London's Four Cathedrals (Part 1)

London has four cathedrals, which is insane. Most cities in the UK get along just fine with one. To explain why, and I will explain why, we need to discuss how Christianity came to the UK, the various schisms that came soon after, and the unique boundaries Chrisitianity uses to designate bishoprics. And at the end of this post, I'll reveal there are actually more than four cathedrals.

The four cathedrals in London are:

• St Paul's, located in the heart of London and probably the best known cathedral in the UK, let alone London;
• Southwark, found just off the Thames;
• Westminster, located near Victoria;
• St George's, not too far from Elephant and Castle.

The first two cathedrals are part of the Church of England, the latter two are Catholic. However, all four have been Catholic at some point. The short answer to why we now have a division is there was a schism in the Church during the English Reformation, where King Henry VIII broke England away from the Catholic Church in 1534. He did this so he could divorce his wife, Catherine of Aragon, which the Church didn't allow. The more complicated answer is this schism was reversed a few times in the following centuries, such as when Mary I decided to make the country Catholic during her short reign in the 1550s, which was immediately reversed by Elizabeth I. 

The country remained under the Church of England until 1685, when King James II came to the throne. He was Catholic, which annoyed loads of people, and led to the Glorious Revolution of 1688 where he was deposed and the Church of England was back on the menu. Catholics were banned from taking the throne in 1689, and from then on, various laws were passed limiting Catholics in various walks of life.

Over time, anti-Catholic sentiment started to lessen, partly down to the inclusion of Ireland, a country with a high Catholic population, into the UK in 1800. Eventually, an act was passed in 1829 that removed restrictions placed on Catholics, such as letting them vote, and in 1850, Catholics were able to worship freely again. 

The Catholic Church took this opportunity to make St George's a cathedral in 1852 - it was initially built in 1848 to facilitate Irish immigrants - and to build Westminster Cathedral, which was completed in 1903. The Church of England, meanwhile, already had St Paul's, but notably made Southwark a cathedral in 1905, despite it being merely a church for nearly a thousand years before. 

So that's why we have cathedrals from both denominations. The next question is why two cathedrals for each.

The answer is more simple. The Catholic Church and Church of England split the UK up into various different dioceses, which cover a region of churches which are ruled over by archbishops and bishops respectively. Both churches split London into two separate regions: 

• The Catholic Church has Westminster north of the river, and Southwark south;
• The Church of England has London north and Southwark south.

Both the Catholic dioceses were founded in 1850, when Catholic worship was allowed. However, the Church of England dioceses were established at different times:

• London was formed back in 604;
• Southwark only came into existance in 1905. Before 1905, places in the diocese were under the Diocese of Rochester.

Now you can see why Southwark Cathedral is a cathedral - before it became one, the cathedral for the diocese was all the way over in Rochester.

...except, the geographical boundaries don't align perfectly with Greater London's borders. For one, these dioceses encompass places outside of London. Sometimes, though, they don't even include all the boroughs you might expect.

Here's a map for the Church of England dioceses you'll find in London:

The borders roughly align with old counties, wherein London follows most of Middlesex, and Bexley and Bromley - both part of Kent back in 1905 - are still in Rochester. Obviously it's not exactly a perfect match, but if you're in doubt, just assume if you live east of the River Lea, you're in Chelmsford, not London, and if you're in the south, you're in Southwark unless you're in Bexley or Bromley. You can play around with the borders on this helpful map on the Church of England's official website.

It's slightly more straightforward with the Catholic dioceses, in the sense that Southwark covers the whole of south London this time. However, we still have a split along the Lea, though this time it's between Westminster and Brentwood, not London and Chelmsford.

And that's why there are four cathedrals in London; we have two denominations covering two halves of London (almost), and that makes for four cathedrals:

• St Paul's in London, for the Church of England;
• Southwark in...Southwark, for the Church of England;
• Westminster in...Westminster, for the Catholic Church; 
• St George's in Southwark, for the Catholic Church. 

...except, let's not forget there are various other denominations. A rough count from this Wikipedia list of London churches suggests there are about twelve churches considered cathedrals in London, across all denominations. I won't go into detail on them, but if you're curious, look around. For the next blogpost where I actually visit the cathedrals, I'll focus on the four I've discussed today.