COMERFORD WAY: Patrick Comerford’s online journal on Anglicanism, theology, spirituality, history, architecture, travel, poetry, beach walks ... and more
Saint Thomas’ Church, once part of Saint Thomas’ Hospital … its history is intimately linked with Southwark Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Patrick Comerford
We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and this week began with the Last Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XXI, 29 October 2023). The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today (31 October 2023) remembers Martin Luther, Reformer, 1546.
Before today begins, I am taking some time for prayer and reflection early this morning.
Throughout this week, with the exceptions of All Saints’ Day (Wednesday 1 November) and All Souls’ Day (Thursday 2 November), my reflections each morning this week follow this pattern:
1, A reflection on a church or cathedral in Southwark;
2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.
A 19th century drawing of Saint Thomas Church, Southwark
Saint Thomas’ Church, Southwark:
Saint Thomas Church, Southwark, which now houses the Amazing Grace bar and restaurant is a stone’s throw away from London Bridge station, nestled right in between the Shard and Borough Market in Southwark. The former church dates back to a church that was part of the original Saint Thomas’ Hospital.
An early hospital for the sick and the poor was founded within the precincts of the Priory of Saint Mary Overy, now Southwark Cathedral, around the time the priory was founded in 1106. It was maintained by a small community of brothers and sisters following a monastic rule. Later, it was said the hospital was founded as an adjunct of the priory by Saint Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury in 1162-1170. It was named in his honour after he was canonised in 1173.
The hospital building was severely damaged during a disastrous fire in the Priory in 1213. Amicius, who was Archdeacon of Surrey in 1189-1215, was the warden of the hospital at the time. The canons immediately erected a temporary building for the poor at a little distance from the priory, and while the priory was being rebuilt they held their own services in the chapel of the new hospital.
Peter des Roches, Bishop of Winchester, added to the endowment of the hospital, and built a new house, moving the hospital from ‘Trenet Lane’ in 1215 to Saint Thomas Street in Southwark, where it was said the water was purer and the air more healthy. The new hospital, also dedicated to Saint Thomas the Martyr, was built by 1215.
The mediaeval pilgrimage to Canterbury honouring Saint Thomas Becket began in Southwark at London Bridge and coaching inns such as the George. It is celebrated in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.
The hospital provided shelter and treatment for the poor, sick, and homeless. When Bishop Asserio visited the hospital in 1323, he admonished the master of the hospital for the irregular lives led by the brethren and sisters. They were ordered to follow the rule of Saint Augustine, and the master was to eat with the brethren.
Like many English religious houses, the hospital, suffered at the time of the Black Death. Walter de Marlowe, brother of the hospital, obtained a dispensation from illegitimacy from Pope Clement VI in 1349 so he could be appointed the prior or master. The petition said mortality among the brethren had left no one so fit to rule as Walter.
Richard Whittington, four-times Lord Mayor of London and known in folklore for the tales of Dick Whittington and his cat, endowed a lying-in ward for unmarried mothers in the 15th century.
The hospital or conventual precinct had become a parish by 1496.
A letter from Sir Thomas More dated 16 March 1528 to Cardinal Thomas Wolsey (1473-1530), Bishop of Winchester and Archbishop of York, mentions the hospital of Southwark, then in the Diocese of Winchester, anddescribes the master, Richard Richardson, as old, blind and feeble.
Matters did not improve with a new Master. Richard Layton, the Dean of York and monastic visitor, wrote to Thomas Cromwell on 26 September 1535, saying he was going to visit ‘the bawdy hospital of St Thomas.’ Although Layton’s choice of language was usually coarse and untrustworthy, his reference to the hospital seems justified, and the master Richard Mabbot was both lax in discipline and bad in personal character.
In a complaint to Sir Richard Longe and Robert Acton in July 1536, nine parishioners of Saint Thomas’ accused the master and brethren of the hospital of maintaining improper characters within the precincts, refusing charitable relief to the sick and even to those willing to pay. As examples, they said a poor pregnant woman was denied a place and died at the church door, while rich men’s servants were readily taken in. They children were refused baptism until the master was paid 3s 4d.
The master was accused of quarrelling with the brethren and sisters, even in the quire of the church. Referring to the services in the church, they complained that the usual three or four sermons in Lent had not been preached, there were seldom two masses a day, and at times they had been forced to seek a priest in the Borough to sing High Mass.
They said the master had closed the free school that was part of the hospital, although was £4 a year was provided for its maintenance. They accused him of ‘filthy and indecent’ conduct, said he openly kept a concubine, that he behaved as ‘lord, king and bishop’ within his precincts, and that he sold the church plate, pretending it was stolen.
Despite this, the hospital was the place where one of the first printed English Bibles was printed in 1537. This is commemorated by a plaque on the surviving wing in Borough High Street.
In all, 24 priors, masters, wardens or rectors served from the time of Archdeacon Amicius in 1213-1215 to Thomas Thurleby, who was appointed in 1539 and surrendered in 1540. The monastery was dissolved in 1539 during the Tudor Reformation, the hospital was surrendered by the Master in 1540, and it was closed.
However, the City of London was granted the site with a charter from Edward VI, and the hospital reopened in 1551. The cult of Saint Thomas Becket had been abolished in 1538 during the Reformation, and the hospital was rededicated to Saint Thomas the Apostle. It has remained open ever since.
The present church was built by the Hospital Governors and desiged by Thomas Cartwright in 1703. It had a garret that was called the Herb Garret in 1821. In the same year, the Old Operating Theatre was built in the Herb Garret.
Saint Thomas’ was declared redundant as a church in 1899 and the parish merged with Saint Saviour’s, which became Southwark Cathedral in 1905.
For a time, Saint Thomas’ was used as the Chapter House for Southwark Cathedral. In the late 20th century it was used as an office by the Chapter Group, an insurance company.
When the Jubilee Line extension was built in the mid-1990s, the church was damaged and was declared ‘at risk’ on the English Heritage register. It was renovated in 2008-2009 and it became the headquarters of the Cathedral Group, a property development company, in 2010. It opened in October 2021 as Amazing Grace, a bar, restaurant and music venue.
The renovation of the old church includes the addition of striking lightning, a green tiled bar and 3D visuals. The work included inserting a higher level mezzanine over the galleries, a partially raised floor in the church and subdividing the basement for restrooms and the restaurant kitchen.
Many of the original features in the building have been restored, including four tall, stained glass windows with glazing bars and red rubbed brick dressings; the exterior brown-red brick with stone dressings; the interior panelled galleries with oak mouldings; and the wooden reredos or altarpiece which features fluted columns with Corinthian capitals and a pediment topped with a crown motif flanked by a unicorn and lion.
As for Saint Thomas’ Hospital, it moved from Southwark in 1862, when the site was compulsorily purchased to make way for building Charing Cross railway viaduct from London Bridge Station. The hospital was temporarily housed at Royal Surrey Gardens in Newington (Walworth) until new buildings were completed near Lambeth Palace in 1871.
Today, Saint Thomas’ Hospital is a large NHS teaching hospital in Central London, and administratively it is part of the Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, together with Guy’s Hospital, King’s College Hospital, University Hospital Lewisham and Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
The Operating Theatre of Saint Thomas’s Hospital was operational from 1822 to 1862. It was uncovered in the church attic by Raymond Russell in 1957. It is said to be the oldest surviving operating theatre in England, and it is now a museum that is accessed by a narrow tower staircase.
The plaque in Southwark commemorating Saint Thomas Church and an early English Bible (Photograph: Simon Harriyott, CC by 2.0/Wikipedia)
Luke 13: 18-21 (NRSVA):
18 He said therefore, ‘What is the kingdom of God like? And to what should I compare it? 19 It is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in the garden; it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.’
20 And again he said, ‘To what should I compare the kingdom of God? 21 It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.’
Saint Thomas’ Church stands between the Shard and Southwark Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Today’s Prayers: USPG Prayer Diary:
The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is inspired by a Reflection – ‘He restores my soul’ – by Revd Dale R Hanson, introduced on Sunday.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (31 October 2023) invites us to pray in these words:
We pray Lord for any tough decisions we are currently facing. We offer these up to you Oh Lord, grant us your wisdom.
The Collect:
Blessed Lord,
who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning:
help us so to hear them,
to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them
that, through patience, and the comfort of your holy word,
we may embrace and for ever hold fast
the hope of everlasting life,
which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
God of all grace,
your Son Jesus Christ fed the hungry
with the bread of his life
and the word of his kingdom:
renew your people with your heavenly grace,
and in all our weakness
sustain us by your true and living bread;
who is alive and reigns, now and for ever.
