Bits and Bobs: Saint Bartholomew the Great, Smithfield

Friday, February 28, 2020:

Ellie, Jim, John and Eddie at lunch on Carter Lane

After lunch with old friends, we visited London's oldest parish church, St. Bartholomew the Great. Situated in the Smithfield neighborhood, the priory was built when Henry I, son of William the Conqueror, was king of England. This amazingly well-preserved medieval building, founded in 1123 by a monk named Rahere, has survived the Great Fire of 1666 and the blitz of WWII.

In 1559 a half-timbered house is built over the church entrance

Tomb of Prior Rahere who died in 1143, Tomb dating from 1405

St. Bartholomew holding his flayed skin

Throughout medieval times, Smithfield was an area used for selling cattle, jousting and executions. Over the centuries both Catholic and Protestant martyrs accused of heresy were burnt at the stake here. In 1305 the Scottish patriot William Wallace was dragged here from the Tower of London behind a horse, and subsequently hung, drawn and quartered. During the years of 1348 and 1349, the Black Death killed half of all Londoners; over 50,000 people were buried in Smithfield soil.

We then encountered Smithfield Market. Per historic markers at the site, in the early 19th century men sold their unwanted wives here, among other wares.

Smithfield Market, Building from Victorian Era

Colorful Victorian Ironwork

We then came upon the London Charterhouse. In 1371 a Carthusian Monastery was founded here, an order requiring its members to live in silence and solitude. Between 1535 and 1537 numerous Carthusian monks and lay brothers who resisted the reforms of King Henry VIII were tortured and executed for treason. The monastery was seized by the king and shut down in 1538 and its buildings left for ruin. A Tudor Palace was later built on the site, and several of the buildings that exist today date from the late 1500s. The martyred monks of Charterhouse have since been beatified, and some canonized (made saints), by Rome.