Pipe Organs of England - Pipedreams - American Public Media

SUNDAY, 20 MAY PAGE 85The ChurchWestminster Cathedral is the mother church and largest congregationof the Catholic community in England and Wales. In the late 19th century,the Catholic Church’s hierarchy had only recently been restoredin England and Wales, and it was in memory of Cardinal Wiseman(who died in 1865, and was the first Archbishop of Westminster from1850) that the first substantial sum of money was raised for the newcathedral. The land was acquired in 1884 and construction started in1895 with John Francis Bentley as architect, and built in a style heavilyinfluenced by Byzantine architecture. The cathedral opened in 1903.For reasons of economy the decoration of the interior had hardly beenstarted and still much remained to be completed. Under the laws ofthe Catholic Church at the time, no place of worship could be consecratedunless free from debt and having its fabric completed, so theconsecration ceremony did not take place until June 28, 1910. The centralfeature of the decoration in the cathedral is the baldacchino overthe high altar - it is one of the largest structures of its kind. As in allCatholic churches, there are the Stations of the Cross to be found alongthe outer aisles. The ones at Westminster Cathedral are by the sculptor,Eric Gill, and are considered to be amongst the finest examples of hiswork. The mosaics have been applied in several phases beginning withArts and Crafts-influenced designs from 1912-16 and as of 2011, therewere plans for further mosaics, for example Saint Francis of Assisi andSaint Anthony in the narthex. Despite its relatively short history, compared to other English cathedrals, Westminster has a distinguishedchoral tradition, and the choir is considered one of the finest in Britain.