Westminster Cathedral

Roman Catholic Cathedral

Westminster Cathedral was commissioned by Cardinal Vaughan and built between 1895 and 1903 to the designs of John Francis Bentley. It was consecrated in 1910, with interior fitting-out continuing under John A. Marshall of Bentley's office. The cathedral is constructed of red brick with Portland stone bandings and dressings on a Cornish granite plinth, with concrete foundations and vaults. Saucer domes of brick and concrete cover the structure: three over the nave and one over the sanctuary.

The plan comprises a narthex flanked by baptistery and porch, an aisled three-bay nave with four aisle chapels to the liturgical north and three to the south (the western one on the south replaced by the base of a 284-foot campanile), narrow two-bay transepts, and an apsed choir and sanctuary flanked by apsed and aisled chapels. A sacristy lies to the rear.

Exterior

The cathedral is built in a free Byzantine style. The complex west facade steps forward in its lower stages, with a central entrance set in a semicircular arch featuring decorative voussoirs, columned jambs, and a mosaic by Robert Anning Bell in the tympanum, alongside sculptured medallions of twelve Archbishops of Canterbury. Blind round-arched arcading appears on the upper tier, flanked by polygonal towers with corner buttresses supporting domes. Two-storey wings on either side display round-arched arcading and plate tracery. Further domes rise over the polygonal corner turrets adjacent to the banded bulk of the nave.

The square campanile features polygonal buttressing at its top, supporting a cupola. The side elevations incorporate Diocletian windows, with paired round-arched and plate-traceried windows divided by angular buttresses in each bay. These buttresses rise behind a flat roof from the less moulded ground-floor aisles, and similarly the gabled transepts are shallowly moulded. The sanctuary towers are polygonal with shallow blind arcading and onion domes over corner buttresses. The three-bay sacristy has Diocletian windows to the ground floor and round-arched lancets above.

Interior

Although the interior has never been completed, it is magnificent—the nave for its sheer volume and especially the chapels for their wealth of enrichment, most of it mosaic in keeping with Bentley's intention and much executed to his design. The walls are lined with veined marble in cream and green up to springer level. Above this, the brickwork has been left rough for future mosaics where they have not yet been installed.

The narthex, for which Bentley left complete designs, features columns of Norwegian granite and a marble floor. An organ by Henry Willis and Sons sits above. The nave has broad galleries over the aisles, supported at the centre of each bay by paired monolithic columns, with each Carrara marble capital displaying a different design. The Stations of the Cross were created by Eric Gill between 1913 and 1918. The pulpit was remodelled and enlarged in 1934 by L.H. Shattock. The rood is by Christian Symons. A statue of St Peter, copied from that at St Peter's in Rome around 1900, and pendant lights dating from 1909 are also present.

Aisle Chapels

The aisle chapels are separated by further single columns of rare marble. The Chapel of the Holy Souls was completed to Bentley's fully worked-out designs in black and white marble, with carefully overseen mosaics by Christian Symons executed in 1902–3. The altarpiece depicts Christ enthroned. The marble floor dates from 1906 and the bronze gilt grille from 1908.

The Chapel of St George and the English Martyrs was also developed as a war memorial from 1915, largely designed by Marshall with an altarpiece by Eric Gill from 1946. A figure of St George is by Lindsay Clarke. The Shrine to St John Southworth (1592–1654), who was reinterred here in 1930, is also located in this chapel. The apsed Chapel of St Joseph has a fine altar by Marshall and monolithic panels dating from around 1992.

On the south side, from the west, is the baptistery with a font by Bentley and a statue of St John the Baptist. Marble screens and steps lead to the Chapel of St Gregory and St Augustine, with an altarpiece by Henry Holliday set into a design by Bentley (which he drew up in detail and later simplified) with mosaics by Clayton and Bell from 1902–4. The Chapel of St Patrick and the Saints of Ireland is clad in Irish marbles with memorials to the Irish regiments of the First World War, designed by Marshall in the 1920s. The altar is also by him from 1910, and a statue of St Patrick is by Arthur Pollen.

The green hue of this chapel contrasts with the blue and white of the neighbouring Chapel of St Andrew and the Scottish Saints, the gift of Lord Bute and the work of R. Weir Schultz from 1910–14. It features lean openwork screens of white metal by W. Bainbridge Reynolds, sculpture by Stirling Lee, stalls by Ernest Gimson (considered among his finest works) with kneelers by Sidney Barnsley, a reliquary by Harold Stabler, and altar cards by Graily Hewitt. The Chapel of St Paul is similar to Marshall's work for that of St Joseph, from 1913–17.

Transepts

The transepts contain doors and confessionals by Bentley and Marshall, the latter being a standard design for the cathedral also found in St Patrick's Chapel and elsewhere. A mosaic of St Joan from 1909–12 by Christian Symons is in the north transept, where the Chapel of St Thomas of Canterbury—the Vaughan Chantry—is also located. An effigy of Cardinal Vaughan by Marshall, carved by Henry McCarthy, is present. Marshall also designed the marble and mosaic decoration in 1907.

Sanctuary

The sanctuary has marble and jasper arcades supporting an arcaded tribune above. The high altar of Cornish granite features a baldacchino of Veronese marble on a marble floor, designed by Bentley in 1901 and executed by Farmer and Brindley in 1905–6. A bas-relief by Lindsay Clarke and a mosaic in the tympanum over the high altar by Gilbert Pownall depicting Christ in Glory are present. Fittings by Marshall date from 1908–10. The sacristy to the rear was not inspected. The crypt under the sanctuary, dedicated to St Peter, contains tombs to Cardinal Wiseman by Edward Welby Pugin and to Cardinal Manning by Bentley (only partly carried out), along with mosaics by Christian Symons. Bentley left designs for the marble work.

Apsidal Chapels

The northernmost of the aisles to the apsed chapels either side of the sanctuary forms the Shrine of the Sacred Heart and St Michael. Black Panderma marble was installed by Farmer and Brindley with contrasting white marbles and rosso antiquo highlights. The mosaic of the Holy Face was the last work of Christian Symons in 1910. An alabaster statue of the Sacred Heart by Farmer and Brindley and a bas-relief of St Michael on the altar frontal were completed by 1919. A silver lamp before the statue was created by Osmond Bentley and J.A. Marshall, who also designed the electric light pendants.

Linked by screens is the Blessed Sacrament Chapel, clad in marble between 1904 and 1909 and enclosed by grilles and gates from 1907 by Marshall, above which is represented the 'Pelican in her Piety'. The altar rail dates from 1908, with the tabernacle and suspended canopy from 1909, all by Marshall. Mosaics by Boris Anrep were completed in 1962.

The Lady Chapel is clad in richly-coloured rare marbles, completed around 1914. The white marble altar features a mosaic of Our Lady with the Holy Child by Anning Bell executed by a Miss Martin, who also created those in the apse recesses. Other mosaics are by Gilbert Pownall. A 15th-century Nottingham alabaster statue was installed in 1955, and the marble floor dates from 1956.