire. Soon after 1400, the spire, which had been damaged by lightning in the 13th century, and then by an earthquake in the 14th century, it was demolished, and the church had no tower for a few hundred years before it was replaced in 1642 with this very basic brick one. Remember, that was at the time of the Puritans, so things got a little bit more subdued in in architecture. Here you can see the old graveyard and unlike the back of the church, which remember is below street level, here it's above street level. Since the 16th century, this was used as a graveyard and over time, so many bodies were buried here that the wall had to be raised to make more room. Now, as of 1852, you were no longer allowed to have any burials in the churchyards of Central London and so what happens to a lot of the churchyards is that they become these little pocket parks. The tombstones like these get moved around to the side of the surrounding buildings. Now, this is a really interesting grave. This is sometimes referred to as a Pip's grave and they're actually more associated with Sussex and Kent than with London or the rest of the country. No, this isn't a way to prevent body snatchers. It's just a style of decoration. The reason they're called Pip's graves is because in Great Expectations, he describes his siblings being lined up in front of the churchyard in graves like these ones. Dickens describes them as stone lozenges lined up neatly in a row. And so I've also heard these called lozenge graves. I've never been able to find out too much about them. So if you know anything please let me know. Why are they so unique to this part of the country? And was there any other symbolism? You can see the back of this Tudor gatehouse here and also I should point out there's A few different memorials around to Sir William Wallace, who was executed somewhere nearby here at Smithfield. Smithfield used to be known as a smooth field, a place to trade horses and slaughter animals. Of course, to this day, it's still a place for slaughtering. Well, not slaughtering. A place for butchering animals as Smithfield Market is still here. Not for very much longer but. So, let's look back at the 13th century Gothic Archway and its Tudor Gatehouse. The gatehouse dates to 1595 and it was kind of hastily added to the top of the Arch. I love that. Look at the way that it cuts the top of it off. It is hilarious and there is a statue of Saint Bartholomew there holding his attribute of a knife which was used to flay his skin. The gatehouse facade was actually covered in the 18th century to make it match the other buildings but the Tudor facade was thought to be too unfashionable at the time if you can believe it. And it wasn't actually rediscovered until 1916 when Zeppelin bomb damage revealed the fact that there was a Tudor structure here. There's also Zeppelin damage on the wall of the hospital just behind me here. It's the only remaining place in London where you can actually see damage from the Zeppelins. By the way, it's called St. Bartholomew the Great to distinguish it from St. Bartholomew the Less, a church built within the walls of St. Bart's Hospital. Its history, too, dates back to a chapel in the hospital founded by Rahier, but it's in a 19th century building that does have some 15th century elements. Now even though I'm fascinated by this Kentish flintstone on the outside of the church, it's actually a Victorian addition. It's not part of the original church which was constructed with Caen stone and later with Kentish ragstone and that's because in 1830 you can see here a serious fire destroyed a lot of the church. A restoration process began in 1863 and then later In 1884, the architect Aston Webb took over and he designed the west porch that we enter the church through today, raising the money from public appeal. The really nice thing about Webb is that unlike many architects of his day, he was committed to saving every bit of medieval architecture that he could. So we do see a lot of his restoration work, but as much of the medieval fabric and envelope Construction of the building remains as was possible. Here are some drawings of the apse before and after Webb's painstaking work. Wow. Back outside at the gatehouse, there is a memorial to Aston Webb and his brother Edward and their four decades of work on this church. The gatehouse was restored in 1932 in their honour. The plaque is decorated with the family crest, featuring a spider, a web, and the Webb family motto, Weave Well. Now, let's come back to Rahier, or Rah-hear. I've heard both pronunciations. He died in 1144 and was buried here in a simple tomb. However, over the centuries, he became a bit of a folk saint. That is he wasn't officially canonized but local people really loved to worship him and venerate him. So a few centuries later his effigy and tomb were rebuilt in a very flamboyant gothic style in 1405. You can see Rahere lying atop his tomb his hands pressed together while the figures on either side read open bibles. The pages there read from Isaiah 51 