Paternoster Row is a street in the City of London that was a centre of the London publishing trade, [1] [2] with booksellers operating from the street. [3] Paternoster Row was described as "almost synonymous" with the book trade. [4] It was part of an area called St Paul's Churchyard.
The street was devastated by aerial bombardment during World War II. In 2003 the area was pedestrianised with Paternoster Square, the modern home of the London Stock Exchange, at the west end and a paved area around St Pauls' Coop and an entrance to St Pauls tube station at the East, bounded by St Pauls Churchyard, New Change, Cheapside and Payner Alley. The route of Paternoster Row is not demarcated across the open areas, although there is a road sign at the south of the eastern area, perhaps designating the area as Paternoster Row. Between Payner Alley and Queen's Head Passage/Cannon Alley the road is clearly marked as Paternoster Row. The building to the south, Paternoster House has an address in St Pauls Churchyard (the pedestrian way north of the bounds of the churchyard proper), where its south face is. There are no signs on the next segment up to Paternoster Square, nor around the square. The exit from the south-west corner of the square, along, or very close to. the previous route of Paternoster Row, debouching on Ave Maria Lane - Warwick Avenue opposite Amen Corner, is signed as Paternoster Lane.
The street is supposed to have received its name from the fact that, when the monks and clergy of St Paul's Cathedral would go in procession chanting the great litany, they would recite the Lord's Prayer (Pater Noster being its opening line in Latin) in the litany along this part of the route. The prayers said at these processions may have also given the names to nearby Ave Maria Lane and Amen Corner.
Another possible etymology is that it was the main place in London where paternoster beads were made. The beads were popular with the laity, as well as illiterate monks and friars at the time, who prayed 50 Paternoster prayers (Latin for "Our Father") three times a day as a substitute for the 150 psalms recited a day by literate monks. [5] [6]
The name of the street dates back at least to the sixteenth century.[ citation needed ]
Houses in St. Paul's Churchyard were damaged in the Great Fire of London in 1666, burning down the old St. Paul's Cathedral. When the new St. Paul's Cathedral was erected, booksellers returned after a number of years.
A bust of Aldus Manutius, writer and publisher, can be seen above the fascia of number 13. [7] The bust was placed there in 1820 by Bible publisher Samuel Bagster. [8]
It was reported that Charlotte Brontë and Anne Brontë stayed at the Chapter Coffeehouse on the street when visiting London in 1847. They were in the city to meet their publisher regarding Jane Eyre . [9]
A fire broke out at number 20 Paternoster Row on 6 February 1890. Occupied by sheet music publisher Fredrick Pitman, the first floor was found to be on fire by a police officer at 21:30. The fire alarm was sounded at St. Martin's-le-Grand and fire crews extinguished the flames in half an hour. The floor was badly damaged, with smoke, heat and water impacting the rest of the building. [10]
This blaze was followed later the same year on 5 October by 'an alarming fire'. At 00:30 a fire was discovered at W. Hawtin and Sons, based in numbers 24 and 25. The wholesale stationers' warehouse was badly damaged by the blaze. [11]
On 21 November 1894, police raided an alleged gambling club which was based on the first floor of 59 Paternoster Row. The club known both as the 'City Billiard Club' and the 'Junior Gresham Club' had been there barely three weeks at the time of the raid. Forty-five arrests were made, including club owner Albert Cohen. [12]
On 4 November 1939, a large-scale civil defence exercise was held in the City of London. One of the simulated seats of fire was in Paternoster Row. [13]
Trübner & Co. was one of the publishing companies on Paternoster Row.
The street was devastated by aerial bombardment during the Blitz of World War II, suffering particularly heavy damage in the night raid of 29–30 December 1940, later characterised as the Second Great Fire of London, during which an estimated 5 million books were lost in the fires caused by tens of thousands of incendiary bombs. [14]
After the raid a letter was written to The Times describing:
'...a passage leading through "Simpkins" [which] has a mantle of stone which has survived the melancholy ruins around it. On this stone is the Latin inscription that seems to embody all that we are fighting for :- VERBUM DOMINI MANET IN AETERNUM' [The word of God remains forever]. [15]
Another correspondent with the newspaper, Ernest W. Larby, described his experience of 25 years working on Paternoster Row: [16]
…had he [Lord Quickswood] worked for 25 years, as I did, in Paternoster Row, he would not have quite so much enthusiasm for those narrow ways into whose buildings the sun never penetrated… What these dirty, narrow ways of the greatest city in the world really stood for from the people's viewpoint are things we had better bury.
