St Barts The Great...

Further along our walk, Ashlynn and I visited London’s oldest parish church, St Bartholomew The Great, which was founded in 1123. 

Exquisite Pain by Damien Hirst, Britain’s most successful living artist, depicts the brutal end of St Bartholomew, who was skinned alive. Hirst’s creative twist was using an anatomical model holding a scalpel as the knife. Hirst said: I like the confusion you get between science and religion...that’s where belief lies and art as well. 

Unlike most other London churches, this one managed to survive the Great Fire of 1666 due to the old walls of the Priory acting as a firebreak before the flames could reach the church. 

Colloquy by Sophie Arkette celebrates the letters and poems of medieval visionaries. It is a commentary about the importance of the rule of law, love and chivalry. 

The Tudor Gatehouse marks where the nave would have ended prior to the dissolution of the church in 1539. Interestingly, Benjamin Franklin once worked within the church grounds.