John Michell, author of The Dimensions of Paradise
‘Outstanding…This is a powerful work, in tune with the old spirit that seems active again today, the spirit of revelation’
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
In 1666 a spark from an unattended Baker's oven in Pudding Lane led to the Great Fire which levelled large areas of London. After the flames had been put out and the dead buried, London was once more a blank canvas for the builders and architects to create a new city - a city which could be built in the full glory deserving of its destiny. The men at the centre of London's reconstruction were, in the main, members of the Royal Society, men such as Sir Christopher Wren. This society, founded originally by the Rosicrucians, adhered to a belief in the mystical wisdom of the ancient world and the millenarianist beliefs of its founders. Central to this idea was the conviction that London had long been the chosen site of the New Jerusalem - the city that would descend from the sky at the second coming as foretold in the Book of Revelations. Now, the Great Fire, as devastating as it had been, had given them the chance to recreate the city in a more fitting image. In this book Adrian Gilbert takes the reader on a guided tour of a hidden London, revealing the true significance of such well known sites as St Paul's Cathedral, the Monument and Temple church. He also introduces us to the men and women who shaped 17th century London, leaving us this legacy of mystical significance. Written in Adrian Gilbert's trademark style, combining personal detective story, archaeological investigation with rigorous historical research "The New Jerusalem" is a colourful historical portrait of London.
From the Back Cover
In 1666 a spark from an unattended baker's oven in Pudding Lane led to the Great Fire of London, which levelled large areas of the city. After the flames had been put out and the dead buried, London was once more a blank canvas for the builders and architects to create a new city - a city that could be built in the grand style its destiny deserved.
Many of the men at the centre of London's reconstruction, among them Sir Christopher Wren, were members of the newly formed Royal Society. This avowedly scientific organization was broad in scope, its early members being largely either proto-Freemasons or Rosicrucians and adhering to a Hermetic world-view. They believed that Britain had a preordained role to fulfil as the leading Protestant nation in Europe, and central to this belief was the conviction that England was a new Israel, God's chosen country for the new age of enlightenment then dawning. This exclusive group of men equated the capital city, which they now set about rebuilding out of white stone instead of wood, with the prophesied New Jerusalem.
In The New Jerusalem Adrian Gilbert takes the reader on a guided tour of a hidden London, revealing the true significance of such well known sites as St Paul's cathedral, the Monument and Temple church. He also introduces us to the men and women who shaped seventeenth-century London, leaving us this legacy of mystical significance. Combining personal detective story and archaeological investigation with rigorous historical research, The New Jerusalem is a colourful historical portrait of London as we have never seen it before.
About the Author
Adrian Gilbert
Adrian Gilbert is the bestselling co-author of THE ORION MYSTERY, THE MAYAN PROPHESIES and THE HOLY KINGDOM and author of MAGI: THE QUEST FOR A SECRET TRADITION and SIGNS IN THE SKY.
Adrian Gilbert is the bestselling co-author of THE ORION MYSTERY, THE MAYAN PROPHESIES and THE HOLY KINGDOM and author of MAGI: THE QUEST FOR A SECRET TRADITION and SIGNS IN THE SKY.
Excerpted from The New Jerusalem by Adrian Gilbert. Copyright © 2002. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
PREFACE
On 2 September 1666 a chance spark from a baker's oven ignited the premises above. Within minutes the immediate neighbourhood of Pudding Lane, just north of the Thames near to London Bridge, was engulfed in flames. The fire raged for five days before it was eventually brought under control, and by then virtually the whole of the City of London had been destroyed. Though, miraculously, only nine people are known to have died in the conflagration, 373 acres of land within the walls and 63 acres outside were laid bare. Serious fires that destroyed whole towns were not, of course, unknown events at a time when most houses were built of wood. For example, in 1694 a fire destroyed a large part of Warwick, and in 1731 almost the whole of Blandford Forum in Dorset was reduced to ashes. Nevertheless, because London, England's capital city, was so much larger than these provincial towns, the Great Fire of 1666 was on a completely different scale. In all over thirteen thousand houses and ninety parish churches were destroyed. Old St Paul's Cathedral, which prior to the fire had been one of the largest and most spectacular buildings in Europe, was completely gutted. After careful consideration, the authorities were left with no choice but to demolish what remained of the great Gothic edifice and to start again from scratch.Almost from the start there was a sense that the fire was God's handiwork. England had already suffered much turmoil during the seventeenth century, including civil war - the first major internal strife to afflict the island of Britain since the ending of the Wars of the Roses in 1485. The ten-year rule of Oliver Cromwell between 1649 and 1658 had brought little joy to the citizens of London who, like it or not, were required to live like Puritans. It is therefore not surprising that they rejoiced when in 1660 Charles II was restored to the throne, the theatres were reopened and a sense of normality returned. But then the Great Plague of!
