Our class has had quite the busy and exciting week. As my
classmates have said, we visited Westminster Abbey and Oxford on Monday and
Tuesday. Over the course of the past few days, we scattered ourselves across
London to visit various churches with longstanding histories.
All of the eight churches were located in the area of London
slightly further east of Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. The area was the old
city of London; the original city of London. Today, it is home to the financial
district, although there are monuments attesting to London’s spectacularly long
and old history throughout this area.
Overall, the entire city is full of monuments that attest to
its incredibly long existence; London has lasted through every century since
its creation despite fire or high water (or plague). These monuments are
everywhere, and it’s amazing to walk down the street and be constantly reminded
of its past.
Each student in class was assigned a particular church
within the area and then we were to report on it. The students visited St.
Giles’ Cripplegate, Saint Sepulchre-without-Newgate, St. Helen’s and St.
Ethelburga the Virgin Church; St. Michael Pasternoster Royal, St. Olave’s and
St. Bride’s, as well as St. Katherine Creechurch.
So, you may ask what common theme among all of these
churches is. The answer: their foundations lie in the Middle Ages. Their
histories reach back as far as the ninth century, and they began to flourish
thereafter. For example, St. Giles’ was a Saxon church just outside of the
Roman city in about 1000 AD. Saint Sepulchre-without-Newgate was a church from
around the mid-ninth century. Each one dates back hundreds of years, and the
value of visiting them is to gather a better understanding of medieval religion
in London.
The majority of these churches are not actually medieval
anymore. London underwent a series of disastrous events, from the plague, to
the Great Fire, to bombings from war and internal conflict. However, a few
still maintain quite a lot of their medieval past, such as St. Olave’s. Many do
not. St. Helen’s was completely damaged from two bombs and the fire, and has
been rebuilt numerous times. St. Katherine Creechurch, which I visited, is
similar in that it has undergone total reconstruction. Today, the only thing
that remains is a small pillar, no taller than my waist, now painted blue and almost
unnoticeable next to a desk and a lamp.
Although the visits did not yield copious amounts of
medieval artifacts, they did demonstrate something else. Every single part of
London is reminiscent of its past. It can be a small pillar, or in the case of
St. Olave’s, it can be the medieval walls or the outside courtyard, which was
actually a huge gravesite for victims of the plague. Today, stairs lead from
the yard into the church because the amount of bodies was so high that the
level of ground eventually became elevated. Such examples show a building, a
piece of stone, or a small trinket carries a huge amount of history. These
medieval churches were eventually affected by outside factors, often not
relating to religion or theology, and although today they are religious
artifacts, they represent the entirety of London’s past simply because they
have survived through so many years, and consequently, so many events. Each
small surviving piece has its own story that we can learn from.
The churches that we visited are examples of this idea: that
London is living its history even today. In order to even attempt to experience
the middle ages in the United States, we physically have to go to the recreated
Medieval Times, or (although it’s not the medieval era) the Renaissance Faire.
In England, all you have to do is walk from your flat to the tube or from the tube
to a restaurant. The men and women working in the financial district walk along
roads and pass bricks that have existed since the Middle Ages, and some since
the Roman city.
Sometimes it can be easy to forget how old and precious a city
actually is. Luckily, in London, you are reminded of it everywhere.
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