East end and South Entrance… 

There is no entrance fee; but there is a 2£ charge to take photos.  Fair enough.  The interior reminded me of a mini Westminster Abbey or mini St Paul’s. 

Vivien  the Day Chaplain was kind enough to give me a mini-tour. 

Shakespeare Memorial and Window

Place of interest # 1 on the floor plan map. 

Font and center  with hanging iron chandelier between North and South Transept

The Cathedral is large but not too large or overwhelming. 

Plaque for Wenceslas Hollar  caught my eye so I had to do some research.

   “He was a master etcher, and his work is still much appreciated by connoisseurs. He illustrated a number of books and produced the celebrated Views of London after the Great Fire of 1666. Some 3,000 plates are credited to him. He died in extreme poverty.”  http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/269374/Wenceslaus-Hollar

http://www.radio.cz/ is the long story from the Czech perspective

“He is remembered here as his view was drawn from the top of the Cathedral tower. A native of Bohemia, Hollar lived in exile under the patronage of the Earl of Arundel.  Hollar’s engraving gives a vivid picture of 17th century London. He is buried in St Margaret’s Church, Westminster. “

http://cathedral.southwark.anglican.org/visit/area-1

Engraving below of the Tower  from Project Guttenberg; description from the British Museum

1647 Engraving of the Tower of London

  “The drawing was made in pen and brown ink with watercolour over black lead. The view across the river Thames focuses on the square White Tower in the centre. In front of it, opening to the river through a low arch, is Traitors’ Gate. Prisoners entered the Tower through this from the river. Surrounding the Tower are the walls and buildings which made it an important prison and fortress.

In the foreground is a three-masted ship flying the English flag of St George’s Cross, which was customary for merchant ships. A few small boats row up the river to remind us how much the river was used for the transport of people and goods.

This drawing was made for a series of four etchings of views of London. These prints were presumably made to be sold on the English market.”

“In a career of some 50 years he produced almost 3,000 etchings on many subjects, normally with the uncomplicated naturalism which makes them such valuable documents of seventeenth-century life.”

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/28742/28742-h/28742-h.htm#Page_28

https://www.britishmuseum.org/  from the British perspective

The plaques and memorials that line the walls of the Cathedral make for fascinating reading.

I thought this a humorous tongue twister until I real the last line.

This plaque for Isabella Gilmore caught my eye.  I found her story quite interesting and very illustrative of the time she lived.

http://anglicanhistory.org/women/gilmore1924/ tells her story, often in her own words.

     “The career of Isabella Gilmore, William Morris’ third sister. provides a fascinating

parallel to that of her famous brother. Isabella left a life of middle-class comfort and

respectability to minister to the poor of South London as a Deaconess in the Church

of England. She founded an institution which provided training for women to pursue

vocations as deaconesses among the underprivileged and was instrumental in

advancing the role of women in the Church. …….

     After her husband’s death, Isabella returned to her mother’s home and then made

the decision to train as a nurse. This was strongly opposed by her family, but she

persisted and began training at Guy’s Hospital in London. ……

     In the late 1880s, Anthony Wilson Thorold, the Bishop of Rochester, was involved

in a far-reaching reorganization of his diocese. Rochester was one of the most diverse

and unwieldy secs in Britain. It included large rural areas in Kent and virtually all of

London south of the Thames. Among the projects which Thorold wanted to initiate

for the diocese was an order of deaconesses to work among London’s poor.

Deaconesses had been revived in the Church of England in the 1860s but had been

tried in only a tentative manner in other dioceses. Deaconesses differed from Anglican

nuns in that they were ordained by a Bishop and worked directly under his supervision

as did members of the clergy rather than owing allegiance to a religious order. Thorold

believed that deaconesses could be a useful tool in the Rochcster diocese. He began

a search for a suitable leader for the organization, and Isabella was recommended to

him by her supervisors at Guy’s Hospital. 

          The night before she took up her duties, she visited friends and realized that they

«might never again see me again in my smart clothes." (R<JP) Isabella had committed

herself to serving the poor.   The Morris family (with the exception of William and her eldest sister,

EmmaOld ham) were outraged at her decision:

    ‘I had many troubling times to go through with my relations, many hard unkind

things were said but it had been so before when I went to Guy’s & except for my

mother being angry with me, I did nor trouble very much, that did trouble me nor

only then but for many years & it was a great comfort that before she died she had

entirely forgiven me. ‘(RGP)

     The first major hurdle Isabella and Bishop Thorold had to overcome was the difficulty of finding

a parish willing to accept the deaconesses in it. She later recalled,  «I don’t think the clergy wanted it & fought

the institution being put into their parish."(RGP)    South London was at that time known for the

Low Church attitudes of its clergy. Therefore, there was a built-in suspicion of the deaconesses, who were  (wrongly)

thought to be associated with the Anglo-Catholic branch of the church. A

friend of Isabella’s asked her "[w]hat made the bishop put you in Clapham it was like shaking a red rag at a bull." (RGP)…….

     The area in which they ministered was one of the poorest in London. The families the

deaconesses  encountered eked out a miserable existence: it was an agony to find how terrible their condition was,

they were heathen, went to no place of worship & in the low parts the education act was a dead letter,

the sanitary laws were nil, the overcrowding ghastly & the dirt and poverty beyond

all words. (RGP)

     The deaconesses discovered that in their destitution, these people did not understand

the most basic sanitation, they were "covered with vermin – indeed we always expect

co find rhem and rheir clothes alive." (RGP)   The deaconesses found that they brought

fleas and lice back to the Institution. The children they encountered were often abused

and neglected, and alcoholism was rampant among the adults. Isabella deeply empathized with those she cared for.

"Often I think to myself what should I have been if [ had been brought up in such a hell as this?" (RGP)

     The deaconesses provided a substantial aid effort. They ran a soup kitchen which

served hot food to the poor, distributed donated clothing and blankets, taught basic sanitary methods,

nursed the sick and gave religious instruction to the children.  They also organized referrals to hospitals and other

charitable organizations. In coordinating all of these activities, Isabella displayed remarkable administrative abilities.

She was able to efficiently deal with the major logistical problems posed by

providing all of these services.  The deaconesses worked 14- to 18-hour days, at the end of which they had to walk

from Bartersea to Clapham. Often they would be so exhausted that they would have

to support each other on the long walk back. (RC)  They also were in danger from the violence endemic

to the slums they worked in. "Saturday afternoon & night Sunday & Monday were awful days

street fights & rows were going in every direction.’" Isabella recalled "once I was struck by a drunken woman & I

used to get abused when the poor things were half drunk." (RGP) The deaconesses were

frequently subjected to harassment, particularly by Irish Catholics. However, after a

time, they found that they’ would be defended by people in the neighborhood.

William Morris was deeply moved by Isabella’s devotion to the poor. He told her I

preach Socialism. You practice it. "’

http://www.morrissociety.org/publications/JWMS/SP96.11.4.Sharp.pdf  is the complete story

http://www.londonremembers.com/memorials/john-walter  The Sisters, home to the Deaconesses

The Bishop’s Seat…  Once known as St Saviour’s  Church; now Southwark Cathedral

     “Now, as a Cathedral, Southwark is once again (as in monastic days) a centre for a pattern of daily worship within the English cathedral music tradition. In addition to holding five services a day all year round, the Cathedral provides services for diverse diocesan groups varying in size and style of worship. A cathedral derives its name from ‘cathedra’ a Greek word for the seat from which a bishop teaches and Southwark comes into its own as the bishop’s church when he ordains new priests and deacons, installs honorary canons and celebrates the Easter liturgy.” http://cathedral.southwark.anglican.org/visit/