By far the most interesting building at Smithfield is the church of St. Bartholomew the Great, which belonged to the priory founded in 1123 by Rahere, and is, next to the chapel in the White Tower, the oldest church in London. It is approached from the east corner of Smithfield (to the north of the hospital), through a small east gateway, once the west entrance to the south nave-aisle. Above the gateway is a house with an Elizabethan half-timbered facade, brought to light again in 1915 by a zeppelin bomb which loosened the tiles that long concealed it. The site of the nave, which was completed in the 13th century, is now occupied by the churchyard, and the bases of some of the piers may be seen beside the path leading from the entrance gateway to the present church-door. We enter the church by a modern porch, beneath a brick tower built in 1628 to take the place of the tower over the crossing. The tower contains five bells dating from 1510. The church is open from 9.30 till 5 (admission 6d. to the crypt, triforium, cloisters, etc.); Sunday services at 8.15, 11, and 6.30.
At the Dissolution the conventual buildings and much of the church were pulled down or alienated, and of the original priory-church there stands only the choir, built by Rahere, with the crossing and one bay of the nave, added before 1170 by his successor,Thomas of St. Osyth. The restoration, begun in 1863, was resumed, in 1886, with Sir Aston Webb as architect; encroaching buildings have been cleared away, and portions of the church, such as the Lady Chapel and the north Transept, have been rebuilt on the original foundations and incorporating the remains of the original walls.
On Good Friday, in accordance with a custom dating from 1686, twenty-one poor widows each receive a new sixpence, which is laid on a flat tombstone in the churchyard. The sixpence is now supplemented by a hot cross bun, a shawl, and half-a-crown.
