Anything Missing?
The picture above was taken in 1934, when the new mosaics by Gilbert Pownall we installed over the sanctuary. In order the better to see them, Cardinal Bourne ordered the Great Rood be taken down, and placed against the wall at the back of the Cathedral.
The outcry was considerable; the mosaics were considered of inferior quality, and Pownall's designs for the apse dome were abandoned after pressure from the artistic community. The mosaics above the altar remained, but were allowed to become obscured through soot and smoke (as I child, I recall that they were all but invisible). The Rood was, of course, returned to its position over the sanctuary.
Also of interest in this picture: the marble galleries are not yet built, and indeed the Gill Stations can be seen against bare brickwork. On the right side, a temporary pulpit (with sounding board!) has been erected halfway down the nave, overshadowing the smaller original pulpit nearer the sanctuary.
3 comments:
Is there a second pulpit in that picture?
"....as a I child, I recall...."
Monsignor,
How old were you when you first visited the Cathedral? What is your earliest memory? Did you ever think/dream that you would one day be assigned to the Cathedral?
I first visited as an altar server from St Edmund's parish, Whitton, and I would have been about 10 years old. Surely, I never thought I wouold work here - but the sense of awe I felt on that occasion has never left me!
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