Carbuncles, corporations and the City's character

PETER Palumbo, a charming fellow whom I first met on a sea voyage to South America, is constantly in the news these days. This successful and imaginative property developer is relentlessly pursuing his appeal to the Secretary of State for the Environment against the City of London Corporation's refusal of his latest scheme for the redevelopment of No 1 Poultry, usually known as "the Mansion House site."
One of the best known structures on this site is John Belcher's Mappin & Webb which dates from 1870 and overlooks the junction of Poultry, Threadneedle Street and Cornhill.
Among Palumbo's principal adversaries in the appeal is the organisation English Heritage which maintains that the threatened triangle "is now unique within the city and forms an irreplaceable piece of historic townscape."
English Heritage is a society which deserves to be better known. It came into being only four years ago but has already become a formidable part of the growing effort to preserve historic sites, assist in their restoration and make them more accessible for public visits.
It runs more than 350 properties throughout the country. It is also involved with listing and scheduling, with conservation areas, and with funding other bodies concerned with the preservation of our "built heritage", including the National Trust. Membership (enquiries to PO Box 71, Bromley, Kent) is inexpensive and brings free admissions to all properties as well as many other privileges.
Gloucester's friars
ONE of English Heritage's most interesting properties is Blackfriars in the city of Gloucester. It is the most perfectly preserved example of a Dominican Friary in Britain, and is fascinating to visit. It embodies a story of almost miraculous survival. Even the original medieval "scissor-beam" timbered roof is still there, the only one of its kind in the country. Further restoration is still going on.
Visitors, largely thanks to the well informed caretaker/guide, get a vivid impression of the life led by the Dominicans of the thirteenth century. Within five years of founding his order in 1217, St Dominic had sent a batch of his followers to England, and the Gloucester friary was established by 1270.
And what a stir these friars caused! They, along with the Franciscans and Carmelites, followed, as we know, a very different way of life from that of the monks already established in England, mostly Benedictines. The latter stayed in their communities for the most part while the friars stalked the highways and byways preaching, often alone, returning by night to their friaries. They were expert evangelists and people flocked to hear their sermons preached by the wayside, in the market place or in the specially designed naves of the friary churches.
They owned nothing, and were known as mendicants (beggars) as a result. Even their friaries were built for them and held in trust by the town authorities or the local bishop. Gloucester's Black Friary was founded by Sir Stephen of Harnhill, a neighbouring lord of the manor. The King, Henry III, was one of its benefactors, as he was to many other friaries.
By 1270 there were 40 friars at Gloucester and through the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries they flourished. Then a few scandals occurred and by the time of the Suppression there were only seven friars left. Completely penniless they readily surrendered their house in exchange for parochial livings. But what heroes they were in their heyday, eschewing in general the fanaticism of some of their continental brethren involved with the Inquisition.
No waisted time
GLOUCESTER also had its Greyfriars (Franciscans) and Whitefriars (Carmelites), the shell of the formers' friary having also been preserved. But the site of the old Whitefriars is now a car park, its origins commemorated only by a plaque.
The Benedictines, of course, had been there before the more humble friars and had established the Abbey Church of St Peter. This was to become, after rebuilding, the Cathedral of Gloucester. It is regarded as one of today's most magnificent examples of Norman architecture with its massive round pillars which dominate the nave. The cloisters are without parallel anywhere, being chiefly remarkable for their completeness and the exquisite fan tracery in the roof.
Hard by the Cathedral is the "House of the Tailor of Gloucester," used by Beatrix Potter as the model for a real tailor's establishment, and now a shop plus Beatrix Potter museum.
The real tailor of Gloucester was called John Pritchard and was once asked to make a fancily embroidered waistcoat at short notice. He did not think he could manage it in time. But when he came into his shop on Monday morning he found the splendid waistcoat completed. He did not realise that it had been made by the workers who lodged on the premises and worked through two nights, so he attributed the work to fairies.
Beatrix Potter, in her famous tale, turned the fairies into mice.
Jewish Challenge
ON TUESDAY of last week Sir Sigmund Sternberg, a distinguished Jewish Knight Commander of the Order of St Gregory, gave a spirited address at Miranda House, in London.
Sir Sigmund, speaking as Chairman of the International Council of Christians and Jews spoke of the long-desired improvement in JewishChristian relations. But he stressed that there was still much hard work to be done on all sides.
He cited, as a turning point, the Vatican II declarations Nostra Aetate, which clearly stated that neither the Jewish people alive at the time of Christ nor the Jews of succeeding generations could be blamed for His death.
He went on to add that "There is much more to be done at the grass roots level." Few would disagree.
The venue of his speech was an interesting one. Miranda House, at 58 Grafton Way, is the Cultural Centre of the Venezuelan Embassy in London. It was the home between 1802 and 1810 of Francisco Miranda, a Venezuelan and one of the most important men in the whole history of Latin America. He was the precursor of the movement for liberation of the whole continent from Spain and Portugal.
'Converts' conversion
CONGRATULATIONS to the Converts' Aid Society for distributing nearly £200,000 during 1987 for the maintenance and special needs of convert clergymen, their widows, dependents and convert Anglican sisters. This was a large increase over the amount disbursed the previous year.
This year's annual meeting, on June 27, will break new ground in having as its main speaker a former minister of the United Reformed Church, Miss Sheila Massey. She became a Catholic in 1986 and will shortly become a licensed lay worker in the Benedictine parish at Parbold in Lancashire.
She will be the first woman minister to have addressed this meeting and one of only a few speakers from the Free Church community.
This year's is also historic in that Mrs K A P Chambers is retiring as the Society's secretary after 21 years of memorable service. At 83 she is the oldest acting secretary of any Catholic society, and her retirement brings to a close an association with the Chambers family of 65 years. For in 1919 her husband, F W Chambers, a former Anglican priest, became a Catholic and was secretary of the Converts' Aid Society from 1923 until his widow took over from him after his death in 1967.
These have been momentous years and the Duke of Norfolk, the society's chairman, will present Mrs Chambers with a specially engraved crystal decanter in recognition of her services to the Society and her unstinting hospitality at her own home.
What a marvellous record.
Rosa George
IT IS sad to record the death of Rosa George, a brave woman and a great Catholic whom I have often had occasion to mention before in this column.
She was the author of many excellent books of prayer, the last of which was published just before her death on the Sunday after Corpus Christi, which was kept as the feast of Corpus Christi in Scotland where she died.
She will be much missed by her large, devoted and talented family. I last saw her in Barts' Hospital in London some months ago. She radiated happiness even when very ill and was an inspiration to everyone she ever met.
RIP