es of the Southwark
Archdeaconry. But the area of the Rochester Diocese was left
undisturbed till 1904, when "the Southwark and Birmingham Bishoprics
Act" of that year allowed the Diocese of Southwark to be formed out of
it. St. Saviour's had been popularly known as a _pro_-Cathedral for
some years previous to 1905, when it was formally constituted the
Cathedral of Southwark. The architecture of the fabric, with its long
history and associations, had long pointed to this fine church for the
purpose, for which it was further prepared by Sir Arthur Blomfield's
restoration, begun in 1890.

Dr. Anthony Wilson Thorold was appointed to the See of Rochester in
1877, and translated to Winchester in 1891. It was, therefore, in his
time that the first diocesan changes affecting St. Saviour's were
made, and the restoration of the church was actively taken in hand. By
far the most important part of this work was the rebuilding of the
nave, which he had the satisfaction of seeing well advanced before his
translation. Some of his predecessors had become alive to the
necessity of reducing the onerous duties of the See, but it was left
to him to give effect to their wishes by the creation of the
Archdeaconry of Southwark, with an eye to its forming the nucleus of a
separate diocese. His successor, Dr. Randall Thomas Davidson, now
Archbishop of Canterbury, lent his full energies to the work thus
begun, in which he was ably supported by the Suffragan Bishop of
Southwark, Dr. Huyshe Yeatman-Biggs, consecrated in 1891 and promoted
to the See of Worcester in 1905 in consequence of the episcopal
changes brought about by the Act of Parliament just mentioned. Before
Dr. Davidson's removal to Winchester in 1895, besides supervising the
restoration of Rochester Cathedral, he was able to do a good work more
directly concerning the Southwark Diocese, in the erection of the
Bishop's House by Kennington Park. The funds were provided by the
Ecclesiastical Commissioners from the sale of Danbury Palace, hitherto
the residence of the Bishops of Rochester, but now disposed of as
inaccessible and otherwise inconvenient. In place of it the new house
was built in the heart of the most thickly peopled part of the
diocese, within the Southwark Archdeaconry, and probably in view of
its ultimately becoming the residence of the Bishop of Southwark. Dr.
Davidson himself was not destined to occupy it, as it was not finished
till he was on the eve of translation.