The ‘Quarterboys’ hammer out the quarter hour on a pair of 19th century bells on Carfax Tower in the centre of Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Patrick Comerford
The clocks went back at the weekend, giving us all an extra hour in bed on Sunday morning. But it means the evenings are going to close in earlier for the next few months.
On Saturday evening on this blog, as I prepared for the annual change of time, I offered a ‘virtual tour’ of a variety of a dozen interesting and curious clocks on churches, colleges, synagogues and towers in half a dozen countries, from Valentia and Villierstown to Valletta, Venice and Vienna.
One curious clock tower I could have chosen to look at is Carfax Tower in the centre of Oxford, with its ‘Quarterboys’ who hammer out the quarter hour on a pair of late 19th century bells.
Carfax Tower at the junction of Saint Aldate’s, Cornmarket, Queen Street and High Street in Oxford, is all that remains of the 12th century Saint Martin’s Church. The tower, also known as Saint Martin’s Tower is a prominent landmark, and Carfax is regarded as the centre of Oxford.
The name ‘Carfax’ derives from the Latin quadrifurcus through the French carrefour, meaning ‘crossroads’. Although the name Carfax is often used to refer to the tower, it is properly the name of the crossroads, and the tower is Carfax Tower, or, more accurately, Saint Martin’s Tower.
The tower is all that remains of the Church of Saint Martin of Tours. The church was the official City Church of Oxford and the Mayor and civic officials were expected to worship there, from ca 1122 until 1896, when the church was demolished.
At least 20 Mayors of Oxford were buried in the church, dating back to Richard Carey in 1349. It is possible that council meetings were held in the church before Oxford had a dedicated city hall.
The Swindlestock Tavern stood on the south-west corner of Carfax in 1355. On 10 February (Saint Scholastica’s Day) a fight broke out between two students and the tavern keeper after the students accused him of selling poor quality beer.
The fight turned into two days of violence between ‘town and gown,’ known as the Saint Scholastica Day Riots, and resulted in about 30 deaths. The legal wrangling that ensued settled affairs in favour of the university, and for 470 years the mayor and councillors had to walk bare-headed through the streets on Saint Scholastica's Day to pay a fine of one penny for every student killed – a total of 5s 3d.
The Mayor and Corporation appointed the Rector and four City Lecturers. Sermons were given by each of four city lecturers in turn, and it was customary for the Rector to be one of the lecturers.
Saint Martin’s was demolished in 1820 after the building had become unstable, but the 13th century west tower was spared, a new church was built, and it opened in June 1822. The new Gothic Revival church had large traceried windows and a large clock facing onto Carfax. Inside, the church had a Corporation Pew for civic officials and, unusually, a Ladies’ Corporation Pew.
Eventually, the second Saint Martin’s Church was pulled down in 1896 when the roads were widened to improve traffic flow. But this remains one of the busiest junction in Oxford and it is also a popular gathering place for tourists and tour groups.
Carfax Tower is all that survives of Saint Martin’s Church, Oxford, after it was pulled down in 1896 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
When Saint Martin’s Church was demolished, the tower was spared. The civic church was moved to All Saints’ Church on High Street, and it remained the City Church for 75 years. Stone from the church was bought by Windlesham House School and used to build the school chapel. The Mayor’s seat was moved to the new church, then to the Town Hall.
When All Saints’ Church became the library of Lincoln College, Saint Michael at the North Gate, Cornmarket, became the City Church. The 14th-century font from Saint Martin’s Church is also in Saint Michael’s Church.
A solitary gravestone behind Carfax Tower commemorates William Butler, a former Mayor of Oxford, who died in 1865. He was buried in Saint Martin’s churchyard with his wife Elizabeth and their two infant daughters. When Saint Martin’s Church was demolished, the grave was overlooked and remains in place.
The clock on the east side of Carfax is a copy of the original church clock, with mechanical figures called ‘quarterboys’ that hammer out the quarter hour on a pair of late 19th century bells, cast by John Taylor & Co of Loughborough in 1898. The clock’s current dial and surroundings were designed by Sir TG Jackson and installed in 1898. The clock mechanism was replaced in 1938-1939 with an electric one made by Gents’ of Leicester.
The tower also has a ring of six bells: five were cast by Richard Keene of Woodstock in 1676 and one was cast by Keene two years later. The bells are rung by the Oxford Society of Change Ringers to celebrate special occasions.
The tower is 23 metres (74 ft) high, and a climb to the top is rewarded with views out across Oxford. The City Council stipulates that no building in central Oxford may be built higher than the tower. However, this rule was broken when the Blavatnik School of Government was built.
Carfax plays a role in the disciplinary regulations of the University of Oxford comparable to the role of Saint Mary the Great in Cambridge. For example, the university requires some students to reside within six miles (9.7 km) of Carfax.
Carfax Tower is owned by Oxford City Council and is open year-round. The tower is open: October, 10:00 to 16:00; November to February, 10:00 to 15:00; March, 10:00 to 16:00; April to September, 10:00 to 17:00.
An image of Saint Martin of Tours survives at Carfax Tower, a reminder of Saint Martin’s Church in the centre of Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Saint George the Martyr Church in Southwark is one of the oldest churches in England dedicated to Saint George (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Patrick Comerford
We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and this week began with the Last Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XXI, 29 October 2023).
Later today, I have an appointment for a check-up and an injection for a recurring condition caused by depleted resereves of Vitam B12. But, before today begins, I am taking some time for prayer and reflection early this morning.
Throughout this week, with the exceptions of All Saints’ Day (Wednesday 1 November) and All Souls’ Day (Thursday 2 November), my reflections each morning this week follow this pattern:
1, A reflection on a church or cathedral in Southwark;
2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.
Inside Saint George the Martyr, looking east (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Saint George the Martyr, Borough High Street, Southwark:
Saint George the Martyr, around the corner from the USPG offices on Trinity Street, Southwark, is, historically, the parish church of Southwark, and many people also think of it as the parish church of ‘Little Dorrit.’
Thousands of years ago, the area that is now Southwark was mainly a series of gravel islands on the south bank of the Thames estuary. By the Roman period (43 CE to 410 CE), this area was effectively an extension of the Roman city of Londinium on the north bank of the Thames, and there is archaeological evidence of Roman habitation on the site of Saint George’s Church.
Saint George’s is in the Borough district of south London, and within the Borough of Southwark. It is a Grade II* listed building on Borough High Street, standing at a busy junction with Long Lane, Marshalsea Road and Tabard Street.
Saint George the Martyr is one of the oldest churches in England dedicated to Saint George. According to tradition, Saint George was a soldier in the Roman army and was killed on the orders of the Emperor Diocletian in 303 CE for refusing to persecute Christians and for confessing to his own Christianity.
The first confirmed reference to the church is in the Annals of Bermondsey Abbey, which claims that the church was given by Thomas Ardern and Thomas his son in 1122. The date follows the Battle of Acre. when the myth of Saint George was by English crusaders. Perhaps the dedication of the church is related to the involvement of the Arderns. in the Crusade.
The Ardern family gift included tithes from their manor at Horndon in Essex and ‘land of London Bridge returning five solidos.’ This means Saint George’s is the first and the oldest church with this dedication in the London area. This predates by more than 200 years King Edward III’s adoption of Saint George as the patron of the Order of Garter. The statement is also the first reference to London Bridge’s endowment lands.
When Henry V returned from the Battle of Agincourt in 1415 he was welcomed by the Aldermen of London on the steps of the church. The ‘Agincourt Song’ was commissioned as part of the celebration. In this battle, the standard with the red cross was used for the first time. In the same year Saint George became the patron saint of England.
The west tower dominates views along Borough High Street from both the north and south due to the curve in the street at this point, where it now meets Great Dover Street.
Originally, a much narrower road to the south of the church called Church Street led into Kent Street (now renamed Tabard Street), the historic route to Dover. Due to the volume of traffic, Great Dover Street was cut through parallel to Kent Street as part of the road network enhancements associated with the new Westminster Bridge and London Bridge route improvements in 1750.
Later, Tabard Street was extended through the churchyard on the north side, leaving the church standing alone on a traffic island.
Inside Saint George the Martyr, looking west (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
The present church is said to be the third on this site. The first church was a Norman church, and inscribed stones from this church were discovered in the second church.
This first church was replaced at the end of the 14th century by a a church with a three-storey bell tower. It may have been from there they Antonin de Wyngaerde surveyed at least part of his plan view of London, which includes a drawing of the church, but slightly out of position.
