ACCOUNT OF THE Royal Hospital and Collegiate Church OF' SAINT KATHARINE, NEAR THE TOWER OF LONDON. ལ By J. B. NICHOLS, F.S. A. F. L. S. LONDON: PRINTED BY AND FOR JOHN NICHOLS AND SON, 25, PARLIAMENT STREET, PRINTERS TO THE SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES. 1824. PREFACE. THE present Publication owes its origin to the interest excited in consequence of the discussion in Parliament on the Bill for making new Docks on the site of the antient Collegiate Church and Precinct of Saint Katharine. This application, after a severe struggle in the Committee, has been for the present withdrawn*, with an intention of being again brought forward in the next Session of Parliament. Should that renewed application be finally successful, it is very probable that ere long nothing will remain of this District but the name which it will communicate to the Docks. Though every Lover of his Country must rejoice at the Commercial Prosperity which requires this additional accommodation for the Port of London-the Antiquary, alive to the venerable remains of distant years, cannot but regret the anticipated destruction of the Collegiate Church of St. Katharine. It is attached to the oldest Ecclesiastical Community existing in England, which survived the shocks of the Reformation, and the Puritanical phrensy of the succeeding age. On Tuesday Evening, June 1, 1824, the Precinct of St. Katharine presented a scene of great gaiety, originating from the rejoicings of the inhabitants at the withdrawing of the Bill. The houses of every street, lane and alley were illuminated. |