Southwark Cathedral in London

The Southwark Cathedral is one of the oldest in the U.K. It is located in Soutwark which is an area just south of the London Bridge.  The church on the Southwark Cathedral site for more than 1000 years. It was built between 1220 and 1420.  The first chirch that was there before the current structure was believed to be built in 606. It is also signifigant because it stands at the crossing point of the tidal Thames at what was the only entrance to the City of London across the river for centuries.

It is definitely the oldest Gothic building in London. It’s full formal name is the Cathedral and Collegiate Church of St. Saviour and St. Mary Overie (over the river).

Archeologists digging on the site have found that before the area was a church it was the location of a Roman Villa.  Roman paving stones can be found in the choir aisles.

A dig in 1977 also discovered pagan treasures beneatht the well including a fourth Century Roman statue that depicts a hunter god;  a horned god.

The cathedral also is home to many memorials and tombs. There are many famous actors and playwrights buried here simply because the church was so close to many of the playhouses in the area.  One of them was Will Kemp who played many of Shakespeare’s fools at the Globe Theater, Elizabethan playwright Philip Massinger and John Fletcher. Yet another famous person buried here is William Shakespeare’s brothe Edumon who was an actor at the Globe.

William Shakespeare is honored in the church even though he is not buried there. There is a stained glass window that depicts manh of his play’s characters.  They are located in the nave’s south aisle.

Outside in the graveyard is the unmarked grave of Mahomet Weyonomon, a chief of the Mohegan tribe from Connectiacut U.S. who came to London to meet with King Geroge II to ask ask for protection from settlers.  He dies of smallpox in 1736 before he coulld meet with the king.  A 2006 ceremony attended by Queen Elizabeth II marked his presence in the churchyard with a tombstone of pink granite that was mined from Mohegan tribal land.

The founder of Harvard University, John Harvard is also buried in the Harvard Chapel.  Southwark was baptized in the churchin d1607 and grew up in Southwark.

The acoustics in the church are said to be amazing and good reason to visit it is to hear the choral music of both the boys and the girls choir.