Another trip to Southwark with a visit this time to two Cathedrals – one Anglican and the other Roman Catholic. St George’s the RC Cathedral, was designed by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin and opened in 1848 but was bombed and gutted by fire in 1941.
Subsequently rebuilt to an Arts and Crafts/Gothic Revival style by R B Craze retaining what little survived of AWNP’s work which includes some encaustic tiling and painted carving. The new work keeping to gothic principals but lacking the decoration and detailing beloved of Pugin. Mainly modern stained glass – not much to my liking.
The cathedral building is not well known and could be confused with the other Southwark Cathedral. It also can easily be passed by in the street as it lacks a tower and spire, although Pugin had designed the church to have one and had originally designed a much larger church, but lack of money put pay to his plans.
After a quick dip into the Imperial War Museum which is opposite to St George’s I returned to the better known and easier to find cathedral: The Cathedral and Collegiate Church of St Saviour and St Overie, Southwark – the only cathedral that reverberates not to the sound of the organ but to the rumble of trains passing on the viaduct nearby!
Looked around the interior to check out suitable subjects/views/angles to photograph in anticipation of running photo courses at the cathedral starting in October, see my photo blog: http://polypodphoto.blogspot.com/