— Ernest W. Larby
The ruins of Paternoster Row were visited by Wendell Willkie in January 1941. He said, "I thought that the burning of Paternoster Row, the street where the books are published, was rather symbolic. They [the Germans] have destroyed the place where the truth is told". [17]
Note: Before about 1762, premises in London had signs rather than numbers.
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Paternoster Square is a former historic square and now a post-war urban redevelopment, owned by the Mitsubishi Estate, next to St Paul's Cathedral in the City of London. The area, which takes its name from Paternoster Row, once centre of the London publishing trade, was devastated by aerial bombardment in The Blitz during World War II. It is now the location of the London Stock Exchange which relocated there from Threadneedle Street in 2004. It is also the location of investment banks such as Goldman Sachs, Merrill and Nomura Securities, and of fund manager Fidelity Investments. The square itself, i.e. the plaza, is privately owned public space. In 2004, Christopher Wren's 1669 Temple Bar Gate was re-erected here as an entrance way to the plaza.
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St Faith under St Paul's in Castle Baynard Ward was an unusual parish within the City of London. It originally had its own building to the east of St Paul's Cathedral, serving as a parish church for the residents of St Paul's Churchyard and Paternoster Row, but this was removed in 1256 to allow for the eastern expansion of the Cathedral. The parishioners were instead given a space to worship within the cathedral crypt.
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Jackson and Walford, later Jackson, Walford, and Hodder from 1861 was a London publishing firm and predecessor firm of Hodder & Stoughton. at 18 St Paul's Churchyard and 27 Paternoster Row in 1871 The publishers with their successive name changes were one of many London publishers that operated around St. Paul's Churchyard and Paternoster Row. They published the Congregational Year Books, which were the publications of the "Congregational Union of England and Wales, and the Confederated Societies." Matthew Hodder apprenticed there from the age of fourteen and became a partner in 1861. Upon the retirement of Messrs. Jackson and Walford in 1868, Thomas Wilberforce Stoughton joined Hodder and the firm was renamed Hodder & Stoughton. The firm then published both religious and secular works and has survived into the present day as an imprint of Hodder Headline.
The Clerical Guide or Ecclesiastical Directory was the earliest ever specialist directory to cover the clergy of the Church of England. In its initial format it appeared just four times – in 1817, 1822, 1829 and 1836, under the editorial direction of Richard Gilbert.
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Hugh Mackail, Scottish martyr, was born about 1640 at Liberton, near Edinburgh. His father was Matthew Mackail who was minister at Bothwell before being deprived of his ministry by the government in 1662. At an early age he went to reside with an uncle, Hugh Mackail, one of the ministers of Edinburgh. He entered the University of Edinburgh, studying divinity, where he distinguished himself, graduating, as the records show, in 1658 under Thomas Crawford. Shortly afterward he became chaplain and tutor in the family of Sir James Stuart of Coltness and Goodtrees, then Lord Provost of Edinburgh. In 1661, being then in his twenty-first year, he was licensed by the Presbytery of Edinburgh and afterward preached several times with much success. A sermon which he delivered in the High Church, Edinburgh, in September 1662, in which he declared that "the church of Scotland had been persecuted by an Ahab on the throne, a Haman in the state, and a Judas in the church," gave such offence that a party of horse was sent to apprehend him. He escaped, however, and, after lying concealed in his father's house in Bothwell for some time, retired into Holland, where he improved his time by studying for several years perhaps near Rotterdam. Then, returning to Scotland, he lived chiefly at his father's house, until in November 1666 he joined a rising of the covenanters. After nine days' marching, however, his weak health obliged him to leave the insurgents, and on his way back to Liberton he was arrested, carried to Edinburgh, and committed to the Tolbooth. He was several times brought before the council and tortured with the boot. Finally, after trial, despite the efforts of his cousin, Matthew Mackail, an apothecary, who interceded with James Sharp, archbishop of St. Andrews, on his behalf, Hugh was hanged at the market-cross of Edinburgh on 22 December 1666, amid "such a lamentation," says Kirkton, "as was never known in Scotland before, not one dry cheek upon all the street, or in all the numberless windows in the market-place." According to MS. Jac. V. 7. 22, in the Advocates' Library, "immediately after the execution of the aforementioned four men there came a letter from the king, discharging the executing of more; but the Bishop of St. Andrews kept it up till Mr. Hew was executed," Mackail behaved with great fortitude on the scaffold, addressing the crowd with singular impressiveness. He was buried in Greyfriars churchyard. Wodrow describes him as "universally beloved, singularly pious, and of very considerable learning."
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{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) […] Printed by J. W. Myers, No. 2, Paternoster-row, London, for West and Hughes, No. 40, Paternoster-row. […]
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