He substituted new designs of his own for the original tracery in the most important window in the south transept; and (probably influenced by an economical committee) made the fatal mistake of employing cement instead of stone for the interior mouldings, and a soft Bath stone for his repairs to the exterior. The action of time and weather has shown the false economy of the work. In the same year the "Bishop's Chapel" was destroyed, as before mentioned. In 1832 a much graver act of vandalism was threatened by the Bridge Committee in their proposal for widening the roadway, which meant the entire destruction of the retro-choir. The suggestion was to leave a space of sixty feet wide, afterwards extended to seventy, between the east end of the church and the bridge.[11] This was too much for the inhabitants of Southwark, who rose to the occasion in a vigorous protest by which the venerable building was saved.
THE NAVE IN 1831.
From a contemporaneous Engraving, by permission of "Church Bells."[ToList]
At their first meeting on the subject (24th January) the vestrymen endorsed the proposal of the Bridge Committee by a large majority. At a subsequent meeting, held within a week, public opinion had been aroused on the subject, and the majority was reduced to three. The moral victory for the Church and Borough of Southwark, headed by Bishop Sumner, was secured by the poll there and then demanded, the result of which was announced, in two days' time, as: "For the retention of the building, 380; against, 140; majority for the retention, 240."
The retro-choir was saved, and Mr. Gwilt completed the good work by restoring it, giving his services gratuitously. The nave had been already doomed. It had got into such a ruinous state by 1831 that at a Vestry Meeting holden on the 3rd, and confirmed on the 10th, of May, it was resolved:
"That the whole of the roof, from the western door to the west end of the tower, called the nave, consisting of ceiling, roof, walls, and pillars, as far as dangerous, be sold and cleared away; the remainder of the walls, pillars, and family vaults to be left open to the weather. And that the choir, north and south transepts, be enclosed, to the eastern part of the church, for divine service; and that the pews, situated in the nave, be removed into such part, for the accommodation of the inhabitants."
In 1838 the nave, having been sufficiently operated on by the climate and other destructive forces, was taken down; and in the following year the foundation stone of a mean and flimsy substitute, in the "Gothic" of the period, was laid by Dr. Sumner, then Bishop of Winchester. The interior, thus limited and reduced, was fitted up with timber staircases, wainscoting, galleries, high pews, and a "three-decker" pulpit, which answered the double purpose of obscuring the sanctuary and enabling the preacher to command his audience in the galleries.
The barbarous result did not escape the sensitive eye of Mr. A.W. Pugin, the great Gothic revivalist, who gave vent to his indignation in a scathing article in the "Dublin Review." He said:
"It may not be amiss to draw public attention to the atrocities that have lately been perpetrated in the venerable church of St. Saviour's, Southwark. But a few years since it was one of the most perfect second-class cruciform churches in England, and an edifice full of the most interesting associations connected with the ancient history of the Metropolis. The roof was first stripped off its massive and solemn nave; in this state it was left a considerable time, exposed to all the injuries of wet and weather; at length it was condemned to be pulled down, and in place of one of the finest specimens of ecclesiastical architecture left in London—with massive walls and pillars, deeply moulded arches, a most interesting south porch, and a splendid western doorway—we have as vile a preaching-place ... as ever disgraced the nineteenth century.