Westminster Cathedral
The Metropolitan Cathedral of the Most Precious Blood, informally known as the Westminster Cathedral, is the largest Catholic church in England and Wales. It is dedicated to the Blood of Jesus Christ and is the seat of the Archbishop of Westminster.
The original site on which the cathedral stands in the City of Westminster was purchased by the Archdiocese of Westminster in 1885, and construction was completed in 1903. Designed by John Francis Bentley in a 9th-century Christian neo-Byzantine style, and accordingly made almost entirely of brick, without steel reinforcements, Sir John Betjeman called it "a masterpiece in striped brick and stone" that shows "the good craftsman has no need of steel or concrete."
The cathedral received Apostolic Visits from Pope John Paul II on 28 May 1982 and from Pope Benedict XVI on 18 September 2010.
History
In the late 19th century, the Catholic Church's hierarchy had only recently been restored in England and Wales, and it was in memory of Cardinal Wiseman that the first substantial sum of money was raised for the new cathedral. The land was acquired in 1884 by Wiseman's successor, Cardinal Manning, having previously been occupied by the second Tothill Fields Bridewell prison.After two false starts, in 1867 and 1892, construction started in 1895 under Manning's successor, the third archbishop, Cardinal Vaughan, with John Francis Bentley as architect, in a style heavily influenced by Byzantine architecture. The cost of the building was anticipated at £150,000 and its area 54,000 sq ft, the cathedral to be 350 ft long by 156 ft wide by 90 ft high.
The foundation stone blessing by Cardinal Vaughan took place on a Saturday morning, 29 June 1895, before a "distinguished" gathering. After the "recitation of the Litanies, Michael Cardinal Logue celebrated Low Mass coram Episcopo. A procession composed of Benedictines, Franciscans, Jesuits, Passionists, Dominicans, Redemptorists, and secular clergy made the circuit of the grounds. The choir, directed by the Rev. Charles Cox, rendered, among other pieces, Webbe's 'O Roma Felix' and 'O Salutaris'. At the luncheon which followed, the speakers included Cardinal Vaughan, Cardinal Logue, the Duke of Norfolk, Lord Acton, Henry Matthews MP, Lord Edmund Talbot, and Sir Donald Macfarlane."
The cathedral later opened in 1903, a year after Bentley's death. One of the first public liturgies to be celebrated was Cardinal Vaughan's Requiem Mass; the Cardinal died on 19 June 1903. When the debt on the building fund was liquidated, consecration ceremony took place on 28 June 1910. Under the laws of the Catholic Church, no place of worship could be consecrated unless free from debt.
The decoration of the interior had hardly been started at the time of consecration, as the decoration in Byzantine churches is applied, rather than integral to the architecture. Therefore finishing the decoration of the cathedral was left to the subsequent generations. It is an architectural gem with its interior notable for rich marble decorations and the beautiful, but still incomplete, mosaics.
In 1895, the cathedral was dedicated to the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ. This is commemorated by the Latin dedication above the portal tympanum:
The Feast of the Dedication of the Cathedral is celebrated each year on 1 July, which from 1849 until the Second Vatican Council was the feast of the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
The additional co-patrons are the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph, Saint Peter, Saint Augustine of Canterbury, Saint Patrick, along with all remaining Catholic saints of Britain and Ireland.
In 1977, as part of her Silver Jubilee Celebrations, Queen Elizabeth II visited the cathedral to view a flower show.
On 28 May 1982, the first day of his six-day pastoral visit to the United Kingdom, Pope John Paul II celebrated Holy Mass in the cathedral.
On Saint Andrew's Day, 30 November 1995, at the invitation of Basil Cardinal Hume, Queen Elizabeth again visited the cathedral but this time she attended Choral Vespers, the first participation of the Queen in a Catholic church liturgy in Great Britain.
On 18 September 2010, on the third day of his four-day state visit to the United Kingdom, Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Mass in the cathedral.
In January 2011 the cathedral was the venue for the reception and later ordination of three former Anglican bishops into the newly formed Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.
In 2012, the cathedral was the host of two episodes of the BBC Four three-part documentary series named Catholics: the first episode looked at women who attend and/or work at the cathedral and their faith, and the third episode looked at the men training to become priests at Allen Hall seminary, and in the episode was a brief scene of their ordination at the cathedral.
