London Is Portrait Mode

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I'm slowly working my way through the recent London photographs (day 2 if anyone is interested) and I have to apologise that every single one so far has been portrait. I think it's because I love a good old building full of history and wonkiness, St Bartholomew's Gatehouse is a perfect example:
  • It is a 13th century arch topped by a two-storey Tudor building
  • The name St Bartholomew’s comes from the nearby church St Bartholomew-The-Great, which was formerly an Augustinian Priory, founded by Rahere (d.1134) in 1123
  • Following the dissolution, Sir Richard Rich, 1st Baron Rich (1496/7-1567) bought the church and surrounding land in 1546/47, sub-dividing it for housing.
  • In 1595, a Tudor, timber-framed building was added
  • Managed to survive the Great Fire of London in 1666 due to the protection of the priory walls.
  • At some point in the 18th century it was given a Georgian makeover and was used as a shop for two centuries.
  • In 1915 or 1916, a nearby German Zeppelin bomb raid caused damage to the Georgian shop front, revealing the Tudor origins underneath and exposing more of the 13th century stonework from the original nave. 
  • Following the end of World War I, it was fully restored by 1932 and is now Grade-II listed
  • Between 1948 and 1979, the then-rector’s wife Phyllis Wallbank MBE (1918-2020) set up and ran the Gatehouse School, an independent Montessori school.
  • The building couldn’t educate too many students and it moved to a larger site in Bethnal Green, east London, in the 1970s.
Sandwiches between a modern building and a red brick one stands a 4 storey, 2 room wide, thin olde worlde gatehouse. The second and third floors are white with black beans and moss covered slate roofing. Through the archway you can see a modern street with parked cars. It all feels like something out of Harry Potter or from Discworld.

Facts source, St Bartholomew’s Gatehouse | A rare survivor of 16th century London. (2015). Retrieved March 28 2024 from https://memoirsofametrogirl.com/2015/08/10/st-bartholomews-gatehouse-history-smithfield-16th-century-london/
57A W Smithfield, London EC1A 9DS, UK

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