A Précis of The History of Southwark Cathedral
Over two thousand years ago, a natural gravel bank at a narrower part of the river
resulted in a small settlement and a ferry operating across the Thames where Southwark
Cathedral now stands, the first inland crossing point on the river. The name of the
church St Mary Overie means “over the ferry” or “over the river”.
After the Roman conquest the first wooden bridges were built at this point, it remained
the only bridgehead for hundreds of years. Tradition relates that the ferry was run first
by a family, then a community of nuns. St Swithun, who built the present church and
put in Augustine Canons, dissolved the convent. The Canons founded St Thomas’
Hospital adjacent to the nave in memory of Thomas a Becket, who visited the church as
he left London on his final journey to Canterbury.
Henry VIII dissolved the priory at the Reformation and a parish, St Saviour’s, was
created. In this period the retro choir was used for trials of heretics. The records show
those found guilty being condemned to death. The composer, John Merbeck, was among
them, he was pardoned the next day. This was a very rich period of social change.
William Shakespeare and his actors performed in the neighbourhood and clearly
worshipped in St Saviour’s. Edmond Shakespeare, John Fletcher and Thomas Massinger
are buried here. Lancelot Andrews, as Bishop of Winchester resided in a palace next to
the church. He translated the first five books of the bible into English and preached
hundreds of famous sermons before four sovereigns of England. Guy Fawkes has
associations with Montague Place where he was a servant, Lord Montague only just
escaping implication in the gunpowder plot.
The area was periodically devastated by several fires, plague and disease. It escaped the
Great Fire of London because of a break in the buildings on London Bridge but suffered
its own great fire some years later; it was from Southwark that Samuel Pepys recorded in
his diary the sight of the City burning. The church is closely associated with English
literature from Gower and Chaucer to the rebuilding of the Globe theatre by Sam
Wanamaker at the very end of the twentieth century. It has always been involved with
health care, education and assisting people who are marginalized by society.
In 1905 the parish church of St Saviour and St Mary Overie became the Cathedral Church
of the new Diocese of Southwark, the mother church of a diocese now stretching from
Thames Ditton to Thamesmead and the river to the far side of Gatwick airport.
At Easter 2000, appropriately Shakespeare’s birthday and the anniversary of his death as
well as St George’s day, a new Constitution and Statutes came into effect.
In April 2001 Nelson Mandela opened the Millennium buildings and courtyard where once
the monastic cloisters stood. These provide, once again, a space for education,
hospitality and care to the thousands of new visitors to the South bank so that more
people may learn from the rich history and social traditions inspired by outstanding
Christian people in this place for nearly two thousand years.
Colin Slee
Dean