Westminster
has been a city in its own right, independent of London,
for most of its history. Many of the Saxon, Norman and
medieval kings of England preferred to have their main
residence at Westminster to preserve their own independence
from the powerful city of London. Westminster stands on
what was once known as Thorney Island (named for the dense
thorn bushes which covered it), and there has been a settlement
on the island since the Bronze Age - Thorney Isle lay
directly across the river from what is now Lambeth, and
there was a ford (and much later a ferry service) at the
river here which has been used for millennia. Westminster
is founded on a very important, very ancient and very
historic site.
There
was a church on Thorney Island since the 600s, founded
by Serbet, king of the East Saxons, and rumoured to have
been built on the top of a temple to Apollo (or a temple
to Diana in some accounts). The king dedicated the church
to St Peter, and it is said that on the day of its consecration
the saint himself descended from heaven to bless the church.
St Peter, however, was minus his Blue Guide, for he became
lost, and alighted at the site of Lambeth Palace on the
opposite bank of the Thames instead at the site of the
new church on Thorney Island. St Peter had been accompanied
by a heavenly host of angels for this visitation, and
they found it no trouble to wing their way across to the
new church, but St Peter was forced to wait for a ferry
(public transport in London always being troublesome).
Eventually a fisherman called Edric rowed St Peter across
and was directed by St Peter to wait outside and watch
what happened next.
Edric
was amazed to witness a glorious illumination within the
new church and heard the sound of angelic voices breathing
the most divine of music. The heavenly hymns were followed
by a solemn voice pronouncing the prayers of the Christian
ritual, which lasted for half an hour, after which time
all lights were extinguished and St Peter again appeared
by Edric's side, demanding to be taken back across the
Thames to Lambeth.
Edric
was rewarded for his troubles with a ferry full of salmon.
Such
is the legendary founding of Westminster Abbey ('Westminster'
meaning the minster to the west of London), although an
abbey itself was not built on the site until the eleventh
century (commenced in 1049 and completed in 1066). It
is one of the earliest churches in Europe made in the
cruciform form, and was the wonder of the day during its
building (and remains a wonder today, if you can battle
the tourists to see it). See a view of the interior
of the abbey, as also the page on Tothill
Street, showing a view of Westminster Abbey.
The
church of St Margaret's, pictured in the left of the image
above, is the parish church of Westminster. It was built
by Edward the Confessor, and then extensively rebuilt
again during the time of Edward I. In 1803 the church
again underwent major refurbishment. It has a beautiful
eastern window of painted glass which has had an exciting
and somewhat chequered history. It was originally commissioned
during the time of Henry VII, not for St Margaret's at
all, but with the intention of presenting it to the king
for his chapel. By the time it was completed and ready
for delivery, however, the king had died, and the Abbot
of Waltham decided it would look very fine in his own
private chapel at Copt Hall. Here it remained until the
dissolution of the monasteries in the sixteenth century,
when it was removed and sent to New Hall (the seat of
the earls of Ormond) in Wiltshire. Here the window remained
(the hall passing through several hands in the meantime)
until the wars between Parliament and the Royalists in
the mid-seventeenth century when General Monk (who currently
owned the hall) took it down and interred it in the garden
of New Hall lest it be damaged. After the Restoration
of 1660 the window was dug up and restored in New Hall.
After some time New Hall itself fell into decay, and the
window was purchased by a Mr Conyers for his own chapel
in Epping. St Margaret's purchased it in 1768 for four
hundred guineas.
