Saint Peter and a Kneeling Cleric

This painted plaster wall panel was removed from the chapel of Brooke House in Hackney shortly before it was demolished in 1956. Brooke House was built by William Worsley (about 1435-99), Dean of St Paul's, some time after 1476. The colourful painting, inscribed 'Jesus Christus Dominus', depicts St Peter with a tonsured figure kneeling below. It was hidden beneath a limewash coat, which must have been applied after the Reformation in the 1540s. The background of Tudor roses suggests that the panel was painted after 1485 but before 1532 when the house and estate had come into the possession of Henry, 6th Earl of Northumberland. The painting also includes the arms of Radclyffe, Worsley's steward. Brooke House was occupied by a succession of wealthy magnates, including Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII. The painting was the only major piece of decorative plaster from there to survive and the only surviving example of wall painting executed in the London area dating from the early Tudor period. Although the panel has no great artistic merit, it probably reflects the general level of decorative painting at the time.