God will comfort all her waste places, and he will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the Lord. The passage refers to the transformation of a desert into a garden. This refers to Rahir's construction of the Priory and Hospital in what was considered the wasteland of Smithfield. You can also see an angel holding a shield just above his feet. Look here where you can see the stones all jumbled up. In June 1868, workers removed the stones here to check that Rahir's head was pointing westwards, which is traditional for priests. Thankfully he was, and they also discovered that he was fully dressed in his robes. But it is said that a worker stole Rahir's foot and sandal. Apparently the sandal was recovered, but no one ever found Rahir's foot. His ghost apparently rises once a year on the 1st of July at 7 a.m. as he hobbles around looking for his missing appendage. Now regular viewers will know that I don't personally believe in ghosts and I feel nothing but a lovely feeling but a lovely feeling in this church. Okay I'm gonna leave that in. But a lot of people do claim that this is the most haunted church in London. Look at Rahir's tomb, all sandbagged during the Blitz to protect it. And just look up here at the level of the Triforium and just below the Clear Story, and you can see this. It's called an oriel window. That is, a type of bay window that projects outward from a main wall. It was made for the prior of the church, William Bolton, after he took the role in 1505. This was just before Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries, so the church was still intact, remember, and Bolton ordered that his new lodgings and a private chapel be constructed up there. Remember, we saw the door earlier. This gave Bolton the opportunity to look straight down here at the altar, Rahir's tomb, but also here in the choir, which is where the monks would be praying. In the center of the window there is a rebus, that is a pictorial pun. I'll point it out for you here. It's right in the center, that little barrel. These are very common in late medieval churches and this one is a barrel, aka a tun, pierced with a crossbow bolt. And there you get Bolton. Bolton. This is the banner for the Butcher's Company, and the massive Smithfield Market is just outside. There's a record of it being here since the Doomsday Book of 1086, and there's evidence for an organization of butchers as far back as 975. They incorporated in 1605 with this banner, and throughout history they've had several halls. Including some right outside in Bartholomew Close which were bombed in 1915 and then again in 1942. The current hall dates to 1960 but as a result the Butcher's Hall, the church and the hospital have stood side by side for many years and they have links that continue to this day. The Butcher's Company's annual church service takes place here every year. But they're not the only livery company to be associated with the church. The worshipful company of Hackney carriage drivers, aka taxi drivers, also considers St. Bartholomew's Church to be its spiritual home. This piece of art in the window here is called Colloquy by Sophie Arquette. It's meant to commemorate the extensive medieval history of the church and its glass and it was commissioned under as part of the 1123 Contemporary Art Exhibition that was curated here to commemorate the church's landmark 900th anniversary. There's a lot of really interesting pieces. I was here at the time and there were even more and I'm glad that they've been able to keep a few. Standing here at the altar, I mean, it's just unbelievable, looking down the choir to the wall that was added much later than the rest of the church. Remember, we would have been looking out over a huge nave standing here. Such a fascinating and beautiful part of London's history here. Just look at this great Romanesque arch and the wooden ceiling that was replaced in in the 1930s. This is the memorial to Sir Robert Chamberlain. He was lost at sea in 1615 while he was on the pilgrimage to the Holy Land and you can see him kneeling under a canopy looking up at the rays of the sun with angels on either side of him. In Latin it reads, Heaven covers him who has no sepulchre. Look up here on the wall this alabaster monument to Percival and Agnes Smallpace. It's been darkened by smoke, as it's been here for 500 years. Look at their busts. Percival has a forked beard and a broad covering his neck. And Agnes, who died 30 years later in 1588, she has a more elderly face, with her skin pulled taut around her mouth, and look, she has a more elaborate ruff that had come into fashion in the meantime. All around them, the sides are carved with fruit and flowers, an hourglass, and even some gravedigger's tools on her side, and a skull and bound book on his. Beneath them, we can see a black Belgian marble slab, scrolled with images of the couple after death, lying naked side by side as corpses on a rush mat. A classic memento mori, a transi monument to remind us that we soon will die. It reads, And we can't