St Paul's Churchyard ~ Sculptures & Monuments

A post with photos of the statues, sculptures and monuments we saw 

in St Paul's Cathedral churchyard

This bronze bust of English poet, preacher and Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral, John Donne (1572-1631) was unveiled in 2012 and is in the garden south of the cathedral. Though the sculpture is set westward, the face is turned to look eastward – towards Bread Street where John Donne was born, a few yards away. The bust sits on a metal base made to look like a compass. Furthermore, the pavement below is a compass too and highlights landmark moments in his life: his birthplace, his wife’s name, being a  divinity reader (sermons) at Lincoln’s Inn (one of the Inns of Court for barristers in London, this one is in Camden) and St Paul’s Cathedral.

In his work, Donne thought of the east as the place of the rising sun, the Holy Land and Christ, while the west was decline and death.

The British sculptor was Nigel Boonham and the following quote from John Donne’s “Good Friday, 1613, Riding Westward” is inscribed under the bust, on the rim of the metallic baseplate,

“Hence is't, that I am carried towards the West / This day, when my Soul's form bends to the East.” 

The words “West” and “East” are also appropriately lined up with the names Lincoln’s Inn and Bread Street on the compass part of the pavement below, where St Paul’s Cathedral is marked with a N for north – though it is rather to the west, the place of death… 

Indeed, John Donne was buried in the old St Paul’s Cathedral. His funeral monument, the only one to have survived the 1666 Great Fire of London unscathed, is still on display inside. It features his statue, standing, but seemingly dead and wrapped in a shroud. This was carved from a drawing he had commissioned, a few months before his death, showing himself at the time of the Apocalypse, rising from his grave… His writing belongs to the Metaphysical Poetry movement.

The sun was blinding, but the plinth reads 

JOHN DONNE 

poet and devine 

1572-1631

The inscriptions on the compass are:

reader Lincoln's Inn / married Anne More of Losely / birthplace Bread Street /

N dean St Paul's Cathedral

Dating from 1970 and erected here in 1973, this sculpture is called Becket, it is by Edward Bainbridge Copnall - who was president of the Royal Society of British Sculptors  in the 1960s.  Made of resin, coloured to look like bronze. Thomas Becket was born around the corner in Cheapside and was notoriously murdered in Canterbury Cathedral in the 12th century before becoming a saint.

St Paul’s Cross / Paul’s Cross

The north-east corner of the churchyard features a column erected in 1910, with a gilded statue of St Paul on top; it doubles up as a drinking fountain. As the plaque on the east side explains, this was the spot where stood an older Paul’s Cross. This corner  witnessed open-air preaching and other gatherings for news, from at least 1191 to 1643. It saw turbulent days at the time of the Reformation: Tyndale’s Bible in English being burnt, mob set on vandalising the old cathedral…

Plaque on the east side reads:

On this plot of ground stood of old "Pavl's Cross" whereat amid such scenes of good and evil as make up human affairs the conscience of church and nation through five centuries found public utterance. The first record of it is in 1191 AD. It was rebuilt by Bishop Kemp in 1449 and was finally removed by order of the Long Parliament in 1643. This cross was re-erected in its present form under the will of H. C. Richards to recall and to renew the ancient memories. 

The Shard and some pigeons

North side, another plaque remembers several members of the Richards family, including a local priest and a local craftsman who erected the monument.
Plaque on the north side reads:
In memory of Anne Richards, buried in this churchyard, of her son Frederick Richards, for many years resident in Watling Street, and of her grandson Frederick Field Richards, priest, resident for many years in St Paul's Churchyard. This cross was erected by Henry Charles Richards, citizen, baker, and turner, one of His Majesty's Counsel, Treasurer of the Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, 1904 - 1905, and member of Parliament for East Finsbury, 1805 - 1905, who spent the happiest hours of a busy life as a frequent worshipper within the walls of this cathedral. "God be merciful to me, a sinner" H.C.R. OB 1st June 1905.

In the north churchyard: The People of London Memorial, this large highly polished Irish limestone, says on its rim “REMEMBER BEFORE GOD, THE PEOPLE OF LONDON 1939-1945.”

It is inscribed, on top, with a quote by Sir Edward Marsh who was Private Secretary to Winston Churchill,

“IN WAR RESOLUTION - IN DEFEAT DEFIANCE - IN VICTORY MAGNANIMITY - IN PEACE GOOD WILL”

A nearby plaque explains: "This memorial, subscribed by readers of the Evening Standard, is dedicated to the people of London for their fortitude during the Second World War."

Unveiled in 1999, by the Queen Mother who defiantly remained in London during The Blitz. Sculptor Richard Kindersley wrote “position of the memorial adjacent to St Paul’s is most appropriate, as most people will remember the dramatic photograph of the Cathedral dome of the taken during a devastating attack in 1941.”

The quote engraved on the stone was famously re-used by Sir Winston Churchill on the frontispiece page of his history book entitled “The Second World War” - which earned him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953. The quote was also set to music for a private service attended by Churchill’s relatives in 2004, when an 8-metre long set of steel and bronze gates was unveiled, in the crypt of the cathedral, as the Winston Churchill Memorial Screen, on the 130th anniversary of his birth.

Back to the post with photos of St Paul’s Cathedral
http://gherkinscall.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/st-pauls-cathedral.html