St Bartholemew the Great in 1900

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Mappin & Webb's Prince's Plate London $ Sheffield Dome; Silver Plated Platter
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William Eley & William Fearn Sterling Silver Condiment Spoon London circa 1820
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A somewhat intricate route from Cannon Street took one to Smithfield, where stood all that remained of the once famous St. Bartholomew's Priory Church, founded by Rahere, a favourite of Henry I.

The whole building, which represented the choir and transepts of the original church, had been carefully restored and cleared of all excrescent buildings that had grown about it.

With the exception of St. John's, in the Tower, it was the best example of pure Norman architecture in London.

Rahere's canopied tomb near the altar was remarkable, and Prior Bolton's oriel window in the south triforium, whence mass could be heard by sick monks, was very picturesque.

St. Bartholomew's churchyard was a weird and ghastly place, pitched higher than the level of the existing church floor.

From one of its tombstones was made every Good Friday a distribution of sixpences to old women.

In 1900 a clerestory window, which dated from about 1200, was opened up on the south side of the only remaining bay of the great nave.

It had remained bricked up ever since 1628, when the present tower was erected into which it now opens.

(Great St Barts, as it is popularly known, survived not only the Great Fire of 1666 but was also one of the few city churches to come through the Second World War blitz completely unscathed.)

Next: City Churches in 1900 London: St Sepulchre-without-Newgate