2-913-838 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Subterranean Chamber beneath the House, No.1, Old Fish-Street, St. Paul's, 1854. Ancient building in the City of London. 'It appears that during some recent alterations...some vaults were discovered...The inner chamber, which is the smaller of the two, contains a raised seat, canopied in, and in part perfect. In the side recesses are stone slabs, which a writer in the Literary Gazette...considers "to have formed cupboards or lockers, being firmly fixed with strong iron clamps. In one of these recesses [was] a marble trough...which, from its peculiar shape, suggests the notion that it was used for the total immersion of the infant in baptism". We rather incline to the opinion expressed in the Literary Gazette - that these vaults were the scene of the Roman Catholic rites, when the priests of the old religion were proscribed, and people were forbidden to harbour them under heavy penalties'. From "Illustrated London News", 1854.