Bell's Cathedrals: The Priory Church of St. Bartholomew-the-Great, Smithfield A Short History of the Foundation and a Description of the Fabric and also of the Church of — A Reader’s Guide

The Triforium Passage and Clerestory Arcade

Worley devotes careful attention to the longitudinal passages that perforate the triforium and clerestory walls on each side of the choir. He observes that the triforium gallery originally had windows at the back, similar to those at Durham and Peterborough, but that later rebuilding has 'greatly destroyed the original work.' The clerestory passage is formed by a series of 'shouldered arches,' which Worley notes are not true arches but flat lintels resting on corbels. This structural detail, he argues, suggests the original roof was wooden, probably painted, like those surviving at other Norman churches. The present panelled oak ceiling, about forty-seven feet above the floor, replaced an unsatisfactory timber structure that had itself supplanted earlier Tudor work. Worley criticizes the cherubim-headed corbels of the intermediate ceiling as 'an innovation more modern, and even more out of character with the building, than the ceiling itself.'

Prior Bolton's Emblematic Window

The oriel window inserted by Prior Bolton around 1530 is one of the book's most closely examined features. Worley explains that the rebus of a 'bolt in tun' was officially authorized as Bolton's arms, presenting his name in emblematical form. The window is Perpendicular in style, separated by mullions into three lights in front and one at each end, with transoms dividing it into upper and lower tiers. The sloping hipped roof and broad moulded corbel are described in detail, as are the five sculptured square panels on the face of the chamber, with the rebus displayed on the central panel. Worley interprets the oriolum as a private pew from which the Prior could survey the choir and the Founder's tomb. He also notes that a Tudor doorway with the Bolton rebus in the spandrels now opens into the choir vestry at the eastern end of the south wall.

The Founder's Tomb and Rahere's Effigy

The tomb of Rahere, the first prior, occupies a bay on the northern side of the sanctuary. Worley describes it as an altar-tomb in the Perpendicular style, resting on a simple base of rectangular stones, with four quatrefoil panels in front each displaying a shield of arms. The inscription reads: Hic jacet Raherus Primus Canonicus et Primus Prior hujus Ecclesiae. The painted effigy shows Rahere vested in the black habit of the Augustinian Canons, hands joined in prayer, tonsured head on a tasselled cushion. At the feet, an angel with flowing black hair and a crown rises from clouds, holding a shield with the Priory Arms: Gules, two lions passant guardant: or, two ducal coronets. Worley includes an old engraving showing the original extent of the arcaded work and a doorway now removed, indicating that the tomb's setting has been altered over time.

Movement Between the Two Churches

The handbook's structure moves from the main priory church to the smaller church of St. Bartholomew-the-Less, located within the precincts of St. Bartholomew's Hospital. Worley provides a plan and dimensions for the latter, contributed by G. H. Smith. The text shifts from the grand Norman apse and Perpendicular insertions of the greater church to the more modest fabric of the lesser, which served the hospital's spiritual needs. This juxtaposition highlights the different scales and functions of the two buildings. Worley's descriptions of St. Bartholomew-the-Less are briefer but still precise, noting its architectural features and historical context. The movement between the two churches mirrors the physical proximity of the sites and the institutional relationship between priory and hospital, a connection rooted in Rahere's original foundation.

Worley's handbook is best read with the building itself at hand, or with a plan and a willingness to follow his eye from Norman arcade to Perpendicular window. He does not offer a narrative history so much as a guided tour of stone and wood, where each alteration is a clue to the church's long life. Readers interested in the practical decisions of restorers, or in the way architectural details encode institutional memory, will find this a rewarding companion.