In May 2021, during the Covid Pandemic and the banning of public mass, Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds were wed at the Cathedral.
On 16 September 2025, the funeral of Katharine, Duchess of Kent, who converted to Catholicism in 1994, was held in the cathedral, the first Catholic royal funeral in the United Kingdom in modern history. The King, the Prince and Princess of Wales and other members of the royal family attended.
Architecture
Westminster Cathedral is the 50th largest church in the world in terms of interior area, seating up to 2,000 people. It is the 38th largest Catholic church globally in terms of interior area.The whole building, in the neo-Byzantine style, covers a floor area of about ; the dominating factor of the scheme, apart from the campanile, being a spacious and uninterrupted nave, wide and long from the narthex to the sanctuary steps, covered with domical vaulting.
In planning the nave, a system of supports was adopted not unlike that to be seen in most Gothic cathedrals, where huge, yet narrow, buttresses are projected at intervals, and stiffened by transverse walls, arcading and vaulting. Unlike in a Gothic cathedral, at Westminster they are limited to the interior. The main piers and transverse arches that support the domes divide the nave into three bays, each about. The domes rest on the arches at a height of from the floor, the total internal height being.
In selecting the pendentive type of dome, of shallow concavity, for the main roofing, weight and pressure have been reduced to a minimum. The domes and pendentures are formed of concrete, and as extraneous roofs of timber were dispensed with, it was necessary to provide a thin independent outer shell of impervious stone. The concrete flat roofing around the domes is covered with asphalt. The sanctuary is essentially Byzantine in its system of construction. The extensions that open out on all sides make the corona of the dome seem independent of support.
The eastern termination of the cathedral suggests the Romanesque, or Lombardic style of Northern Italy. The crypt with openings into the cathedral, thus closely following the Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio, Milan, the open colonnade under the eaves, the timber roof following the curve of the apex, are all familiar features. The large buttresses resist the pressure of a vault in span. Although the cruciform plan is not very noticeable inside the building, it is emphasised outside by the boldly projecting transepts. These with their twin gables, slated roofs, and square turrets with pyramidal stone cappings suggest a Norman prototype in striking contrast to the rest of the design.
The main structural parts of the building are of brick and concrete, the latter material being used for the vaulting and domes of graduated thickness and complicated curve. Following Byzantine tradition, the interior was designed with a view to the application of marble and mosaic. Throughout the exterior, the lavish introduction of white stone bands in connection with the red brickwork produces an impression quite foreign to the British eye. The bricks were hand-moulded and delivered by Faversham Brickfields at Faversham in Kent and Thomas Lawrence Brickworks in Bracknell. The main entrance façade owes its composition, in a measure, to accident rather than design. The most prominent feature of the façade is the deeply recessed arch over the central entrance, flanked by tribunes, and stairway turrets. The elevation on the north, with a length of nearly contrasted with the vertical lines of the campanile and the transepts, is most impressive. It rests on a continuous and plain basement of granite, and only above the flat roofing of the chapels does the structure assume a varied outline.
Marble columns, with capitals of Byzantine type, support the galleries and other subsidiary parts of the building. The marble selected for the columns was, in some instances, obtained from formations quarried by the ancient Romans, chiefly in Greece.
High altar
The central feature of the decoration in the cathedral is the baldacchino over the high altar. This is one of the largest structures of its kind, the total width being, and the height. The upper part of white marble is richly inlaid with coloured marbles, lapis lazuli, pearl, and gold. Eight columns of yellow marble, from Verona, support the baldacchino over the high altar, and others, white and pink, from Norway, support the organ galleries.Behind the baldacchino the crypt emerges above the floor of the cathedral, and the podium thus formed is broken in the middle by the steps that lead up to the retro-choir. The curved wall of the crypt is lined with narrow slabs of green carystran marble. Opening out of this crypt is a smaller chamber, directly under the high altar. Here are laid the remains of the first two Archbishops of Westminster, Cardinal Wiseman and Cardinal Manning. The altar and relics of Saint Edmund of Canterbury occupy a recess on the south side of the chamber. The little chapel of Saint Thomas of Canterbury, entered from the north transept, is used as a chantry for Cardinal Vaughan. A large Byzantine style crucifix, suspended from the sanctuary arch, dominates the nave.