The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-09-27 00:00:00

THE OPENING OF ST. PAUL'S
CHURCHYARD.

The opening space Immediately adjoining St. Paul's Cathe-
dral, London, which has been prepared as a public garden
at an expense of £5,000, was thrown open to the public on
Monday. During the progress of the alterations some in-
teresting antiquarian discoveries were made. The opening
ceremonial was very simple, the Lord Mayor attending, and
declaring the ground open to the public for ever, in the
presence of the Sheriffs, the officers of the Corporation, and
the members of the Corn, Coal, and Finance Committee,
who had been entrusted with the carrying out of the scheme
of improvement.—The Daily Telegraph in noticing the
above ceremony, thus recalls the laying of the foundation
stone of the Cathedral:—

The first stone of St. Paul's Cathedral was laid on
the 21st of June, 1675, by the architect himself, as-
sisted by his trusty master-mason Strong, but without
any public ceremonial. In the year 1710, Sir Chris-
topher, then nearly eighty years of age, laid the last
stone of the Cathedral, assisted by his son, and still
attended by the faithful Strong. . The Lodge of
Freemasons, of which he was an active brother was
present; and, as Dr. Milman eloquently remarks, "if
ever there was an occasion on which the heart of man
might swell with pardonable pride, it was the heart
of Wren at that hour, whether he himself was actually
at the summit of the building, or watched
his son's act from below. The architect looked
down or looked up and around on this great
and matchless building, the creation of his
own mind, the achievement of his own care and
skill. . . . All London had poured forth to witness
the spectacle, which had been publicly announced, and
were looking in wonder on the old man who was on
that wondrous height, setting the seal, as it were,
on his august labours." But, apart from legitimate
pride at the triumphant conclusion of his stupendous
undertaking, feelings of a very different nature
may have been just then agitating the mind of
Sir Christopher Wren. It is possible that they
were feelings of bitter disappointment and sor-
rowful indignation. From his pinnacle of glory
he descended "not to meet with homage, not with
ardent admiration, not with merited gratitude, from
the Church, the City, the nation for his wonderful
work, but to encounter petty yet presumptuous
jealousy, injustice, hostility, unprovoked malignity,
and, finally, absolute degradation—as far as mean men
could degrade a man like Wren." From the outset he
had been thwarted by ignorant, meddlesome, and job-
bing officiality. The Commissioners for rebuilding the
City after the fire cared little for the interests of archi-
tectural effect, but a great deal for the material interests
of the merchants and traders who were so powerfully
represented at the Board. They made indecent
haste to mark and stake out the new streets to be
built, and in their greed for building land they
followed in the majority of instances the lines of the
old and tortuous lanes and alleys, and they contrived
to get their report confirmed by Parliament long before
the designs for the new Cathedral had been settled.
With equal eagerness the proprietors of the ground
began to build according to the limits traced for them;
and long before the first stone of St. Paul's was laid
immense progress had been made in running up blocks
of houses for shops and taverns in spaces which Wren
had intended to keep clear, in order to secure an un-
disturbed vista for his noble pile. Thus was lost, and
it is to be feared hopelessly, the opportunity of placing
the Basilica on an esplanade worthy of its consummate
proportions. Wren's original plan contemplated the
laying out in front of the Cathedral of a magnificent
area, equalling in size the PiAZZO San Pietro, at Rome.
Here would have been a beautiful garden, a stately
huntain, and an equestrian statue of Charles 11.
From the west St. Paul's would have been approached
by a thoroughfare thrice the width of the existing
Ludgate-hill. Paternoster•row and the Dredalus of
lanes surrounding Doctors'-commons would have been
swept away, and the Cathedral flanked by two semi-
circular expanses of greenery, on one of which
would have stood isolated the Chapter House, and on
the other a building for the Ecclesiastical Courts. To
the east St, Paul's School was to be rebuilt, standing
by itself in the midst of a fair garden. Toe Commis-
sioners laughed at this grand scheme, and took very
good care that Sir Christopher should not be allowed to
carry it into execution. me result of their narrow-
mindedness, rapacity, and intolerance was that the
brightest jewel of which the metropolis of England
could boast was shrouded in a mean, shabby, and
dingy casket of "mercers, bookstalls, and brandy
shops,"