The church was heavily renovated around 1629, and this is the church that appears in William Hogarth’s engraving of Southwark Fayre (1733), a year before it was demolished.
A new church was designed in the Classical style by John Price in 1734-1736, partly funded by £6,000 from the Commission for Building Fifty New Churches. The major city livery companies and the Bridge House Estates also supported this rebuilding, and to this their arms decorate the nave ceiling and stained glass.
This third church on the site opened in 1736, and this is the church that stands today. The church is built of red brick with Portland stone, and has a copper and slate roof. There is a pediment at the west entrance, supported by Ionic columns. The tympanum displays reliefs of angels, and eight steps lead up to the entrance. The tower is built of Portland stone and has a large spire, with a ball and weathervane at the top.
Inside, there is a gallery on three sides of the nave, with a pair of fluted Ionic columns supporting the gallery at the west end. The original pews were replaced with box pews in 108, but most of these were shortened to their current height in 1855.
The ceiling includes a painting executed by Basil Champneys in 1897, with golden cherubs breaking through a clouded sky and with texts on a ribbon. It was restored in the 1950s after bomb damage during World War II.
The church has a tall pulpit on four Ionic columns, and an octagonal font of grey marble. The original mediaeval font is now in the chapel of the Old Palace School in Croydon, and the present font dates from the late 19th century.
The chancel has three bays. The east window was designed by the stained-glass artist Marion Grant and was installed in 1951 to replace an earlier window destroyed by bombing in 1942.
The central window has an image of the Ascension with Christ in majesty. At his feet are a number of pilgrims and saints, each holding a scallop shell, the symbol of pilgrimage. In the centre of the group is a pelican. It is said the pelican pierces her own breast to feed her young, and so the pelican symbolises the sacrifice of Christ and the salvation of humanity.
The left-hand window shows Saint George trampling down the decree of the Emperor Diocletian. The right-hand window depicts the Archangel Michael destroying the devil, who appears as a dragon.
A second depiction of Saint George the Martyr is found on the south wall. This war memorial window came from Hanwell Residential School when it closed in 1933, and is the only window in the church to survive bombing in World War II.
Saint George the Martyr has two reliefs of the Royal Arms. The main one, on the gallery at the west end, is the Stuart royal arms, below the organ gallery and is said to have come from the former church of Saint Michael Wood Street. The second royal arms are the arms of Hanover and hangs over the main entrance.
On a frieze around the top of the walls are the coats of arms of four London Livery companies – Skinners, Drapers, Fishmongers and Grocers – as well as the arms of the City of London and the Bridge House Mark.
The vestry accounts show that there has been an organ in Saint George’s since 1682. The current organ has some original pipes thought to be made by Father Smith. Although the organ has been modified over the centuries, its original elements make it an exceptional and rare instrument.
The crypt was cleared in 1899, when 1,484 coffins were removed and reburied at Brookwood Cemetery. The foundations of the south wall were strengthened in 1938 and helped save the building from collapse during World War II, when the damage from German bombings was considerable.
The red brick and Portland Stone structure has suffered from considerable damage due to subsidence , and the nave was declared unsafe in 2000, although services continued in other parts of the building.
Repairs and refurbishments in 2005 involved completely underpinning the building, and lowering the floor levels in the crypt to create a parish hall. A large number of Georgian lead coffins were removed from the crypt to allow the works to take place.
From September 2005 to March 2007, the parish worshipped at Guy’s Chapel nearby. The new crypt or hall provides a conference venue in central London. Services in Saint George’s resumed on Palm Sunday, 1 April 2007.
As well as two Sunday services and a mid-week service on Wednesdays, the church offers a wide range of activities, including a café, lunchtime concerts, a music academy for local children, a community foodbank and a night-shelter for homeless people during winter, as well as a quiet space for reflection and contemplation that is open to everyone.
Little Dorrit (right) kneels in prayer beneath the feet of Saint George (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
The church also has strong associations with Charles Dickens, whose father was jailed for debt in nearby Marshalsea prison. The surviving wall of the prison adjoins the north side of the churchyard. Charles Dickens lived nearby in Lant Street, in a house that belonged to the Vestry Clerk of Saint George’s. This was the darkest period in his life, when he had to work in the ‘blacking factory,’ and his literary career must have seemed an impossible dream.
Later, Dickens set several scenes of his novel Little Dorrit in and around Saint George’s Church. One cold night, Amy Dorrit sought shelter in the vestry.
A small representation of Little Dorrit in Marion Grant’s east window, below Saint George, shows her kneeling in prayer as her woven bonnet falls across her back like the wings of an angel.
Almighty God,
to whose glory this house of prayer is dedicated:
we praise you for the many blessings
you have given to those who worship you here:
and we pray that all who seek you in this place may find you,
and, being filled with the Holy Spirit,
may become a living temple acceptable to you;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
Amen.
The High Altar, chancel and East Window in the Church of Saint George the Martyr (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Luke 13: 10-17 (NRSVA):
10 Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. 11 And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, ‘Woman, you are set free from your ailment.’ 13 When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. 14 But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, ‘There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day.’ 15 But the Lord answered him and said, ‘You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? 16 And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?’ 17 When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.
The Ascension, with Christ in majesty, in the central window at the east end of Saint George the Martyr (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Today’s Prayers: USPG Prayer Diary:
The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is inspired by a Reflection – ‘He restores my soul’ – by Revd Dale R Hanson, introduced yesterday.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (30 October 2023) invites us to pray in these words:
Thank you, Lord, for the gift of your creation. For the restorative qualities it can bring when we take time to stop and look at the world around us.
The pelican representing Christ and the pilgrims and saints in Marion Grant’s east window (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
The Collect:
Blessed Lord,
who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning:
help us so to hear them,
to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them
that, through patience, and the comfort of your holy word,
we may embrace and for ever hold fast
the hope of everlasting life,
which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
God of all grace,
your Son Jesus Christ fed the hungry
with the bread of his life
and the word of his kingdom:
renew your people with your heavenly grace,
and in all our weakness
sustain us by your true and living bread;
who is alive and reigns, now and for ever.
Saint Ann’s Church, Dawson Street, Dublin, seen from Grafton Street and Ann Street … celebrating its tercentenary today (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Patrick Comerford
St Ann's Church, Dawson Street, has been at the heart of the city in Dublin for 300 years, and the church is celebrating its tercentenary today (Sunday, 29 October 2023). The celebrations began with Choral Matins at 11 am led by the Vicar, Canon Paul Arbuthnot.
The preacher was Archbishop Michael Jackson of Dublin and the service was sung by Saint Ann’s Choir, with prayers will be read by the children of the parish.
The Lord Mayor of Dublin, Daithi de Roiste, and members and representatives of Dublin City Council were present, as were the Dean of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, the Very Revd William Morton, and former vicars and curates of Saint Ann’s. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin was represented by the Vicar General, the Very Revd Gareth Byrne.
A rich variety of representatives of Dublin’s civic and cultural life attended, includingformer Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, representatives of the diplomatic service, members of the Oireachtas, representatives of the Rotunda Hospital, Holles Street Hospital, the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland, the National Gallery, the National Library, and the Royal Irish Academy – all within the bounds of the parish.
I provided Sunday cover in Saint Ann’s ten years ago, preaching and leading Sunday services. I have also spoken at the Saturday morning ‘men’s breakfast’ in the parish and for a number of years, while I was living in Dublin, I took part in the ‘Black Santa’ sit-out, a Christmas fundraiser for local charities that has been a tradition for successive Vicars of Saint Ann’s.
Saint Ann’s Church, Dawson Street … the boundaries of a new Dublin parish were set out in an Act of Parliament in 1707 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Saint Ann’s was created as a new parish by an Act of Parliament in 1707. At the time, the suburbs of Dublin were beginning to expand in a southerly direction. Sir Joshua Dawson bought an estate between Saint Stephen’s Green and College Park in 1705, and Dawson Street, which marked the eastern boundary of this estate, was laid out in 1701 as the main street of the new suburb.
Between them, Sir Joshua Dawson and Viscount Molesworth were responsible for creating what became some of the most fashionable streets in the city centre, including: Dawson Street (1709), Grafton Street (1713), Ann Street (1718), and Molesworth Street (1725). Dawson built his own new mansion on the east side of the street in 1710, and this later became the Mansion House, the official residence of the Lord Mayor of Dublin. He also provided a site for a new church for the new parish.