1665 drew attention to the appalling mess that was Old London, its streets open sewers. The destruction of the city the following year seemed providential in that it provided an opportunity to clear away the unsatisfactory legacy of the past and start again from scratch. King Charles II took an active interest in the rebuilding of London, which provided him with an ideal opportunity to act as a monarch should in the role of benevolent father to his people. He was, despite his later reputation as a womanizer, a much better king than is generally acknowledged. One can only imagine what would have happened had James, duke of York (later King James II), been the elder brother. Almost certainly the restored monarchy would not have taken root again so easily, and it is quite possible that England would have plunged back into civil war. Indeed, Britain's enduring return to monarchical rule is largely attributable to the political maturity of Charles II. This had much to do with his own experience of life, which bred in him a pragmatism rare in any man, still less a monarch living in the seventeenth century - and much to do also with the fact that he was surrounded by a closely knit circle of exceptionally able men. How these men came by their wisdom, and how they put their stamp on the new London that they built after the fire, will be the subject of later chapters. Suffice it to say here that they were men of vision who looked upon city planning as a means of doing God's work.PrologueThen came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues, and spoke to me, saying, 'Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.' And in the spirit he carried me away to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve!
angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed; on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.Rev. 21: 9-14Within the souls of men there has always been a yearning for a lost and nearly forgotten golden age, a time when justice ruled and peace prevailed, a time of brotherhood, of sharing and of temperance. For the Israelites the golden age was that of Solomon: a mighty king of the tenth century bc who inherited a united kingdom of Israel from his father David and raised it to even greater levels of prosperity and abundance. An astute tactician who outsmarted rivals and enemies alike, he was respected above all for his wisdom, which found its highest expression in the building of the first great Temple of Jerusalem. Alas, this golden age could not last, for as soon as Solomon died the kingdom of Israel split in two. Civil war and the growth of powerful enemies without laid the little country open to attack, and before long its cities lay in ruins. The Jews were enslaved and could only bewail the destruction of Jerusalem - a lament that still echoes around the precincts of where Solomon's Temple once stood.
On 2 September 1666 a chance spark from a baker's oven ignited the premises above. Within minutes the immediate neighbourhood of Pudding Lane, just north of the Thames near to London Bridge, was engulfed in flames. The fire raged for five days before it was eventually brought under control, and by then virtually the whole of the City of London had been destroyed. Though, miraculously, only nine people are known to have died in the conflagration, 373 acres of land within the walls and 63 acres outside were laid bare. Serious fires that destroyed whole towns were not, of course, unknown events at a time when most houses were built of wood. For example, in 1694 a fire destroyed a large part of Warwick, and in 1731 almost the whole of Blandford Forum in Dorset was reduced to ashes. Nevertheless, because London, England's capital city, was so much larger than these provincial towns, the Great Fire of 1666 was on a completely different scale. In all over thirteen thousand houses and ninety parish churches were destroyed. Old St Paul's Cathedral, which prior to the fire had been one of the largest and most spectacular buildings in Europe, was completely gutted. After careful consideration, the authorities were left with no choice but to demolish what remained of the great Gothic edifice and to start again from scratch.Almost from the start there was a sense that the fire was God's handiwork. England had already suffered much turmoil during the seventeenth century, including civil war - the first major internal strife to afflict the island of Britain since the ending of the Wars of the Roses in 1485. The ten-year rule of Oliver Cromwell between 1649 and 1658 had brought little joy to the citizens of London who, like it or not, were required to live like Puritans. It is therefore not surprising that they rejoiced when in 1660 Charles II was restored to the throne, the theatres were reopened and a sense of normality returned. But then the Great Plague of!
1665 drew attention to the appalling mess that was Old London, its streets open sewers. The destruction of the city the following year seemed providential in that it provided an opportunity to clear away the unsatisfactory legacy of the past and start again from scratch. King Charles II took an active interest in the rebuilding of London, which provided him with an ideal opportunity to act as a monarch should in the role of benevolent father to his people. He was, despite his later reputation as a womanizer, a much better king than is generally acknowledged. One can only imagine what would have happened had James, duke of York (later King James II), been the elder brother. Almost certainly the restored monarchy would not have taken root again so easily, and it is quite possible that England would have plunged back into civil war. Indeed, Britain's enduring return to monarchical rule is largely attributable to the political maturity of Charles II. This had much to do with his own experience of life, which bred in him a pragmatism rare in any man, still less a monarch living in the seventeenth century - and much to do also with the fact that he was surrounded by a closely knit circle of exceptionally able men. How these men came by their wisdom, and how they put their stamp on the new London that they built after the fire, will be the subject of later chapters. Suffice it to say here that they were men of vision who looked upon city planning as a means of doing God's work.PrologueThen came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues, and spoke to me, saying, 'Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.' And in the spirit he carried me away to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve!
angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed; on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.Rev. 21: 9-14Within the souls of men there has always been a yearning for a lost and nearly forgotten golden age, a time when justice ruled and peace prevailed, a time of brotherhood, of sharing and of temperance. For the Israelites the golden age was that of Solomon: a mighty king of the tenth century bc who inherited a united kingdom of Israel from his father David and raised it to even greater levels of prosperity and abundance. An astute tactician who outsmarted rivals and enemies alike, he was respected above all for his wisdom, which found its highest expression in the building of the first great Temple of Jerusalem. Alas, this golden age could not last, for as soon as Solomon died the kingdom of Israel split in two. Civil war and the growth of powerful enemies without laid the little country open to attack, and before long its cities lay in ruins. The Jews were enslaved and could only bewail the destruction of Jerusalem - a lament that still echoes around the precincts of where Solomon's Temple once stood.
