St Bartholomew the Great
Norman priory church founded in eleven twenty-three, where Benjamin Franklin once worked as a printer.
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About this audio guide
This guide to St Bartholomew the Great in London begins with Rahere, a courtier and one-time royal jester who founded the priory in 1123 after a vision he had while gravely ill on pilgrimage to Rome. It follows the church through Henry VIII's dissolution, when most of the nave was stripped for materials and only the Norman choir survived, and into the Lady Chapel's later life as a forge and then a printer's workshop. You'll meet the broke young printer's apprentice from Philadelphia who found work setting type there in 1725, best appreciated by looking up at the surviving Norman arches as you listen.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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