St. Bart's Art

While the architecture and atmosphere in St. Bart's is amazing, there are also some pretty interesting things to see in the transepts.  I'm just going to show some of the things that caught my eye, like this creeping looking carving...

(Creepy looking carving of a skull)

This is the tomb of Rahere, founder and first Prior of St. Bartholomews...

(Tomb of Rahere)

The15th century Baptismal Font where the artist William Hogarth was baptized...

(Baptismal Font)

An elaborate memorial to a church patron...

This memorial used to be a popular attraction because it was made from "weeping marble" that would absorb moisture from the air, and then "weep" water droplets to make it look like the stone was crying...

(The Weeping Memorial)

Here's a bit of the mosaic floor tile in front of the Sanctuary...

(Mosaic floor tile)

As mentioned earlier, the church still has some original 12th century floor tiles, but they also have some fake structures left behind by Hollywood studios, like this fibreglass pedestal, on the right, used to hide some modern structures (plumbing, electrical) from the cameras during filming...

(Original 12th century floor tiles, left, fibreglass pedestal, right)

Here is the tomb of Walter Midmay (and his wife).  Walter was a Chancellor under Queen Elizabeth I and was the founder of Emmanuel College at Cambridge.

(Tomb of Walter Midmay)

The wooden carving atop the lecturn in the Quire...

(Statue on the lectern)

I found it a bit odd that there were many memorials and gravestones (with actual tombs below) embedded in the floor throughout the church.  It would have been quite an honour to be buried this way...

(Memorials and actual tombstones in the floor)

The last odd thing I learned about St. Bart's is that, in 1725, Benjamin Franklin once worked as a printer in a shop that is now the Lady Chapel, back when parts of the Church had become used for secular puruposes.  Weird, right?