Dawson Street was completed in 1728, and as the new suburb expanded rapidly it became fashionable, with Dawson Street attracting members of the aristocracy, the gentry, the professions and bishops, including the Archbishops of Dublin.
The Act of Parliament in 1707 delineating the boundaries of the new parish was entitled ‘An Act for dividing the parishes of Saint Andrew’s. Saint Nicholas Without ye Wall and the United Parishes of Saint Catherine, Saint James and Saint John’s of Kilmainham.’ Its area was defined as ‘the ground between Grafton Street and Merryon Street, all situate or being in or near the suburbs of the City of Dublin.’
A quiet moment in Saint Ann’s on a Sunday morning (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
The Georgian interior was designed by Isaac Wills, who also designed Saint Werburgh’s Church (1715). Wills worked closely with Thomas Burgh, who designed the library in Trinity College Dublin at the same time as Saint Ann’s was being built. In his plans for Saint Ann’s, Willis was influenced by the new churches built in the City of London by Sir Christopher Wren after the Great Fire of 1666.
The first Vicar of Saint Ann’s, the Revd Robert Howard, was instituted on 4 November 1717, and much of the church was built by January 1721.
Soon, private pews were being reserved in the church for distinguished residents such as the Duke of Leinster, the Archbishop of Dublin and the Lord Mayor. However, the two canopied pews on the north and south galleries flanking the chancel and reserved for Duke of Leinster and the Archbishop of Dublin were removed when the interior was reordered by John Welland in 1859-1860.
The original planned baroque west front never rose above the first floor. But it was replaced in 1868 by the imposing Lombardo-Romanesque façade designed by Sir Thomas Newenham Deane. His design was inspired by two churches in Rome – the baroque façade of San Giacomo in Augusta (degli Incurabili) in central Rome and Francesco Borromini’s tower at Sant’Agnese in Agone in the Piazza Navona.
The Resurrection … the La Touche window by Heaton, Butler & Bayne, in the north aisle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
The original 18th century clear glass windows were later replaced by an interesting collection of Victorian and early 20th century stained-glass. Some windows are more notable for those they commemorate than for their quality. Yet it is said there is more stained glass per square metre in Saint Ann’s than in any other church in Dublin.
Alexander Knox (1757-1831), who is commemorated in the east window and in a mural tablet in the porch, was a well-known theologian in his day. He lived in Dawson Street and is buried in the church. He was a friend of John Wesley, and was admired by the Tractarians, including Pusey and Newman, as well as by Wilberforce.
His monument describes him as ‘a true and real, a spiritual and practical, an informed and enlightened, a primitive and catholic Christian.’
A mural tablet in the porch remembers the theologian Alexander Knox (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
The poet Felicia Dorothea Hemans (1793-1835) is remembered in a memorial window in the chancel and in a mural tablet in the south aisle. A prolific hymn-writer and essayist, she was also one of the most popular poets of her day, and is best known for ‘Casabianca’ (1823), with the opening lines:
The boy stood on the burning deck
Whence all but he had fled;
The flame that lit the battle’s wreck
Shone round him o’er the dead.
Her grandparents were Irish, and from 1831 she lived in Dawson Street with her younger brother. She was buried in a vault in Saint Ann’s.
A mural tablet in the south aisle remembers Felicia Hemans and her poetry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
A memorial and a window in the south gallery recall Archbishop Richard Whately (1787-1863). I enjoy the stories that say that while he was a fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, Whately tutored his students while hiking or climbing trees.
He lived in Saint Ann’s Parish, and the vicar, the Revd Dr Charles Dickinson (1792-1842), was his chaplain before becoming Bishop of Meath. Archbishop Whately attended many services in the church, but it was during his time that the canopied pew of the Archbishop of Dublin was removed from the church. He was buried in the ‘Royal Vault’ in Christ Church Cathedral.
Bishop Dickinson’s son, Canon Hercules Dickinson (1827-1905), was also Vicar of Saint Ann’s and the Dean of the Chapel Royal.
A mural tablet in north gallery commemorates Sir Hugh Lane (1875-1915), a rector’s son and part of the Irish literary revival circle that included Lady Gregory and WB Yeats. Part of his collection of modern art formed the nucleus of the Dublin Gallery of Modern Art; other parts hang in the National Gallery. He died on board he Lusitania when it was torpedoed in 1915.
The dead of two World Wars are named in two memorials: Saint Ann’s parish memorial on the reredos commemorating 32 men killed in World War I, and five killed in World War II; and Saint Mark’s parish memorial in the Lady Chapel in the south aisle, naming 24 men killed in 1914-1918.
The Butler Bread Shelves … a city charity that has continued for almost three centuries (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Facing me on Sunday mornings in the chancel, on the north side of the apse, filled with eight loaves of bread, were the Bread Shelves which since 1723 have held loaves of bread for the poor of the city under a bequest from Theophilus Butler, Lord Newton of Newtown Butler. The tradition and the charity have continued unbroken for almost 300 years later.
The monument blaming Laetitia Pilkington’s woes on ‘a cruel & merciless World’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Laetitia Pilkington (1712-1750), ‘adventuress,’ writer and wit, was once a great favourite of Dean Jonathan Swift. A doctor’s daughter, she married an impoverished, ne’er-do-well priest, the Revd Matthew Pilkington (1701-1774), Vicar of Donabate and Saint Doulagh’s. Matthew and Laetitia were divorced in 1738, and she was imprisoned for debt. Her chief claim to fame is her Memoirs (1748), published after her release from Marshalsea Prison.
Theobald Wolfe Tone (1763-1798), co-founder of the United Irishmen, married a parishioner of Saint Ann’s, Martha [Matilda] Witherington of 68 Grafton Street, in Saint Ann’s in 1785.
Thomas Barnardo (1845-1905), the founder of Barnardo’s Homes, attended the Sunday School in Saint Ann’s as a boy. In 1867, he founded the London East End Juvenile Mission with the cardinal principle, “No destitute child is ever refused admission.”
Bram Stoker (1847-1912), the author of Dracula (1897), lived around the corner from the church in 7 Saint Stephen’s Green, and married Florence Balcombe in Saint Ann’s in 1878.
Dr Douglas Hyde (1860-1949), the first President of Ireland, was born in Castlerea, Co Roscommon, the son of a Church of Ireland rector, the Revd Arthur Hyde. Throughout his life, Douglas Hyde was a regular parishioner of Saint Ann’s and was particularly fond of the liturgy and music in the church. Dr Hyde later joined WB Yeats, Lady Gregory, JM Synge and others in establishing an Irish national theatre. He was one of the seven co-founders of the Gaelic League and was its first president. He was Professor of Modern Irish in University College Dublin (1909-1932) and was unanimously elected the first President of Ireland in 1939.
An interesting monument on the south side of the gallery commemorates William Downes (1751-1826), Lord Downes and Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, and Judge William Tankerville Chamberlain (1751-1802), who were buried together in Saint Ann’s. Their monument says they ‘studied together, lived together, sat together … and now they … lie together in the same tomb.’
They ‘studied together, lived together, sat together … and now they … lie together in the same tomb’ … a monument on the south side of the gallery in Saint Ann’s (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
This morning’s tercentenary service was attended by many representatives of the charity sector, including the Samaritans. The Samaritans were set up in Ireland by a former Vicar of Saint Ann’s, Canon Billy Wynne.
When I worked as a journalist in The Irish Times over 20 years ago, I regularly attended the mid-day weekday celebrations of the Eucharist in Saint Ann’s, and later worked closely with a former Vicar of Saint Ann’s, Canon Adrian Empey, when he was the Principal of the Church of Ireland Theological College (now the Church of Ireland Theological Institute).
I hope to be back in Saint Ann’s parish next month for the launch of a new book in the Royal Irish Academy, which is next door to the church on Dawson Street.
Inside Saint Ann’s at Christmas time, seen from the gallery at the west end (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Saint George’s Cathedral, Southwark … first designed by AWN Pugin in 1848 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Patrick Comerford
We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and today is the Last Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XXI, 29 October 2023). Later this morning, I hope to be present at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford.
Yesterday (28 October) was Greek National Day, or Oxi Day (Επέτειος του Όχι), so I may call into the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford later this morning. But, before today begins, I am taking some time for prayer and reflection early this morning.
Throughout this week, with the exceptions of All Saints’ Day (Wednesday 1 November) and All Souls’ Day (Thursday 2 November), my reflections each morning this week follow this pattern:
1, A reflection on a church or cathedral in Southwark;
2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.
