When the restoration was undertaken by Mr. Wallace, enough of the old work remained to show that the original design had a high-pitched roof, with a gable recessed behind a straight parapet, and that the large window, though all cusping and tracery had disappeared, was similar, in its main divisions, to that which Sir Arthur Blomfield has inserted. Mr. Wallace's restorations, here and elsewhere, were made quite independently of the suggestions to be found in the ancient work, which Sir Arthur was before all things anxious to reproduce. In the present window we have a practical reproduction of the original, as far as its features could be ascertained. It consists of five lights, combining the earlier geometrical with the later flowing tracery of the Decorated period, and an element of Perpendicular.
Below the transoms there is a series of unglazed panels, which have not escaped criticism as spoiling the proportions of the window; but most people are satisfied with them in the interior, where the wall arcading at once explains the necessity, and gives effect to the whole. A simple three-light window has been placed in the gable above. The windows on the east and west sides of this transept, though renovated by Sir Arthur Blomfield, date from the time of Edward III, as Mr. Wallace did not interfere with them beyond shortening the length of one on the east. Below the great window in the south elevation there had formerly been an entrance to this transept, to which a wooden porch was added. These are now swept away, and the entrance has been transferred to the eastern side, formerly blocked up by the church of St. Mary Magdalene. Mr. Wallace had changed the design of the buttresses, and affixed pinnacles to them, on the authority of certain old engravings which represent them as existing at an earlier period. It may be said, however, that the old pictures differ very much from each other in such details, and cannot be relied on for accuracy. Sometimes, no doubt, though almost contemporaneous, they represent alterations actually made at the church within a short time of one another; but the discrepancies between them are just as likely to be due to the caprices of individual engravers. On the other hand, it is fair to them to remember the innovations, for better or worse, which the vestry and churchwardens thought it right to make at frequent intervals. Some of them occur in the history of this very transept. For instance, the original gable was removed early in the eighteenth century, and a covering substituted, of a kind which Mr. Dollman humorously describes as "the pleasing novelty of a hipped roof." Again, in 1679 a sundial was placed over the central window, to give way in 1735 to an ingenious combination of sundial and clock, for which a triangular arrangement, presenting a clock of two faces, was substituted four years later. See illustration, p. 27. All these may now be regarded as among the things that have never been, except in the historical lessons they contain.
The Tower, at the intersection of the nave and transepts, is 35 ft. square externally, and rises to the height of 129 ft. 6 in., exclusive of the pinnacles, which stand 34 ft. higher. The exterior walls throughout consist of the intermixture of flint and stone, characteristic of the rest of the church, except the transepts, which are of Bath stone. It has been stated that the tower was originally supported at the angles by buttresses, but it is not at all certain that this was the case, and it would have been an unusual and dangerous experiment to remove them, unless the tower had been altogether rebuilt. That the old builders did not shrink from such daring alterations, however, is proved by their having removed the flying buttresses from the original nave, which led to the collapse of the roof in 1469. In a bird's-eye view of Southwark, including St. Saviour's Church 'as it appeared' in 1543, the buttresses are absent. In an engraving by Hollar (usually accurate), dated 1647, the buttresses are shown. The present appearance of the tower is against the theory, as there is next to nothing for the buttresses to rest on; but it is probable that the angles were altered at the same time, and Mr. Dollman has given his weight to the conjecture, apparently relying on Hollar's correctness, in preference to less known engravers. The first stage of the tower, just visible above the roof, was erected at the same time as the adjoining transepts. The two upper stages are attributed to Bishop Fox (circa 1520), and are in the Perpendicular style of his date. The uppermost stage is chamfered at the quoins, leaving a small off-set at the level of the next. Each story contains two windows of two lights, transomed, the whole terminating in an embattled parapet, with crocketed pinnacles at the corners, surmounted by vanes. These were put up by Mr. Gwilt in 1818, in place of the old vanes, dated 1689, the pattern of which was slightly different. If the early engravings are to be trusted, Mr. Gwilt also made a considerable alteration in the design of the pinnacles at the same time. The two rooms within the tower are reserved for the ringers and the peal of twelve bells which the church has possessed since 1735.[17]
The South side of the Nave brings us to Sir Arthur Blomfield's chief restoration, or rather rebuilding, of 1890-1897.
As explained in the introductory chapter, the nave had been walled off from the eastern portion of the church and allowed to drop into ruinous neglect from 1831 till 1839, when a flimsy substitute was begun. The foundation stone was laid by Dr. Sumner, then Bishop of Winchester. The fragile nature of this work may be inferred from the fact that it was finished in the following year, and as the floor was raised seven and a half feet above the old level it was impossible to use the new nave in connection with the choir and transepts.
Guided by the ground plan of the thirteenth-century nave, showing the position of the columns of the arcade, and the outer walls generally, as revealed when the modern brickwork was removed, Sir Arthur has succeeded in giving us a practical reproduction of the original, both in character and material.[18] It will be no disparagement to his admirable work to say that it was made more easy by the labours of his predecessors, Mr. Gwilt and Mr. Dollman, and especially by the careful plans and drawings which the latter gentleman left behind him after fourteen years' patient study of the fabric. The south elevation exhibits seven bays, divided and supported by flying buttresses, each bay of the clerestory being lighted by a plain lancet window.
The flying buttresses had been removed from the old nave, with disastrous consequences to the original roof, as already stated. They are now replaced, and at once give strength and effect to the elevation, besides bringing it into harmony with the architecture of the choir, where the flying buttresses were never removed. The wall spaces in the aisle below are occupied by five lancet windows, matching those in the clerestory, except in the bay next the transept, where there is a beautiful window of three lights. Before describing it, the interesting fact may be mentioned that the window in the westernmost bay of this aisle had been concealed and protected, while its neighbours were destroyed, through having a small wooden house, or shed, built up against it. The single window thus accidentally preserved, was taken as a model for the new ones throughout the aisle and clerestory, with the exception of the larger aisle window just referred to. This, though also entirely rebuilt, is a modified reproduction of that which filled the same space in the time of Edward II—a fine example of the Decorated style. Divided by sub-arcuation into three lights, surmounted by circles of quatrefoil tracery in the spandrels of the arches, and supported by composite shafts, with moulded bases and foliated capitals, this elegant window had been allowed to drop into a ruin. Drawings of it had fortunately been taken before it was too late, and the present work gives us the leading features, and practically the details, of the original.
The most conspicuous object in the whole of this elevation is the Doorway to the south-west, which is the principal entrance to the Cathedral. In all probability the door was placed in this position when the Norman nave was built by Bishop Giffard (circa 1106); but its character was altered by Peter de Rupibus, a century later, to bring it into harmony with the rest of his Early English work, when he remodelled the nave in that style.
The porch that we now have agrees in its main features with the drawings taken of the earlier one before it was destroyed. A deeply recessed and acutely pointed arch is divided into two by a central shaft, with moulded base and foliaged capital. The jambs contain five shafts on each side, which differ from that in the centre, in that they are of Purbeck marble, and banded, in pleasing contrast to the plain stone of their own bases and capitals, and of the (unbanded) central shaft. In the tympanum of the double doorway thus formed, there is a pointed arcading, consisting of a central arch and two smaller arches on either side. The deep soffit of the arch in which this elegant arcading is enclosed, is adorned with a series of quatrefoil panels.