Paternoster Square
The name of this charming, modern square is Latin for “Our Father”, the first words of the Lord’s Prayer. Quite why this is, is not clearly remembered. There are a few different aspects of the areas past that are often quoted though to explain it.
One is that the area is so close to St Pau’s Cathedral that it is where the canons used to process, chanting their prayers. This would also explain the nearby streets, Ave Maria Lane and Amen Corner. Another explanation is that the area of the square was the site of a market for rosary beads before the reformation, or that it was a place where bibles and prayer books were sold. It is supposed to be the place where Wynken de Worde , Caxton’s assistant, set up his bookstall in the early days of the printing press.
Stow writes about the area in 1598 in his Survey of London, as a bustling commercial zone. The booksellers moved into this area when the mercers moved out to Covent Garden and the association with the press is one which has continued since then. Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe was published here in 1719 “at the sign of the Ship” by one William Taylor A few years later he sold his business to Thomas Longman, whose firm, Longmans, is still prominent in British publishing.
But, not all religion and culture, London’s past has often seen the juxtaposition of the classes in close proximity. In the 16th century the area was also renowned for taverns, and for the famous Chapter Coffee House. It was the site of the Newgate Meat Market from the seventeenth century until 1889, when Smithfield Market was established.
The area was devastated in the Second World War, when six million books destroyed. The 23 metre tall Paternoster Square column is a memorial to this. A Corinthian column built in 2000 of Portland stone and topped by a flaming urn, it is an exact replica of the columns designed by Inigo Jones for the previous St Paul’s Cathedral.
The northern end of Paternoster Row was rebuilt after the War as Paternoster Square, and again in the 1960s as a pedestrianised shopping area. The latter development proved controversial as it partially obscured the view of St Paul’s Cathedral from Ludgate Hill.
In the late 1980’s it was decided to redevelop the area again and plans were submitted by many famous architects including Norman Foster, Richard Rogers and James Stirling. Sir William Whitfield, former Surveyor to St Paul’s accepted as master planner in 1997.
London Stock Exchange moved to here in 2004, to a new building designed by Eric Parry. A feature of the building is a noon mark (a type of sun dial which tells you the date at noon rather than the time). It was designed by a husband-and-wife team, Cardozo Kindersley, best known for the main gates of the British Library at St Pancras.
The statue by Elisabeth Frink called “Paternoster” stands in the square. Cast in bronze and dating from 1975, it shows a shepherd and sheep. It may be a reference to Christ as our shepherd, or it may relate the words pastor, shepherd, and pater, father.