Inside Saint George’s Cathedral … chosen as the cathedral of the new Diocese of Southwark in 1850 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Saint George’s Cathedral, Southwark:
Saint George’s Cathedral, Southwark, is the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Southwark.
Father Thomas Doyle (1793-1879), the son of Irish immigrants, first came to Saint George’s Chapel in Southwark in 1820. He acquired the site of the future Saint George’s Cathedral, then the Royal Belgian Chapel, and bought part of Saint George’s Fields, a site associated with the anti-Catholic Gordon riots in 1780. The local Roman Catholic community was served by a small chapel, but the arrival of large numbers of Irish immigrants made a larger church a pressing need.
The cathedral was designed by AWN Pugin, the prime figure in the Gothic Revival in church architecture in the early 19th century. Pugin was critical of Henry Rose’s work at this time in Saint Saviour’s, later the other Southwark Cathedral. The funds available did not match Pugin’s first ambitious plans for Saint George’s, however, and he was forced to compromise his designs. The money for the upper part of the tower and a spire was never found.
When Saint George’s was built, it was seen as the most important Roman Catholic Church in England. It could seat about 3,000 people, and the building was 240 ft long and 72 ft wide.
The church was solemnly opened on 4 July 1848 by Bishop Nicholas Wiseman, later Cardinal Nicholas Wiseman, Archbishop of Westminster. Pugin was the first person to be married in Saint George’s, when he married his third wife Jane Knill there on 10 August 1848.
Two years later, when Pope Pius IX restored the Roman Catholic hierarchy in England and Wales in 1850, Saint George’s was chosen as the cathedral of the new Diocese of Southwark, which was to cover the whole of southern England.
Saint George’s was one of the first four Roman Catholic churches in England and Wales – and the first in London – to become a cathedral since the English Reformation. Thomas Doyle, who became the Provost of Saint George’s, died in 1879.
Thomas Doyle had the vision that inspired Saint George’s … his memorial is on the north wall of the cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
For half a century, Saint George’s remained the centre of Roman Catholic life in London until Westminster Cathedral opened in 1903.
Saint George’s was the venue for the funeral Mass of the nationalist Lord Mayor of Cork, Terence MacSwiney, in October 1920 after he died on hunger strike in Brixton Prison.
A German bomb hit the cathedral on the night of 16 April 1941, starting a fire that destroyed the wooden roof and much of the cathedral. An adjoining hall became the pro-cathedral, and the architect Romilly Bernard Craze (1892-1974) was commissioned to rebuild the cathedral.
Work began in 1953, and in the new cathedral, Craze tried to blend the Arts and Crafts and Gothic Revival styles with surviving elements of the pre-war building. He used different types of Gothic to suggest age, as in ancient cathedrals built over different time periods. The Day Chapel (1963) has a Tudor-derived pattern, while the Baptistry (1966) was inspired by the Perpendicular.
The addition of the clerestory introduced light, air and a grandeur that were previously lacking. But, once again, there was no money for the upper part of the tower and a spire.
The rebuilt cathedral was consecrated on 4 July 1958 and solemnly opened by Bishop Cyril Cowderoy. When the Diocese of Southwark became a metropolitan see in 1965, Bishop Cowderoy became the first Archbishop of Southwark.
The Blessed Sacrament Chapel and the Petre Chantry date from 1848 and are among the few surviving parts of Pugin’s original work in the cathedral. In the Blessed Sacrament Chapel, the altar, reredos, encaustic floor tiles and wrought iron gates are Pugin’s original work, the tiles are by Herbert Minton of Stoke, and the gates are by John Hardman of Birmingham.
The Petre Chantry commemorates Edward Petre (1794-1848) and his wife, Laura Stafford-Jerningham (1811-1886), who later became a nun. The Knill Chantry (1857), by Pugin’s son, Edward Pugin, commemorates the family of Jane Pugin, including her cousin, Sir Stuart Knill, who became Lord Mayor of London.
The Lady Chapel holds a small 18th century Flemish statue of the Virgin and Child known as ‘Our Lady of Saint George’s.’ The Baptistry, the newest part of the cathedral, has a window by the Harry Clarke Studios depicting the Resurrection.
The Sanctuary was re-ordered in 1989 by the architect Austin Winkley to emphasise the focal points of the liturgy. The East Window depicts the crucifixion and saints in the history of the Church in England and Wales. The glass is by the Harry Clarke Studios, but the stone tracery is Pugin’s original.
Archbishop John Wilson, a former auxiliary bishop of Westminster, was installed as Archbishop of Southwark in 2019, in succession to Archbishop Peter Smith.
These two cathedrals in Southwark have a close working relationship. They are a few minutes’ walk from South Bank and the Thames, London Bridge, Westminster Bridge, the London Eye, and landmarks such as Saint Thomas’ Hospital and Waterloo Station.
The East Window in Saint George’s Cathedral by the Harry Clarke studios depicts the crucifixion and saints … the stone tracery is Pugin’s original (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Matthew 22: 34-46 (NRSVA):
34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35 and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 ‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ 37 He said to him, ‘“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’
41 Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question: 42 ‘What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?’ They said to him, ‘The son of David.’ 43 He said to them, ‘How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord, saying,
44 “The Lord said to my Lord,
‘Sit at my right hand,
until I put your enemies under your feet’?”
45 If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?’ 46 No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.
The Petre Chantry (1848) by AWN Pugin is a perfect Gothic gem in the Perpendicular style (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Today’s Prayers: USPG Prayer Diary:
The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is inspired by a Reflection – ‘He restores my soul’ – by Revd Dale R Hanson:
‘I believe that a connection with God’s creation can speak to us at the deepest level of restoring the soul. I remember the first time that truth hit home to me. I was facing tough decisions and I went on retreat to the Holy Island of Lindisfarne in North East England. Whilst there that phrase from our Psalm spoke to me in a way that I had never experienced before – I had all sorts of reading planned, study of thick theological tomes but God invited me to spend the time walking with Him in His creation. Through it, He restored my soul.
‘In the week before Palm Sunday, I was privileged to visit Lake Hornborga in South West Sweden. At this time of year, it hosts up to 15000 migrating cranes. The prophet Jeremiah contrasts the natural wisdom of migrating birds with human disobedience, “Even the stork in the heavens knows her times, and the turtledove, swallow, and crane keep the time of their coming, but my people know not the rules of the Lord.” (Jeremiah 8:7 ESV) “here - my experience of being amid God’s creation again restored my soul as I prepared for Holy Week and Easter, the fundamental source of the abundant life that Jesus offers us”.
‘Why not reflect on how can you connect with creation and encourage others so to do in ways that “restore the soul” and lead to a deeper appreciation of our Creator and the providential Shepherd care we receive?’
The USPG Prayer Diary today (29 October 2023) invites us to reflect on these words:
The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
he refreshes my soul – Psalm 23.
The Blessed Sacrament Chapel, with its altar, reredos, encaustic tiles and wrought iron gates, is Pugin’s original work (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
The Collect:
Blessed Lord,
who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning:
help us so to hear them,
to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them
that, through patience, and the comfort of your holy word,
we may embrace and for ever hold fast
the hope of everlasting life,
which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
God of all grace,
your Son Jesus Christ fed the hungry
with the bread of his life
and the word of his kingdom:
renew your people with your heavenly grace,
and in all our weakness
sustain us by your true and living bread;
who is alive and reigns, now and for ever.
‘The Irish Times Clock’, Dublin … the clocks go back an hour tonight (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Patrick Comerford
The Irish Times once ran an advertising campaign with the slogan: ‘If you miss The Irish Times, you miss part of the day.’
If I miss putting the clock back an hour tonight, I may find myself missing things at the right time throughout the day tomorrow.
When I worked there from the mid-1970s until 2002, for almost 30 years, The Irish Times clock was a landmark on D’Olier Street. It was moved there from Westmoreland Street, and it has been moved again.
But, as the clocks fall back an hour tonight, I thought I would invite you to join me in a ‘virtual tour’ of landmark clocks in other towns and cities, found on churches, synagogues and public buildings.
1, The Astronomical Clock, Prague:
The Astronomical Clock was installed on the Old Town Hall in Prague in 1410 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
The astronomical clock or Prague Orloj is a mediaeval astronomical clock on the south wall of the Old Town Hall in Prague. The clock was first installed in 1410, making it the third-oldest astronomical clock in the world and the oldest clock still in operation.
The mechanism of the clock in the Old Town Square has three main components: the astronomical dial, representing the position of the Sun and Moon and with various astronomical details, and with statues of saints on either side of the clock; ‘the Walk of the Apostles,’ an hourly show of moving Apostles and other figures, including a skeleton representing Death, striking the time; and a calendar dial with medallions representing the months.
