Lambeth Palace
Encyclopedia
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...
in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It is located in Lambeth
Lambeth
Lambeth is a district of south London, England, and part of the London Borough of Lambeth. It is situated southeast of Charing Cross.-Toponymy:...
, on the south bank of the River Thames
River Thames
The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...
a short distance upstream of the Palace of Westminster
Palace of Westminster
The Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament or Westminster Palace, is the meeting place of the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom—the House of Lords and the House of Commons...
on the opposite shore. It was acquired by the archbishopric around 1200. It is bounded by Lambeth Palace Road
Lambeth Palace Road
Lambeth Palace Road runs between Westminster Bridge and Lambeth Bridge, in Lambeth, London, on the south bank of the River Thames. St Thomas' Hospital lies between it and the river. At the southern end is Lambeth Palace, the London base of the Archbishop of Canterbury.The road forms part of the A3036...
to the north and west and Lambeth Road
Lambeth Road
Lambeth Road is a road in Lambeth and Southwark , London running between Lambeth Bridge over the River Thames at the western end and St George's Circus at the eastern end. The road is designated the A3203....
to the south.
History
The south bank of the Thames, not part of historic London, developed slowly because the land was low and sodden: it was called Lambeth Marsh, as far downriver as the present Blackfriars RoadBlackfriars Road
Blackfriars Road is a road in Southwark, SE1. It runs between St George's Circus at the southern end and Blackfriars Bridge over the River Thames at the northern end, leading to the City of London. Halfway up on the west side is Southwark tube station, on the corner with The Cut...
. The name "Lambeth" embodies "hithe", a landing on the river: archbishops came and went by water, as did John Wycliff, who was tried here for heresy. In the English peasants' revolt of 1381 the Palace was attacked.
The oldest remaining part of the palace is the Early English chapel
Chapel
A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...
. The so-called Lollard’s Tower, which retains evidence of its use as a prison
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
in the 17th century, dates from 1440. There is a fine Tudor
Tudor architecture
The Tudor architectural style is the final development of medieval architecture during the Tudor period and even beyond, for conservative college patrons...
brick gatehouse built by Cardinal
Cardinal (Catholicism)
A cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official, usually an ordained bishop, and ecclesiastical prince of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope. The duties of the cardinals include attending the meetings of the College and...
John Morton in 1495. Cardinal Pole lay in state in the palace for 40 days after he died there in 1558. The fig
Ficus
Ficus is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes, and hemiepiphyte in the family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few species extending into the semi-warm temperate zone. The Common Fig Ficus is a genus of...
tree in the palace courtyard is possibly grown from a slip taken from one of the White Marseille figs reputedly planted by Cardinal Pole. In 1786 there were three ancient figs, two "nailed against the wall" and still noted in 1826 as "two uncommonly fine... traditionally reported to have been planted by Cardinal Pole, and fixed against that part of the palace believed to have been founded by him. They are of the white Marseilles sort, and still bear delicious fruit. ...On the south side of the building, in a small private garden, is another tree of the same kind and age." By 1882 their place had been taken by several massive offshoots.
The Great Hall
Great hall
A great hall is the main room of a royal palace, nobleman's castle or a large manor house in the Middle Ages, and in the country houses of the 16th and early 17th centuries. At that time the word great simply meant big, and had not acquired its modern connotations of excellence...
was ransacked by Cromwellian troops during the English Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
, and after the Restoration
English Restoration
The Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...
, it was rebuilt by archbishop William Juxon
William Juxon
William Juxon was an English churchman, Bishop of London from 1633 to 1649 and Archbishop of Canterbury from 1660 until his death.-Life:...
in 1663 (dated) with a late Gothic hammerbeam roof
Hammerbeam roof
Hammerbeam roof, in architecture, is the name given to an open timber roof, typical of English Gothic architecture, using short beams projecting from the wall.- Design :...
, the likes of which had not been constructed for a hundred years. In this context, the choice of a hammerbeam roof was evocative; it spoke of High-Church Anglican continuity with the Old Faith (the King's brother was an avowed Catholic), a visual statement that the Interregnum was over. As with some Gothic details on University buildings of the same date, it is debated among architectural historians whether this is Gothic survival or an extraordinary early work of the Gothic Revival. The diarist Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys FRS, MP, JP, was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who is now most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man...
recognized it for what it was: "a new old-fashioned hall" he called it.
Among the portraits of the archbishops now housed in the Palace are examples by Hans Holbein
Hans Holbein the Younger
Hans Holbein the Younger was a German artist and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style. He is best known as one of the greatest portraitists of the 16th century. He also produced religious art, satire and Reformation propaganda, and made a significant contribution to the history...
, Anthony van Dyck
Anthony van Dyck
Sir Anthony van Dyck was a Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England. He is most famous for his portraits of Charles I of England and his family and court, painted with a relaxed elegance that was to be the dominant influence on English portrait-painting for the next...
