Services

Sunday	Sung Mass 10.30; Sung Vespers 15.30
Monday - Friday	Sung Vespers 17.00 (Lay Clerks); Sung Mass 17.30
Saturday	Sung Mass 10.30

Service Sheet www.westminstercathedral.org.uk/music/music_diary.html

Facilities

Entrance: No charge, Tower only £3.00

Disabled: Level access into the cathedral

Shop: Gift Shop open 09.30-17.15 Mon-Fri; 10.00-16.45 Sat & Sun

Toilet facilities: In cathedral hall at rear of cathedral

Website: www.westminstercathedral.org.uk

E-mail address: music@westminstercathedral.org.uk

Telephone
Cathedral 020 7798 9055

Music

Master of Music
Martin Baker (since 2000)

Choir
Despite its relatively short history compared to other English Cathedrals, Westminster has a distinguished choral tradition and the choir is considered one of the best of its kind in the world.  This musical excellence has its origin in the shared vision of Cardinal Vaughan, the Cathedral's founder, and Sir Richard Runciman Terry, its inaugural Master of Music. The choir consists of boys and Lay Clerks. All the boys of the choir are boarders at the nearby Westminster Cathedral Choir School.

Organ

Grand organ built by Henry Willis 1932 at the West End,  restored by Harrison & Harrison in 1984 and 1996.  The first stage of the Grand Organ (only 33 stops) was inaugurated by Marcel Dupré in 1922.  In 1924 Louis Vierne gave a recital during which Henry Willis brought him a theme to improvise on.  Willis was rather taken aback to discover that Vierne was practically blind, and his nervousness as he hummed what he had written - the chimes of Big Ben at the Houses of Parliament - caused him to put the tune the wrong way round! Vierne used this improvisation as the basis for his famous Carillon de Westminster, dedicating it ‘à mon ami Henri Willis, facteur d'orgues à Londres’.

4 manuals 78 stops   Pedal 18 stops, Choir 12 stops, Great 19 stops, Swell 15 stops, Solo 14 stops

Apse organ Lewis 1910, Harrison & Harrison 1984

2 manuals 38 stops  Pedal 12 stops, Great 17 stops, Swell 9 stops

 

Organ specification npor.emma.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=N18330

Cathedral

Administrator/Cathedral Chaplain
Canon Christopher Tuckwell (since 2008)

Archbishop
The Most Reverend Vincent Gerard Nichols (since 2009)

Building
The site was originally part of the land of Westminster Abbey, sold for the construction of a prison in the 17th century.  The site was acquired by the Roman Catholic Church in 1884, the prison demolished and the Cathedral was designed in the Early Christian Byzantine style by the Victorian architect John Francis Bentley.  The fabric of the building was completed in 1903 but it was not consecrated until 1910.  The awesome interior of the Cathedral, although incomplete, contains fine marble-work and mosaics. The fourteen Stations of the Cross, by the sculptor Eric Gill, are world renowned.  The Nave is the widest of any church in England and, because the Sanctuary is 4½ft above the level of the nave, every part commands an uninterrupted view of the High Altar, with its imposing marble and mosaic baldacchino on which light is cleverly concentrated.  The Cathedral continues to receive donations for the completion of the elaborate mosaics within and work has recently been completed to decorate the Chapel of St. Joseph.