According to legend, the city will suffer if the clock is neglected and its good operation is placed in jeopardy. A ghost mounted on the clock was supposed to nod its head in agreement. According to the legend, the only hope is represented by a boy born on New Year's night.
The oldest part of the Orloj, the mechanical clock and astronomical dial, dates back to 1410, when it was created by the clockmaker Mikuláš of Kadaň and the professor of mathematics and astronomy at the Charles University Jan Šindel. A legend says the maker was blinded on the order of the city councillors so that he could not repeat his work. He in turn then disabled the clock, and no one was able to repair it for the next 100 years.
The Orloj was damaged on 7-8 May 1945, during the Prague uprising against the Nazis. The most recent renovation of the clock in 2018 became controversial when it was alleged the work had ‘radically changed the appearance, ages, skin tone, dress and even genders of the figures.’
The four figures flanking the clock are set in motion on the hour, and they represent: Vanity, represented by a man admiring himself in a mirror; Greed or Usury, depicted as a miser holding a bag of gold; Death, seen as a skeleton that strike the hour; and Lust or Earthly Pleasures in the form of a Turkish figure.
2, The Jewish Town Hall, Prague:
The Jewish Town Hall in Prague has two clocks, in Roman and Hebrew numerals (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
The Jewish Town Hall in Josefov, Prague, was built beside the Old New Synagogue in 1586 in Renaissance style by the Jewish community leader and philanthropist Mordechai Maisel (1528-1601), who also built the nearby Maisel Synagogue in 1590-1592.
The building was the main meeting house of the local Jewish community, but is now closed to the public. The Rococo façade dates from the 18th century.
The Jewish Town Hall is best known for its two clocks. One clock on a tower has Roman numerals. The second, lower clock has Hebrew numerals that are letters in the Hebrew alphabet, beginning with aleph and continue counterclockwise around the clock dial.
3, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge:
The grasshopper on the Chronophage or ‘Time Eater’ at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge … the clock is accurate only once every five minutes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
The Chronophage or ‘Time Eater’ at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, is a large sculptural clock unveiled by the Cambridge physicist Stephen Hawking 15 years ago on 19 September 2008.
The clock is on the corner of Bene’t Street and Trumpington Street in Cambridge, looking out onto King’s Parade. I am familiar with this clock, as Saint Bene’t’s Church nearby was effectively my parish church whenever I was staying at Sidney Sussex College. The clock was conceived and funded by John C Taylor, an old member of Corpus Christi College.
The clock’s face is a rippling 24-carat gold-plated stainless steel disc, about 1.5 metres in diameter. It has no hands or numerals, but displays the time by opening individual slits in the clock face backlit with blue LEDs. These slits are arranged in three concentric rings displaying hours, minutes, and seconds.
The dominating visual feature of the clock is a grim-looking metal sculpture of a creature that looks like a grasshopper or locust. John Taylor called this grasshopper the Chronophage or ‘time eater,’ from the Greek χρόνος (chronos, time) and εφάγον (ephagon, I ate). It moves its mouth, appearing to eat up the seconds as they pass, and occasionally it blinks in satisfaction.
The constant motion of the Chronophage produces an eerie, grinding sound, and the hour is tolled by the sound of a chain clanking into a small wooden coffin hidden in the back of the clock. Below the clock is an quotation in Latin from I John 2: 17: mundus transit et concupiscentia eius (‘the world and its desire are passing away’). The full verse says: ‘And the world and its desire are passing away, but those who do the will of God live forever’ (I John 2: 17).
The clock is accurate only once in every five minutes. For the rest of the time, the pendulum may seem to catch or stop, and the lights may lag or, then, race to get ahead. According to John Taylor, this erratic motion reflects the ‘irregularity’ of life.
The Chronophage was conceived as a work of public art, and it reminds viewers in a dramatic way of the inevitable passing of time. Taylor deliberately designed it to be terrifying: ‘Basically I view time as not on your side. He’ll eat up every minute of your life, and as soon as one has gone he’s salivating for the next.’
4, Saint Mark’s Clock, Venice:
The Torre dell’Orologio or Clock Tower on the north side of Saint Mark’s Square, Venice (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
The Torre dell’Orologio or Clock Tower on the north side of Saint Mark’s Square, Venice, is an early Renaissance tower dating from the end of the 15th century. Its location was chosen so the clock could be seen from the waters of the lagoon to let everyone who arrived know the wealth and glory of Venice.
The clock and tower stand above an archway into the main street of the city, the Merceria, which linked the political and religious centre of the city at Saint Mark’s with the commercial and financial centre at the Rialto.
Two great bronze figures known as the Moors strike the hours on a bell. One is old and the other is young, to illustrate the passing of time. Below is an image of the winged Lion of Saint Mark with the open book, before a blue background with gold stars. Below the lion, a semi-circular gallery has statues of the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child. On either side are two large blue panels showing the time: the hour on the left in Roman numerals and the minutes at five-minute intervals on the right in Arabic numerals.
Twice a year, on the feast of the Epiphany (6 January) and on Ascension Day, the three Magi, led by an angel with a trumpet, emerge from one of the doorways normally taken up by these numbers and pass in procession round the gallery, bowing to the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child, before leaving through the other door.
Below again is the great clock face in blue and gold inside a circle of marble engraved with the 24 hours of the day in Roman numerals. A golden pointer with an image of the sun moves around this circle and indicates the hour of the day. Within the marble circle beneath the sun pointer are the signs of the zodiac in gold. These revolve slightly more slowly than the pointer to show the position of the sun in the zodiac. In the middle of the clockface, the earth and the moon are surrounded by stars against a background of blue enamel.
The clock was made by a father and son, Gian Paolo and Gian Carlo Ranieri. The tower was built in 1496-1497, the mechanism of the clock was then built into it, and the clock and tower were inaugurated on 1 February 1499. Legend says the clock’s craftsmen were later blinded to stop them from repeating the work. By 1500, the elder Raineri had died. But his son remained in Venice to look after the clock, and he continued to live in Venice until he died in 1531.
5, Ankeruhr, Vienna:
The ‘Ankeruhr’ or Anker Clock was commissioned by the Anker insurance company as part of the ‘Clock Bridge’ in Vienna (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
The Hoher Markt Square is one of the oldest squares in Vienna, dating back to a time when Vienna was part of the Roman army camp Vindobona – one of the streets beside the square is named after the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, who died near Vienna.
Today, the square is often seen as an ugly car park in the heart of Vienna. But it has its attractions, including the Vermählungsbrunnen (‘Marriage Fountain’), erected to celebrate the marriage of Empress Maria Theresia and Franz Stephan of Lorraine but depicting the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph at their wedding.
However, you have to look up to see the most attractive feature in this square. The Ankeruhr or Anker Clock, was commissioned by the Anker insurance company to bridge two office buildings owned by the company, now known as Helvetia. The covered bridge is known as the Uhrbrücke or ‘Clock Bridge.’
The Anker Clock was designed in the Jugendstil style, similar to Art Nouveau, by the Austrian painter and sculptor Franz von Matsch (1861-1942), who worked closely with Gustav Klimt. Matsch made the clock in 1911-1917, at a creative but turbulent time in Austrian history. The Anker Insurance Company was expanding its headquarters in Vienna and saw the clock as an artistic contribution to the city’s culture and a subliminal reminder of the importance of life insurance, with figures representing life and death flanking the sun motif above the centre.
The clock is 10 metres wide, 7.5 metres high, with a diameter of 4 metres. The design includes 12 historic figures from Vienna’s past, each made of copper. On the hour, every hour, one figure or couple is visible and on the hour a tune is played matching this figure.
At noon, all the figures and their matching tunes can be seen and heard to the gasps and cheers of tourists on the street below. It is a spectacle that can be compared to the hourly sight at the Astronomical Clock on the Old Town Hall in Prague. The last figure is Joseph Haydn, who composed the Imperial Anthem, which also became the German national anthem.
