Paternoster Square

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1. 

   richardr (67 months ago | reply)

   Paternoster Square is an urban development north of St Paul's Cathedral in the City of London. In 1942, the area, which takes its name from Paternoster Row — a street down which the monks of the medieval St Paul's would walk, chanting the Lord's Prayer (Pater Noster being its opening line in Latin) — was devastated by aerial bombardment in The Blitz. Prior to this destruction the area had been something of a centre of the London publishing trade, with a number of booksellers operating from the street.

   From Elizabeth Gaskell's The Life of Charlotte Brontë:

   "Paternoster Row was for many years sacred to publishers. It is a narrow flagged street, lying under the shadow of St. Paul's; at each end there are posts placed, so as to prevent the passage of carriages, and thus preserve a solemn silence for the deliberations of the "Fathers of the Row." The dull warehouses on each side are mostly occupied at present by wholesale stationers; if they be publishers' shops, they show no attractive front to the dark and narrow street. Half-way up, on the left-hand side, is the Chapter Coffee-house. I visited it last June. It was then unoccupied. It had the appearance of a dwelling-house, two hundred years old or so, such as one sometimes sees in ancient country towns; the ceilings of the small rooms were low, and had heavy beams running across them; the walls were wainscotted breast high; the staircase was shallow, broad, and dark, taking up much space in the centre of the house. This then was the Chapter Coffee-house, which, a century ago, was the resort of all the booksellers and publishers; and where the literary hacks, the critics, and even the wits, used to go in search of ideas or employment. This was the place about which Chatterton wrote, in those delusive letters he sent to his mother at Bristol, while he was starving in London. "I am quite familiar at the Chapter Coffee-house, and know all the geniuses there." Here he heard of chances of employment; here his letters were to be left.

   

   Years later, it became the tavern frequented by university men and country clergymen, who were up in London for a few days, and, having no private friends or access into society, were glad to learn what was going on in the world of letters, from the conversation which they were sure to hear in the Coffee-room. In Mr. Bronte's few and brief visits to town, during his residence at Cambridge, and the period of his curacy in Essex, he had stayed at this house; hither he had brought his daughters, when he was convoying them to Brussels; and here they came now, from very ignorance where else to go. It was a place solely frequented by men; I believe there was but one female servant in the house. Few people slept there; some of the stated meetings of the Trade were held in it, as they had been for more than a century; and, occasionally country booksellers, with now and then a clergyman, resorted to it; but it was a strange desolate place for the Miss Brontes to have gone to, from its purely business and masculine aspect. "

   The most obvious monument in the redeveloped square is the 23m tall Paternoster Square Column. It is a Corinthian column of Portland stone topped by a gold leaf covered flaming copper urn, which is illuminated by fibre-optic lighting at night. The column was designed by the architects Whitfield Partners. Similar to Wren's Monument it commemorates the Blitz as Wren did the Great Fire.

2. ★

   locus_imagination added this photo to their favorites. (67 months ago)

3. 

   Luberon (sbonnefond) (67 months ago | reply)

   thanks for this page of history

4. 

   richardr (67 months ago | reply)

   You're very welcome.

5. 

   focalplane (67 months ago | reply)

   Fascinating part of London I knew nothing about until now! Many thanks!

6. 

   richardr (67 months ago | reply)

   No problem.

7. 

   Evil_Elliot (67 months ago | reply)

   Great history Richard - facinating stuff!

8. 

   richardr (67 months ago | reply)

   Thanks.

9. ★

   lintalin added this photo to their favorites. (48 months ago)

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