Long-time London resident and avid museum and theatre-goer. I started this blog in 2014, and got serious about it in 2020 when I realised how much I missed arts and culture during lockdowns. I go to a lot more events than anyone would think is sensible, and love sharing my thoughts in the forms of reviews, the occasional thought piece, and travel recommendations when I leave my London HQ.
An illustrated walk around the precincts of St Paul’s Cathedral by night, following in the footsteps of a 1940s guidebook. I couldn’t get as close to the cathedral as the book suggested, but noticed a lot of details I had never spotted before.
I am trying out a new guidebook on this walk, again one that I have had for years. This is London for Everyman by William Kent, Revised (Post-Blitz) Edition, 1947.
Exploring Post-Blitz London From The 21st Century
I bought London for Everyman many years ago, because I was fascinated by the fact that it was a ‘Post-Blitz’ edition. I had never thought before that about the work that goes into updating tourist guides after such a major event. Which sights are no longer there? What was visibly damaged then but isn’t any longer? What are the other impacts? But before this brief circumnavigation of St Paul’s, I hadn’t previously tried following any of the walks.
Unfortunately, in the current circumstances, most of the suggested walks are off limits. This guidebook is particularly good at incorporating major tourist destinations into its walks. There is one around the Tower of London that then leads you into said Tower to have a look around. Same with the British Museum. And Westminster Abbey. None of that particularly appeals to me while I can’t visit the places themselves. But there is also a section of five ‘Evening Walks’ which I thought I would try out. I am particularly interested in what makes these walks suitable for the evening rather than the day, and how easy it is to follow 1940s descriptions. I started with the shortest of the Evening Walks, ‘The Precincts of St Paul’s Cathedral.’
The walk really made me miss the time last summer when we were able to carefully venture back into cultural institutions. I was lucky then to go on a tour of St Paul’s as part of Open House London. But learning new things on self-guided walks is keeping me going through the winter months, in anticipation of things opening up again, hopefully soon.
St Paul’s Cathedral By Night – West Side
We start our investigation of St Paul’s Cathedral in front of the main steps. Things around here seem to be the same as outlined in the guidebook. The exception is a ‘low railing’ which Kent describes in front of the cathedral. He relates an anecdote where a Canadian man bought a section of this railing in 1874. The ship transporting it went down in the St Lawrence River. The Canadian gentleman was able to recover some of it, and used it to enclose his wife’s grave at her demise, in memory of their courtship in the grounds of St Paul’s. Lovely.At the top of the steps, if a little hard to make out in the gloom, is a scene of the conversion of St Paul. One benefit to this nocturnal excursion is that it’s rather nice to have the whole porch of the cathedral to yourself.At the bottom of the cathedral steps.
The next thing the book mentions is this statue of Queen Anne. I hadn’t really paid attention to it before, but learned that it is a copy of one erected during her reign (1712) but removed in 1885 to Holmhurst Park. It still seems to be there, rather the worse for wear. The figures around the bottom represent the (embellished) extent of British imperial territory at the time. France is there for some reason despite Queen Anne not holding any French territories. And as this is pre-American Revolution, the American territories are in the bottom image on the right.
St Paul’s Cathedral by Night – North Side
As you can see in this image there is construction work currently at St Paul’s. I’m not sure if that or enhanced security since the 1940s was the reason I couldn’t get into the grounds themselves.
There has definitely been a lot of development around this side of the cathedral since Kent’s day. He describes small courtyards reminiscent of the wall erected by Edward I “in consequence of the lurking of thieves and other bad people in the night time within the precincts of the churchyard.” The alleys around this side of the cathedral represent the positions of postern gates. And I believe that the building on the right is what Kent called “the ruins of Chapter-house”.
The book speaks about a pump in the roadway near Canon Alley, with an inscription referring to St Faith’s Church. But the buildings are mostly new around here and I didn’t spot a pump. In any case, St Faith’s was a church swallowed up in 1256 by an extension of St Paul’s. The former parishioners had special rights, such as being able to get into the crypt of St Faith’s under St Paul’s for burials.The cross to the left of this image is much more important than its relatively humble appearance would indicate. It is St Paul’s Cross, erected in 1910 on the site (more or less) of a much older open-air pulpit. Kent refers to it as “The Times newspaper of the Middle Ages, as it was the official pulpit not only of London but of the country.” This was the site of important statements on religion during the Reformation. London for Everyman relates some other interesting anecdotes: 1. In 1469, a Bull of Pope Paul II cursed all shoemakers who made peaks to shoes of more than two inches 2. In 1538, a cruficix from Kent which had moving eyes and lips was revealed to be fraudulent on this spot “and was thrown down amidst derision.” 3. In 1603 on this spot “…Mr. Hemming of Trinity College, Cambridge, was very severe on women.”
St Paul’s Cathedral by Night – East and South Sides
A view of the East side of the cathedral with modern St Paul’s School, not part of the 1947 map. When Kent wrote his guidebook, the original St Paul’s school had moved to Hammersmith. Samuel Pepys was among its pupils. A separate public school still exists, but the preparatory school part on the cathedral grounds dates to the 1960s. If we could get inside the grounds, the book tells us we would find some remains of the pre-Great Fire cathedral.
And now we head along the South side and back to where we started. A little further on from here, the religious street names probably recall halting points from medieval religious processions: Ave Maria Lane; Paternoster Row; Amen Court and so on. Paternoster Row was famous for booksellers, but from Kent’s description it was almost totally destroyed in WWII. Hence the modern buildings we saw earlier.
Final Thoughts
This was a relatively brief walk compared to some others we have done. Nonetheless, an evening walk need not wait for a weekend, and is a good way to break up the monotonous weeks of lockdown. By following the route in London forEveryman I was not able to get up close to the cathedral like you could in 1947, but I did learn several facts I never knew before. I also noticed things I have completely overlooked on previous visits, like St Paul’s Cross. And I quite liked the ‘layered history’ effect of following a Post-Blitz guidebook. I was able to imagine at one and the same time what the streets around St Paul’s were like hundreds of years ago, and in more recent history. I hope you have enjoyed joining me for this historic walk!
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4 thoughts on “The Precincts of St Paul’s Cathedral By Night”
4 thoughts on “The Precincts of St Paul’s Cathedral By Night”