ROYAL COLLECTION TRUST / © HER MAJESTY QUEEN ELIZABETH II 2021
The start of the walk as it appeared in the 18th century before the River Fleet was covered over
(Follower of Samuel Scott, The Entrance to the Fleet)
DAVID HARRISON
FOOTSTEPS AROUND GIBBONS
Last September a beautiful new walking map was launched, Central London Footways;
https://footways.london/ . It is the first to focus on enjoyable everyday walking, providing a network of walking routes along attractive, historic, back streets. This is a lovely way to explore the City. The following walk passes buildings and places associated with Grinling Gibbons and his times, and includes a visit to St Mary Abchurch where an exhibition of Master Carvers’ work is highlighting the living tradition of carving, as part of the Gibbons’ Tercentenary celebrations: Art and Ornament.*
Start at Blackfriars Station, where circa 1700 you would have been standing by the canalised River Fleet, crossed by Wren’s high Venetian-style bridge. Look north and cross dismal Queen Victoria Street, opened in 1871, but turn left after the railway bridge, up Blackfriars Lane and the delights of the historic City begin, notably the fine surviving Apothecaries’ Hall, 1668-73, which contains traces of the medieval friary. As a short detour, continue to Ludgate Hill. Opposite, St Martin within Ludgate (1677-86) comes into view.
Next door was The Bell Savage coaching inn where Gibbons lived before 1678. According to Horace Walpole he carved an exquisite pot of flowers in wood as an advertisement, which stood on his window sill.
The view of the west front of St Paul’s is magnificent, but retrace your steps to Carter Lane, a glorious survival of the pre-war City. Walk eastwards. On the right is Wardrobe Place, the site of the medieval royal wardrobe, destroyed in the 1666 Fire. Several early 18C houses survive. Continue to Dean’s Court. Set back but visible behind its wall, it is the current, recently refurbished residence of the Bishop of London, one of the finest surviving 17C mansions in the City.
Ahead is St Paul’s. Just to the west is a statue of Queen Anne surrounded by Purbeck stone paving; this was the main form of pavement in 1700. In the cathedral are Gibbons’ renowned choir stalls. Though much altered – originally, the choir and stalls were all east of the crossing, with the organ placed across the choir at its west end – the miraculous carving with angels and cherubs remain.
From St Paul’s go through the Festival Gardens – part was until 2012 a coach park – into Watling Street. Stop at the junction with Bow Lane. Behind you, the dome of the cathedral rises above the narrow street. To the north is Bow Lane, the City’s most attractive, historic pedestrianised street. St Mary le Bow is at the end, with an 11C crypt. To the south are St Mary Aldermary with Wren’s medieval-style plaster fan vaults executed by Henry Doogood.
Cross into the Bloomberg Arcade, a new walking route created as part of the construction of the building (2017). At the end is Walbrook with Wren’s first dome on St Stephen Walbrook. Continuing east along Cannon Street, Abchurch Yard is on the left with St Mary Abchurch. Inside is Gibbons’ superb large reredos, the one documented work by him in a City parish church: Corinthian columns, cases, pelican and garlands. Allow time to admire the work of Gibbons and the Master Carvers.
You can continue your visit to several churches with works attributed to, or in the style of, Gibbons. Visit them and judge for yourself. Go to All Hallows Barking by the Tower. The quickest route is by Eastcheap, but head down Laurence Pountney Hill past two superb 18C houses and to the Thames. Admire the river, but London Bridge is a disappointment. It was constructed in 1973 to replace Rennie’s bridge (1831) which was built a little upstream of the medieval bridge Gibbons knew. Recent research suggests the abutment of this bridge probably survives under the churchyard of St Magnus the Martyr. The interior of this church contains sumptuous woodwork, although not by Gibbons.
Continue east past Billingsgate Market (1874-8) and the Custom House (1820s), both on the site of medieval predecessors. Turn north to All Hallows with its Saxon and medieval remains and exquisitely carved font cover, dated 1682, of cherubs, leaves, flowers, wheatears and fir-cones. According to Pevsner, it is ‘attributed uncontestedly to Grinling Gibbons’.
Now the visit continues to churches with carving less certainly attributed to Gibbons. Skirt the Tower of London and head via The Minories to St Botolph Aldgate. It is in a fine public square which recently replaced a large 1970s roundabout. In the church there is a panel of King David surrounded by garlands and musical instruments. Meander through small streets to St Helen Bishopsgate, formerly a Benedictine nunnery. Inside is a monument to Rachel Chambrelan with standing cherubs. By intriguing alleys arrive at Drapers’ Hall. Gibbons was a Draper, though was passed over three times for the office of Master.
Take a slight detour to St Margaret Lothbury. Here is a marble font with the same scenes Gibbons carved at St James, Piccadilly: Adam and Eve, Noah, the baptisms of Christ and the eunuch. Go back to the Drapers and wind through to Guildhall Yard and St Lawrence Jewry. Inside is a monument to Archbishop John Tillotson, portrait relief above weeping cherubs. Go west to St Bololph Aldersgate, with a monument to Sir John Micklethwaite.
Thence go along King Edward Street, formerly Stinking Lane, into Paternoster Square with views to the cathedral north transept pediment: royal arms by Gibbons. In the square Wren’s chapter house and the relocated Temple Bar. Go back across Ludgate and return to Blackfriars Station. Refreshments can be taken among the Art Nouveaux reliefs of the Blackfriar’s pub.
REFERENCES
Simon Bradley and Nikolaus Pevsner,
The Buildings of England: London 1: The City of London,
Yale University Press, 2002
Art and Ornament * 2-21 August, St Mary Abchurch;
23 August-5 September, The Dutch Church, Austin Friars
First published in August 21 Skyline: The Magazine of the Friends of the City Churches