Church Monuments Society

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‘Ghastly Grim’: the 17th century Church Gateways of London.

By Dr Roger Bowdler, FSA.

‘Mors ianua vitae’ means ‘death is the gate of life’. Revisiting this topic, Dr Bowdler explores how and why this Christian topos was embodied in physical churchyard portals. The mortality imagery they present: skulls, skeletons and spectacular scenes of the Last Judgment, make this obvious. Originally there were just over a dozen examples of these unusual Anglican works of architecture, and they are considered here as a group. Many of their carvers are now unknown. The possible source of their inspiration was the Amsterdam suite of new church doors comissioned from Hendrick de Keyser. Depictions of his work took up half the plates included in Architectura Moderna (1631), compiled by Salomon de Bray. Post-1631 examples in London are examined, including those at St Katherine Cree, a lost portal from St Leonard, Shoreditch, one erected at St Olave, Hart Street (called ‘St Ghastly Grim’ by Charles Dickens in 1860’s The Uncommercial Traveller), another at St Giles Cripplegate, and more. Looking at the period around 1680, the height of the production of high relief carvings of the Last Judgment, Dr Bowdler explains how these can be viewed as the Baroque equivalent of medieval Doom paintings, highlighting St Andrew’s Holborn, St Mary at Hill, and St Giles in the Fields (another, from St Stephen Coleman Street was lost during the Second World War). Later examples of skull-encrusted gateways survive elsewhere across the UK, such as at Ashbourne, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Moberley and Kikleatham. These portals are significant examples of later memento mori, and they demonstrate the longevity of this particular form of appeal to repentance.

Dr Roger Bowdler FSA is a historian of tombs and buildings. He studied history of art at Cambridge, and completed a PhD on macabre 17th century church monuments in 1991. He was formerly Director of Listing at English Heritage, and is now a heritage consultant, lecturer and author. He is a former chairman of the Mausolea and Monuments Trust, a Commissioner of the Royal Hospital Chelsea and a Research Associate at the University of London’s Institute of Historical Research. He is currently a specialist in heritage for Montagu Evans.