A plaque next to the clock reveals the identities of these rotating figures, offering a journey through Austrian history. The figures or couples and the hours to see them are:
1-2: The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, who is said to have died in Vienna, then the city of Vindobona, in 180 CE
2-3: Charlemagne, who first incorporated Austria into the Holy Roman Empire ca 800
3-4: Leopold VI, Duke of Austria, who granted Vienna its city charter in 1221, and his wife Theodora
4-5: Walther von der Vogelweide, a mediaeval minstrel singer during Leopold’s reign
5-6: King Rudolf, the first Habsburg ruler of Austria, and his wife Anna von Hohenberg
6-7: Hans Puchsbaum, a 15th-century architect and master builder closely associated with the Stephansdom (Saint Stephen’s Cathedral)
7-8: Emperor Maximilian I, a major figure in the expansion of the Habsburg empire in the 16th century and a patron of the arts
8-9: Johann Andreas von Liebenberg, mayor of Vienna during the second Turkish siege in 1683
9-10: Count Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg, who led the defence of the city in 1683
10-11: Prince Eugene of Savoy, who built the Belvedere and Hofburg Palace and the commander of the Imperial forces during the War of the Spanish Succession
11-12: Empress Maria Theresa, the 18th-century Habsburg monarch, and her husband Prince Franz Stephan of Lorraine
12-1: Joseph Haydn, the composer: when he appears, the clock plays his oratorio, The Creation
The tunes include works by Haydn, Mozart and Wagner. They were originally played by a mechanical organ with 800 tubes. However, the organ was so damaged during World War II that it was beyond repair and was replaced by recorded music.
6, The Friary Clock, Lichfield:
Lichfield Clock Tower or Friary Clock Tower … originally built on the corner of Bore Street and Bird Street in 1863 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Lichfield Clock Tower or Friary Clock Tower is a 19th-century Grade II listed clock tower on The Friary, south of Festival Gardens in Lichfield. It was first erected in 1863 at the corner of Bird Street and Bore Street on the site of the ancient Crucifix Conduit that supplied water to the Franciscan Friary since 1301.
Building clock towers became a fashion in England in the mid 19th century after ‘Big Ben’ was built, and Lichfield Council first suggested a clock tower in 1858. A number of locations were proposed, including the roof of the Guildhall and in the Market Square, beside the statue of Samuel Johnson. Eventually it was decided to build the tower at the corner of Bore Street and Bird Street on the site the redundant Crucifix Conduit.
The tower was designed in a Norman style by the Lichfield architect Joseph Potter jnr (1756-1842), who also restored Lichfield Cathedral with James Wyatt and who designed Newtown’s College, the Causeway Bridge and Holy Cross Church, Lichfield, and Saint John the Baptist Church, Tamworth
The clock tower was financed by the Lichfield Conduit Lands Trust to a total of £1,200. Originally, the tower only had three clock faces – a west face was deemed unnecessary as it would only look onto one property, the Friary. However, a fourth face was added after complaints from the tenant at the Friary. The whole mechanism was overhauled by Joyce of Whitchurch in 1898.
The 11-acre Friary estate was sold to Sir Richard Ashmole Cooper in 1920. He gave the site to the city for developing the area and laying out a new road. By then, traffic was making Bird Street and Bore Street increasingly congested. They are narrow streets and the position of the clock tower made matters worse.
When the road named The Friary was built across the site of the former friary in 1928, the clock tower was taken down and re-erected at its present site south of Festival Gardens, 400 metres west of its original location along the new road. The tower was repaired and restored in 1991 with the assistance of the Conduit Lands Trust, and it is now in the care of Lichfield City Council.
7, Brick Lane Mosque, London:
The clock on one side of Brick Lane Mosque … the building has been a church, mission hall, chapel, synagogue and mosque (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Brick Lane Mosque at the corner of Brick Lane and Fournier Street in the East End of London was once the Great Synagogue and been home to a succession of Christian, Jewish and Muslim congregations since it was built in the mid-18th century, reflecting the waves of immigration in Spitalfields area.
It was first built in 1743 as La Neuve Eglise or the New Church by Huguenots who had fled religious persecution in France. It later became a Wesleyan and then a Methodist chapel. It became the Machzike Hadath or Spitalfields Great Synagogue in 1891. The synagogue eventually moved to new premises in Golders Green, and the building became a mosque in 1976.
The clock on the building complements a sundial with a Latin motto, Umbra sumus (‘We are shadow’), which in turn is derived from Horace’s Pulvis et umbra sumus (‘We are dust and shadow’).
8, Shandon Bells, Cork:
Saint Anne’s Church, Shandon, was built in 1722-1726 on the site of the earlier Saint Mary’s Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
The claim by the Unitarian Church on Prince’s Street to be the oldest church in Cork City may be rivalled by Saint Anne’s Church, the Church of Ireland parish church in the Shandon district.
Saint Anne’s has been described as ‘the most important ecclesiastical structure of any period, within the city of Cork and its immediate environs, it is also one of the most important early 18th century churches in Ireland and one of a small number which still retains their original 18th century bells.’
The name Shandon is derived from the Irish Sean Dún (‘old fort’). Saint Mary’s, a mediaeval church, stood close to the site of the fort and is mentioned in the decretals of Pope Innocent III in 1199 as ‘Saint Mary on the Mountain.’ Saint Mary’s Church stood until the Williamite wars when it was destroyed during the Siege of Cork in 1690.
A new Saint Mary’s Church was built in 1693 at the bottom of Mallow Lane, modern-day Shandon Street. However, the population of Cork was growing quickly, and it was decided to build a new church on the site of the ancient church.
The present Saint Anne’s Church was built in 1722-1726 on a hill in Shandon overlooking the River Lee, as a chapel of ease to the former Saint Mary’s Church, meaning this has been a site of worship since before mediaeval times.
Saint Anne’s was designed in the Old English architectural style and extended for the ‘pepper pot’ adornment on the tower. The belfry, added in 1749 to accommodate the bells, is a noted landmark and symbol of the city, and the church bells were made popular in a 19th century song.
Some sources draw a connection between the red and white materials and the red and white colours that represent Cork. The distinct colours are recorded in a rhyme collected by 19th century antiquary Thomas Crofton Croker, which he attributes to the 18th century Catholic priest and writer Father Arthur O’Leary:
Party-coloured, like the people,
Red and white stands Shandon Steeple
The church is noted for its eight bells, cast in 1750 and first rung on 7 December 1752, for the wedding of Henry Harding and Catherine Dornan.
The clock is known to people in Cork as ‘The Four-Faced Liar’ because the time seldom seems to correspond on each face. This was the first four-faced clock until Big Ben was built in London.
There are four clock faces, one on each side, each 14 ft in diameter. The clocks were erected by Cork Corporation in 1847 and were supplied by James Mangan, who had a clock shop on Saint Patrick's Street until the 1980s. One clock face is inscribed ‘Passenger measure your time, for time is the measure of being.’
The clock continues to be maintained by Cork City Council. It was stopped for maintenance in 2013, was repaired and restarted on 2 September 2014.
On top of the pepper pot, the weather vane is in the shape of a salmon. Some say it represents fishing of the River Lee, but the fish is an early Christian symbol. It is known locally as the ‘goldie fish.’
When Saint Anne’s Church became a full parish in 1772, the first rector was the Revd Arthur Hyde, great-great-grandfather of Dr Douglas Hyde, first President of Ireland.
The graves in the churchyard include Francis Mahony (Father Prout), author of ‘The Bells of Shandon.’ He was a grandson of Timothy Mahony, founder of Blarney Woollen Mills. He eventually left the priesthood to concentrate on writing. His took his pen-name Father Prout from a learned but eccentric priest from Watergrasshill.
9, Bevis Marks Synagogue, London:
The clock above the doorway of Bevis Marks Synagogue displays the Hebrew and secular dates of its manufacture: 5618, 1858 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Bevis Marks Synagogue is often seen as the Jewish ‘cathedral’ among synagogues in London, and it is also the oldest operating synagogue on these islands. Bevis Marks Synagogue is officially the Qahal Kadosh Sha’ar ha-Shamayim (קָהָל קָדוֹשׁ שַׁעַר הַשָׁמַיִם, or ‘Holy Congregation Gate of Heaven’). It stands in a courtyard off Bevis Marks, the street in the city of London that gives the synagogue its popular name.
The synagogue was built in 1701 and is at the heart of the story of London’s Spanish and Portuguese Jewish community. It is the only synagogue in Europe that has held regular services continuously for more than 300 years.
Bevis Marks Synagogue was built in 1701 for the congregation of Sephardim or Spanish and Portuguese Jews in London, formed in 1698. It was built by Joseph Avis, a Quaker, to erect a building at a cost of £2,650. According to legend, Avis declined to collect his full fee, on the ground that it was wrong to profit from building a house of God. Another legend says the timber for the roof was donated by the then Princess Anne, later Queen Anne.
