St Paul's Churchyard is an area immediately aroundSt Paul's Cathedral in theCity of London. Historically it includedSt Paul's Cross andPaternoster Row. It became one of the principal marketplaces in London. St Paul's Cross was an open-air pulpit from which many of the most important statements on the political and religious changes brought by theReformation were made public during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Only one execution is recorded as taking place in St Paul's Churchyard; that of clergymanHenry Garnet, one of those found guilty of the 1605Gunpowder Plot.[1] As of 2024 the alley to the north of the cathedral grounds is named St Paul's Churchyard.
With the advent ofprinting, St Paul's Churchyard became the centre of the book trade inEngland (later moving to nearbyPaternoster Row).[2] It was originally dominated by foreignbooksellers.Richard III'sonly parliament of 1484 passed the act which encouraged them to do business in London. Despite other protectionist measures, the king personally intervened to ensure that printers and booksellers were exempt from these.[3]
The churchyard was also referenced byAlexander Pope in a famous passage fromAn Essay on Criticism, lines 622–625, where Pope takes on overly talkative and vacuous literary critics (the 'fools'):[4]
No place so sacred from such fops is barred,
Nor is Paul's church more safe than Paul's churchyard:
Nay, fly to altars; there they'll talk you dead:
For fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
