Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King

Roman Catholic Cathedral. Crypt built 1933 to 1941 to designs by Sir Edwin Lutyens. Competition for new cathedral held 1959 to 1960, won by Frederick Gibberd. Cathedral constructed 1962 to 1967 to designs by Frederick Gibberd and Partners.

The crypt is built of brick with Irish grey granite facing. The cathedral has an exposed concrete frame with GRP (glass-reinforced plastic) cladding replacing the original mosaic cladding, walls clad in Portland stone, and roof covered in stainless steel sheets replacing the original aluminium sheets.

The cathedral is circular with a central sanctuary and high altar surrounded by twelve outer chapels and a baptistry, the main entrance and two side entrances. The main entrance is approached through a wedge-shaped bell tower. The cathedral is raised on a rectangular podium, the north end formed by the roof of Lutyens' crypt with outer-corner staircases with pyramidal tops (added by Gibberd) flanking a central external staircase. An outdoor altar is set against the ritual east end of the cathedral. A wide flight of steps leads up to the bell tower and main ritual west entrance, with flights of steps to both sides also. The podium contains a car park, sacristies and other offices and ancillary rooms, and is linked internally with both the cathedral and crypt.

The cathedral is not liturgically aligned, with the ritual east end relating to the compass north point. Ritual liturgical points are used in the description.

Crypt 1933 to 1941

The crypt has granite façades with a recessed moulded cornice and entablature with a moulded cornice, and entrances to the ritual east, south and north sides. The main entrances are on the ritual south side. The symmetrical elevation has a huge central round-headed window with mullions and transoms and a giant T-shaped keystone. It is flanked by two doorways with Tuscan aedicules with open pediments and outer round-headed windows with small square windows over. To the left and right are projecting side walls partly enclosing a sunken court. The left side wall has a central round-headed gateway, then steps out slightly before continuing. Through the gateway there is a small enclosed courtyard with a round-headed window with a roundel window over to the main crypt elevation. The right wall has a central round-headed niche and the right-hand end steps out a short distance, the brick visible behind the granite facing. To the right of the side wall the main elevation steps back at ground-floor level and is blind to the right-hand corner with a pyramidal cap above over the corner staircase. The ritual north side is similar, without the sunken court side walls. At the left-hand end is the stepped back blind wall of the corner staircase with pyramidal cap over. At the right-hand end is a round-headed window with a roundel window over. Beyond, the wall projects out a short distance, the brick visible behind the granite facing.

The ritual east end has five lunettes flanked by a raised round-headed doorway with a flight of steps at each end and the stepped-back blind walls of the corner staircases with pyramidal caps over. Above the central lunette is a wide T-shaped flight of steps up to the podium.

The interior is built of exposed blue bricks with red brick vaults and granite dressings. The ritual south entrances open into the Chapel of St Nicholas with a nave and aisles terminating in three apses. On the ritual north side is an identical space, now the Concert Room, and on the central axis between are two great circular chambers flanked by two immense vaulted halls running across the crypt. That to the ritual east side has a flight of stairs at each end cantilevered around a circular well, each flight starting with convex steps and ending with concave steps. The ritual west hall, the Pontifical Hall, has groups of columns at each end and opening off its west side is the Chapel of Relics—the burial place of Archbishops, located directly under the position for Lutyens' high altar. The entrance gate is a circular pierced slab of Travertine that rolls open and shut. The chapel is faced with marble and Travertine and has three tomb recesses with Doric aedicules supporting sculpted sarcophagi enclosed by deep semi-circular arches.

Cathedral 1962 to 1967

The cathedral has an exposed concrete frame clad with grey GRP over the mosaic cladding, with sixteen boomerang-shaped trusses rising vertically from the podium to an eaves ring beam and then slanting inwards to support the conical roof of the central space with an upper ring beam at the base of the tapered drum of the coloured glass and concrete lantern tower. Outer raking ribs form flying buttresses continuing the diagonal line of the roof between the lower ring beam and ground. The lantern tower is topped by a crown of sixteen tall steel pinnacles braced by a delicate web of stainless steel struts. Within each bay of the frame, except the front and side entrances, is set a stone-clad chapel which vary in shape with squared corners and rounded corners and have different window arrangements. They are separated from the frame by strips of coloured glass. The front bay (ritual west end) has a great wedge-shaped bell tower which rises away from the body of the cathedral to form a cliff-like façade closing the view north along Hope Street. The main doors at the base have huge sliding doors of bronzed GRP featuring the symbols of the Evangelists, with four bells hung in openings at the apex of the tower and a huge triangular panel to the stone surface between carved with an angular geometric relief design by William Mitchell incorporating three crosses and three crowns. The side porches also have abstract bronzed GRP doors by William Mitchell. On the ritual east side is a raised external concrete altar overlooking the podium with a concrete canopy and grey mosaic tesserae reredos with an attached large timber cross. The part of the podium on which the cathedral stands is faced in grey aggregate panels with chamfered grey concrete coping.

The ritual west entrance leads through a low porch framed by a strip of yellow glass directly into the nave and sanctuary lit by the luminous central lantern of abstract dalle de verre yellow, blue and red coloured glass symbolizing the Trinity by John Piper and Patrick Reyntiens. The individual pieces of one inch-thick glass are bonded in epoxy resin with long threads of strengthening fibreglass, visible as a network of fine black lines, fitted in pre-cast tracery panels of thin concrete ribs—a pioneering technique invented for use in the lantern. The west entrance forms a primary axis with the Blessed Sacrament Chapel and the organ by J W Walker and Sons placed over on the ritual east side, with a secondary access between the side porches, which are surmounted by tribunes. The geometrical floor pattern in grey and white marble is designed by David Atkins. A curved ramp provides a processional route leading up to the nave from the sacristies below. The sanctuary has a high altar of white marble from Skopje, North Macedonia, with a crown-like baldacchino of aluminium rods incorporating lights by Gibberd, crucifix of pale gilt bronze by Elisabeth Frink, and altar cross and candlesticks by P Y Goodden. The nave has curved benches by Frank Height.

The surrounding chapels are framed by Piper and Reyntiens' coloured glass and they designed the glass in several chapels. The cast and welded metal Stations of the Cross are by Sean Rice.

The Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament has stained glass, reredos and tabernacle by Ceri Richards.

The Lady Chapel has sanctuary walls that meet at right angles and a deeply coffered ceiling. It has a terracotta Virgin and Child sculpture by Robert Brumby, coloured glass strips by Margaret Traherne, and cross and candlesticks by David Mellor working with Elisabeth Frink.

Margaret Traherne also designed the glass in the Unity Chapel. The chapel contains a Pentecost mosaic panel by George Mayer-Marton moved to the Cathedral in 1988, originally in Church of the Holy Ghost, Netherton, demolished 1989.

The small square windows in the Chapel of St Columba are by David Atkins.

David Atkins also designed the bronze gates and geometric floor of the circular Baptistry. The central circular font is of white marble also from Skopje.