War of words – ‘Gothic’
With Marc DeSantis
gothic architecture
The secrets of church walls
had King Charles been in need of distraction or amusement during his Coronation in May 2023, he could have done worse than study all the graffiti carved into the woodwork of the Coronation Chair
St Bartholomew the Great: tracing the history of London’s oldest surviving parish church
Making people laugh in the 12th century proved to be lucrative work for Rahere (d. 1143), who is variously described as a jester, minstrel, and courtier to Henry I (c.1068-1135; r. 1100-1135). But that was in his early life: Rahere later became a devout cleric who, falling ill on a pilgrimage to Rome, vowed to establish a hospital in London if he survived. The result was St Bartholomew, founded in 1123 as a joint foundation of hospital and priory. A commemorative volume has just been published to mark the 900th anniversary of the church, as Chris Catling reports.
Last chance to tour archaeological remains of medieval chapel at Auckland Castle
Tours take place at 2pm Wednesday to Sunday and are free for visitors with admission to Auckland Castle.
Stained-glass windows of Notre-Dame Cathedral restored following fire
Although none of the stained-glass windows were destroyed or damaged by the fire, many of them, already dusty, were exposed to smoke and soiled as a result.
Eugène Viollet-le-Duc
Viollet-le-Duc needed connections: he had elected not to study architecture, preferring to learn on the job.
The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries at Westminster Abbey
New displays in Westminster Abbey’s eastern triforium (the gallery above the nave) explore the long history of the church, its royal links, and its importance as a national monument. Lucia Marchini takes a look at the recently opened Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries.
The Dissolution of the Monasteries: heritage in ruins
Apart from his red hair, beard, giant girth and his equally gargantuan appetite for wives, the one thing we all associate with Henry VIII is the event that the authors of 1066 and All That called, with an eye for a memorable spelling mistake, ‘the Disillusion of the Monasteries’.