forget about the two markers on the floor. Here is my personal favorite, back over near Rahir. Jonathan Thornell, as you can see, was the hair merchant for this parish. That means he would have supplied the hair to make the fashionable wigs of the Georgian period. Remember, you needed to be very rich to be buried inside the church, so this was certainly a lucrative trade. Now let's approach these screens here in the choir. The choir screen is Victorian. That's the wooden part. You can see this kind of Gothic revival. But the paintings in the choir screen date from the 1930s. You can really see that style. And most of them are scenes from the life of Rahere or King Henry I. Over here, we saw this one earlier, Rahere having his vision of St. Bartholomew the Great, and then coming back here to London and having King Henry I grant him the ability to build the church in the first place. Then, over on this side, the construction of the church and the Bishop of London, he becomes important in the story I'll tell you very shortly, and then over here, in a very similar image to Rahere kneeling before St. Bartholomew, There's an image of Rahere. Rahere kneeling before King Henry I. One other topic we need to talk about is the name of the street just outside the church, Cloth Bear. The Cloth Fair was also founded by Rahir, with Henry I's blessing, originally taking place on St. Bartholomew's Day, the 24th of August, every year. Starting in 1133, and then for hundreds of years, it was the country's top cloth market, but it eventually evolved into a two-week-long carnival, famous for its entertainment and its debauchery. Even after Henry VIII closed the Priory, the fair continued, and over time, it became more of an entertainment destination. The Museum of London calls it a, quote, carnival of pleasure and chaos. Royals were even known to attend and mix with the crowds for a bit of hedonism. Here, on this design for a fan, you can see a peep show, toy sellers, and an ups and downs. That is, an early Ferris wheel. In addition to family-friendly fun, there was also freak shows, curiosities, gambling, pickpocketing, and sex work. A 1703 article in the Observatore called it a strange medley of lewdness, and that attendees, quote, had the devil's livery on their backs. This watercolour from 1813 shows fairgoers rushing around and looking a bit worse for wear. This was around the time that it really started to decline. Eventually, Londoners just wanted to be rid of it, and the once-great Bartholomew Fair took place for the last time in 1855. Now I mentioned the Bishop of London back there on the screens and I want to just tell you a little bit more about a famous incident that occurred as a result between a power struggle between the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London and that was the visit here if you can call it that or a brawl in the year 1250 between Archbishop of Canterbury Boniface and some of the monks in Contemporary medieval chronicler Matthew Paris wrote about how Boniface was aggressively asserting his right to inspect the local clergy and collect tithes. The canons originally welcomed him politely, but then they also tried to politely tell him like, hey we actually answer to the Bishop of London, not to you, and we don't appreciate all of your meddling and trying to take money from us. Apparently that sent Boniface into a rage, and he physically attacked the elderly sub-prior, punching him in the face and the chest. And as other men rushed in to help, the archbishop's vestments were torn open, and underneath they could see he was wearing chain mail, armor. He had come prepared to fight. Then he excommunicated the canons on the spot. Both sides appealed directly to the Vatican and Boniface soon fled England to Rome to stand before Pope Innocent IV who did eventually rule in his favor but also told him like hey back off a little bit and you have to respect the priory and you have to respect the Bishop of London and his rule over this priory. It's a properly cheeky story. Again look there big huge rounded Romanesque arch Pointy gothic arch. This is The Risen Christ by Josefina de Vasconcelos. Maiden Terracotta. She lived to be, she was born in 1904, but she lived to be over 100 years old. After having a sculpture entitled Virgin and Child donated to St. Paul's in 1957, she became the first woman to have a sculpture in the cathedral. And then this statue here. And right next to it, we can see this 12th or 13th century stone coffin. You know, I think this might be the one that was excavated from beneath the cloister in 1912. There's some speculation that that coffin, which was described at the time as at some time rifled, that means. opened up and messed around with, was intended to be Prior Thomas's tomb. Remember, he was the one that oversaw a lot of the construction in the 12th century. Well, that's the end of our tour. I hope you've enjoyed exploring this amazing church as much as I've enjoyed spending time here today, and I'll see you the next time I'm at the museum.