The plain exterior and its large, clear windows are both characteristics of the church architecture of Sir Christopher Wren. Above the central doorway are the Hebrew and secular dates of its opening: 5462, 1701. Above the doorway, in similar fashion, the clock bears the Hebrew and secular dates of its manufacture: 5618, 1858.
10, Saint John’s Co-Cathedral, Valletta:
The three clocks on the bell tower of Saint John’s Co-Cathedral, Valletta (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
The bell tower of Saint John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta, the capital of Malta, has three clocks to tell the time, the date and the day of the week. The bell tower is on the south side of the cathedral in Saint John’s Square.
Saint John’s Co-Cathedral, dedicated to Saint John the Baptist, was built by the Order of Saint John or Knights of Malta in 1572-1577. The church was commissioned by the Grand Master, Jean de la Cassière, as the Conventual Church of Saint John and was designed by the Maltese architect Girolamo Cassar, who designed several of the more prominent buildings in Valletta.
The Time-Date-Day-Clock has several unusual features. Below a balcony from which a newly selected Grand Master was announced to the knights and the people of the town is a large single-hand clock. Lower and to the left is a dial that indicates the date, and to the right is a dial that indicates the day of the week in Latin abbreviations.
10, Trinity College, Cambridge:
The clock tower in Trinity College, Cambridge … part of the Great Court Run (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
The college clock in Trinity College, Cambridge, is housed in King Edward’s Gate, otherwise known as the clock tower. This gate originally formed a grand entrance to King’s Hall, which was dissolved in 1546 and joined with Michaelhouse to found the new College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity.
A clock, dial-plate, and bell seems first to have been added to the clock tower in 1610 by Thomas Tennant of London. The bell is still in place and in use. A new clock and dial-plate were put in place in 1726-1727.
The old clock was replaced yet again in 1910. It was built by Smith of Derby and designed by Lord Grimthorpe, who drew on ‘Big Ben. The Trinity clock is notable for striking the hour twice, first on a low note, the ‘Trinity’ chime, and then on a much higher one, the ‘Saint John’s’ chime. William Wordsworth refers to this phenomenon in his poem ‘The Prelude’ (1850):
Near me hung Trinity’s loquacious clock,
Who never let the quarters, night or day,
Slip by him unproclaimed, and told the hours
Twice over with a male and female voice.
The Great Court Run is an attempt to run around Great Court within the time it takes the clock to strike the hour of 12, including the preparatory chiming of the four quarters and the two sets of 12.
The course is about 370 metres long. Depending on the state of winding, the clock takes between about 43 and 44½ seconds. It is traditional for athletic members of Trinity to attempt the run every year at noon on the day of the Matriculation Dinner. The Great Court Run is a central scene in the film Chariots of Fire (1981) – although, in fact, it was not filmed at Trinity.
The race was recreated for charity in 1988 by Britain’s two foremost middle-distance runners at that time, Sebastian Coe and Steve Cram, with Daley Thompson as a reserve. Starting from under the clock-tower and running anti-clockwise, the runners restricted themselves to the customary course dictated by the flagstones between the cobbles, and so had to turn very sharply at each corner. Coe won, with a time of 46.0 seconds beating Cram’s 46.3 seconds. Neither runner, however, beat the clock, which took 44.4 seconds.
On 20 October 2007, Sam Dobin, a second year undergraduate reading Economics, made it round within the sound of the final chime, with a time of 42.7 seconds. The course taken by the runners that year was slightly different to that of 1988, as the competitors ran on the cobbles as well as the flagstones.
11, The Clock Tower, Youghal, Co Cork:
The Clock Gate Tower, the symbol of Youghal, was built in 1777 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Youghal, Co Cork, with a population of about 8,000, stands on the edge of a steep riverbank on the estuary of the Blackwater River. The town, with its long, narrow streets and narrow side lanes, dates back in time to a Viking settlement in the 11th century, and received its first charter of incorporation as a town in 1209.
Youghal is the first town in either Ireland or Britain to have a Jewish mayor when William Annyas or William Moses Annyas Eanes (Ben Yohanan) was elected Mayor of Youghal in 1555.
The Clock Gate Tower, the symbol of the town, was built in 1777 on the site of Trinity Castle, part of the town’s mediaeval fortifications. The Clock Gate was the town gaol until 1837, and later became a family home, until the McGrath family left in 1959.
12, Villierstown Church, Co Waterford:
The clock over the front door of the church in Villierstown, Co Waterford, was erected in 1910 by Mary Villiers-Stuart of Dromana (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Villierstown is on the banks of the River Blackwater in west Waterford, about 8 km south of Cappoquin. The village was founded by the Villiers-Stuart family, who give the place its name. The family and their direct ancestors have lived in Dromana House in its different forms for over 700 years, making it one of the oldest family estates in Ireland up to the 20th century.
John Villiers (1684-1766), 1st Earl Grandison, established the village in the 1740s to develop a linen industry. The original village consisted of a church, a rectory, a school, 24 houses, a court, a police barracks and a quay on the river. It was initially populated with linen-weavers, some of whom were from Lurgan, Co Armagh.
Grandison built a new church in the Queen Anne style 1748 for the new village and its new residents. The new chapel could accommodate about 400 people, and regular Sunday services were being held by 1757.
The church remained outside the parochial and diocesan structures of the Church of Ireland. It was a ‘chapel of ease’ and marriage services, for example, could not take place there without a special licence. Affane Parish, which included Villierstown, was united with Cappoquin in 1874. The position of chaplain at Villierstown came to an end in 1919, and from then on, the chapel was served by the clergy of Lismore Cathedral and the curate of Cappoquin. Lismore and Cappoquin were united in 1955.
Sunday attendance figures in Villierstown had dropped to about six by 1955, and the chapel closed in 1958. A church commission recommended removing the roof and capping the walls, retaining the porch as a mortuary chapel for the churchyard. But the Villiers-Stuart family was unhappy and James Henry Ion Villiers-Stuart (1928-2004) donated the church to the village in 1965 to prevent it from ‘falling into disrepair and ruin.’
After a meeting with the Roman Catholic bishop, Dr Daniel Cohalan, it was agreed that it would become a church for the Catholic villagers. It was the first time a Church of Ireland church was given to a Roman Catholic parish. The gift was welcomed by Bishop Cohalan and the parish priest, Father Hackett. A local committee raised £1,500 for its adaptation as a Catholic church.
However, Bishop Cohalan and Father Hackett died within weeks of each other. Their successors, Bishop Michael Russell and Father Quinlan, were less than enthusiastic, and decided the three existing churches were enough for the parish. The church is now an arts, entertainment, community and wedding venue.
The bellcote embellishes the pedimented roof. The clock over the front door was erected in 1910 by Mary Villiers-Stuart of Dromana, and a plaque reads: ‘This clock was the gift of Mary Villiers Stuart of Dromana to the people of Villierstown, to whom she was deeply attached. 1910. Restored by Mary’s grandson James, 1990.’
13, The Clock Tower, Valentia Island, Co Kerry:
The Clock Tower on the harbour front at Knightstown on Valentia Island, Co Kerry (Patrick Comerford)
There is an extra hour tonight as the clocks go back, so I thought I might add an extra clock to this ‘virtual tour’ of a dozen clocks and clock towers. The clock tower is the dominant landmark on the harbour at Knightstown, the main village on Valentia Island in Co Kerry.
Valentia Island, off the Iveragh Peninsula and the Ring of Kerry, is one of Ireland’s most westerly points. It is about 11 km (7 miles) long, 3 km (2 miles) wide, and has a population of 665.
Tourism began on Valentia Island in 1833, and the Royal Valentia Hotel, which began as an inn, has been in business for almost two centuries. The hotel faces onto the harbour at Knightstown, the island’s main village. It has been known as the Royal Valentia Hotel since Queen Victoria’s youngest son Prince Arthur (1850-1942), later Duke of Connaught, visited in 1869.
The clock tower, in front of the Royal Valentia Hotel, is a square-plan weigh house, built ca 1880, with a round window opening and a tapered pyramidal roof, a central clock in the apex, ogee-domed capping and a decorative urn finial. It is part of a composition on the quay that includes a cast-iron lever, a group of six iron weights arranged in a pyramidal fashion, and a cast-iron weigh bridge. The clock was decommissioned in 1922, but was restored in 1990.
A car ferry runs a shuttle service from Knightstown to Reenard Point, near Cahersiveen, on the Ring of Kerry, throughout the day in the summer months (April to October). The island is also linked to the mainland by a bridge at Portmagee.
