The Worshipful Company of Tax Advisers

Tour of St Bartholomew The Great – November 2022

Twenty-two Company members and their guests were given a guided tour of our Guild Church, St Bartholomew the Great, by our Honorary Chaplain, Fr Marcus Walker, one evening in late autumn. The darkness pervaded all as we gathered near the entrance of London’s oldest parish church still in everyday use, it having escaped many hazards over the ages, ranging from the whims of King Henry VIII to the outrages of Adolf Hitler.

We were on the eve of the 900^th anniversary of the foundation of the building and adjacent hospital by Prior Rahere on 25^th March, 1123, and our guide held aloft a copy of the recently published commemorative book, whose pages expanded on the outline of the tour itself.

The tour progressed round the building in a clockwise direction, passing Rahere’s tomb in the process and noting that his body uniquely lay with the feet pointing towards the altar, rather than away from it; past the Lady Chapel whose roof as a matter of urgency had very recently been repaired; and up the precipitous narrow staircase to the triforium, where there is the prospect of a new museum being created.

The building has seen many changes of use over the centuries, ranging from the provision of children’s education, through the housing of Benjamin Franklin’s printers’ workshop in the area of the Lady Chapel, to the use of the north transept by ironmongers. Many have been the visitors over the years, not least through the appearance of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Canon Hubert.

After the tour, we expressed our appreciation of the thoroughly interesting explanation of the history of the building; and those who did not have to hurry home to avoid the worst implications of industrial action on the railway network were able to eat a hearty meal at the nearby Butchers Hook and Cleaver pub.