The first time I was in St. Paul’s Churchyard was May of 1983. My wife and I had traveled to London to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. On a Sunday afternoon, she was resting in our hotel room, and I’d hopped a tube train to visit the newly opened Museum of London before walking around St. Paul’s a few blocks to the south. At 3 p.m., I was standing in front of St. Paul’s when the church bells began to peal. It was one of those “just stop and listen moments.”
Last fall, we were once again in the churchyard, visiting the Temple Bar exhibition just to the north of the church, and then a few days later we toured the cathedral itself. We walked around the churchyard, visited a gift and souvenir shop, and took our “standing in front of the cathedral” tourist photos. We knew the basic history of the cathedral – Sir Christopher Wren rebuilt the church followed its destruction in the Great Fire of 1666. And we knew that the area around the church had been heavily bombed during World War II; the church itself took one major hit but was protected by the firewatchers stationed on the roof and nearby.
But the area around the church has a long and momentous history, as writer Margaret Willes details in In the Shadow of St. Paul’s Cathedral: The Churchyard that Shaped London. The history of the area is inevitably linked to the history of the church, but also to much more.
In medieval times, the yard was host to speeches and sermons. The Reformation, Counter-Reformation and New Reformation were argued and fought here. The yard witnessed a few executions. Once the printing press was invented, printers set up shop in this area, mostly printing religious tracts and documents. They eventually evolved into book printers and publishers, both in St. Paul’s Churchyard and nearby Paternoster Row. Publishers branched out into selling books directly to the public, becoming the cradle and center of Britain’s book publishing industry.
Willes tells this fascinating history well. The chapters on the Great Fire (and how printers thought they could secure their stocks inside the church itself) and the rebuilding by Wren are especially good. She provides detail in just the right amounts. The people come alive, and their stories become the stories of the churchyard.
Margaret Willes
Willes is the former publisher at the National Trust who now writes books on cultural and botanical history. Her works include Liberty over London Bridge, The Curious World of Samuel Pepys & John Evelyn, The Gardens of the British Working Class, The Making of the English Gardener, Reading Matters Five Centuries of Discovering Books, The Domestic Herbal, and Scenes from a Georgian Life.
The story of St. Paul’s Churchyard ends when the thriving society and industry around it ended – with the blitz of World War II. Other than the cathedral itself, much of the surrounding area was destroyed. But as Willes tells it, what had been there was a wonder.
Related:
Margaret Willes on The Shadow of St. Paul’s Cathedral – interview with Aspect of History.
In the Shadow of St. Paul’s Cathedral – Margaret Willes (1666) – podcast at Travels Through Time.
Top photograph: The interior dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral.
Some Monday Readings
What New York Times Columnist Paul Krugman Gets Wrong about Rural America – Wendell Berry at Barn Raiser.
“We Are Wrong” – a poem on Israel by Michael Vanyukov at Society of Classical Poets.
Why Did West Point Remove ‘Duty, Honor, Country’ From Its Mission Statement? – John Lucas at The Federalist.
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