, William Hogarth
William Hogarth
William Hogarth was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist who has been credited with pioneering western sequential art. His work ranged from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects"...
and Sir Joshua Reynolds
Joshua Reynolds
Sir Joshua Reynolds RA FRS FRSA was an influential 18th-century English painter, specialising in portraits and promoting the "Grand Style" in painting which depended on idealization of the imperfect. He was one of the founders and first President of the Royal Academy...
.
New construction was added to the building in 1834 by Edward Blore
Edward Blore
Edward Blore was a 19th century British landscape and architectural artist, architect and antiquary. He was born in Edinburgh, Scotland ....
(1787–1879), who rebuilt much of Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace, in London, is the principal residence and office of the British monarch. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is a setting for state occasions and royal hospitality...
later. Here his work is neo-Gothic enough to have satisfied Sir Walter Scott, and it fronts a spacious quadrangle. It is these buildings which are now inhabited by the archbishop.
Lambeth Palace Library
The palace is now also home to Lambeth Palace Library, the official library of the Archbishop of Canterbury and principal holder of records for the history of the Church of EnglandChurch of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
, founded as a public library by archbishop Richard Bancroft
Richard Bancroft
Archbishop Richard Bancroft, DD, BD, MA, BA was an English churchman, who became Archbishop of Canterbury and the "chief overseer" of the production of the authorized version of the Bible.-Life:...
in 1610. This contains a vast collection of material relating to ecclesiastical history, including archbishops' and bishops' archives and papers relating to various Anglican missionary and charitable societies. The valuable collection of original manuscripts contains important material, some dating as far back as the 9th century. The various other collections contain material on an immense variety of topics from the history of art and architecture to colonial and Commonwealth
Commonwealth of Nations
The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...
history, and innumerable aspects of English social
Social history
Social history, often called the new social history, is a branch of History that includes history of ordinary people and their strategies of coping with life. In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in history departments...
, political and economic history. The library is also a significant resource for local history
English local history
Local history is the study of the history of a relatively small geographic area; typically a specific settlement, parish or county. English local history came to the fore with the antiquarians of the 19th century and was particularly emphasised by the creation of the Victoria County History series...
and genealogy
Genealogy
Genealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members...
.
The library contains over 120,000 books as well as the archives of the Archbishops of Canterbury and other church bodies dating back to the 12th century. These can be found via the online catalogs (linked below). Highlights include:
- Gutenberg BibleGutenberg BibleThe Gutenberg Bible was the first major book printed with a movable type printing press, and marked the start of the "Gutenberg Revolution" and the age of the printed book. Widely praised for its high aesthetic and artistic qualities, the book has an iconic status...
- Lambeth BibleLambeth BibleThe Lambeth Bible is a 12th Century illuminated manuscript considered to be among the finest surviving giant bibles from Romanesque England. It exists in two volumes. The first volume exists in the Lambeth Palace library and covers Genesis to Job and is 328 pages of vellum measuring 518 x 353 mm...
St Mary-at-Lambeth
The adjacent parish church of St Mary-at-Lambeth was rebuilt around 1850, though the ancient monuments preserved give it an appearance of antiquity. Among them are tombs of some of the archbishops, including Richard BancroftRichard Bancroft
Archbishop Richard Bancroft, DD, BD, MA, BA was an English churchman, who became Archbishop of Canterbury and the "chief overseer" of the production of the authorized version of the Bible.-Life:...
, and of the gardeners and plantsmen John Tradescant the elder
John Tradescant the elder
John Tradescant the elder , father of John Tradescant the younger, was an English naturalist, gardener, collector and traveller, probably born in Suffolk, England...
and his son of the same name
John Tradescant the younger
John Tradescant the Younger , son of John Tradescant the elder, was a botanist and gardener, born in Meopham, Kent and educated at The King's School, Canterbury...
, and of Admiral William Bligh
William Bligh
Vice Admiral William Bligh FRS RN was an officer of the British Royal Navy and a colonial administrator. A notorious mutiny occurred during his command of HMAV Bounty in 1789; Bligh and his loyal men made a remarkable voyage to Timor, after being set adrift in the Bounty's launch by the mutineers...
. St Mary's was deconsecrated in 1972, and a few years later the Museum of Garden History
Museum of Garden History
The Garden Museum, formerly known as the Museum of Garden History, is based in the deconsecrated parish church of St Mary-at-Lambeth adjacent to Lambeth Palace on the south bank of the River Thames in London, located on Lambeth Road...
(now the Garden Museum) opened there, because of its Tradescant associations.
External links
- Lambeth Palace official website
- Lambeth Palace Library official website
- Very detailed architectural description – from the Survey of LondonSurvey of LondonThe Survey of London is a research project to produce a comprehensive architectural survey of the former County of London. It was founded in 1894 by Charles Robert Ashbee, an Arts-and-Crafts architect and social thinker, and was motivated by a desire to record and preserve London's ancient monuments...
online - Flickr images tagged Lambeth Palace
- Library catalog of printed books
- Library catalog of manuscripts and archives