ST. GEORGE’S CHAPEL

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 May 1927, Page 4

ST. GEORGE’S CHAPEL

LONG JOB FINISHED. There is no truth in the report which seems to have won currency that, t lie beautiful royal chapel of St. George s in Windsor Castle wil shortly be reopened upon the conclusion of the repairs which have been carried out there.

The facts are that only the choir will be re-opened, and that with entire privacy, during Eastertide. There will be nothing in the nature of a ceremony.

“The King will probably walk quietly down to the chapel from his apartments as he is accustomed to do, said one of the clergy of the chapel recently, “and the usual morning or eveningservice, as the case may be will be held.”

At present, the choir is screened oil' and the daily services are held in the lower nave. The choir is still in the hands of the workmen, who are working upon the pavement and completing their labours at various other points. The famous choir-stalls have been cleaned and here and there the dark Gothic tracery appears to have been picked out in new gold. As any visitor to Windsor will perceive, the restoration of the chapel has not been confined to the interior only, and in this regard one of the longest lapses in construction which history can record is to be terminated. When the transept chapels were built, about 500 years ago they should have been ended by buttresses to support their roofs. These, however, were not built and for the ensuing centuries the roof above these transepts has held in place more by will-opwer than anything else. Now, however, the twentieth-century builders have “finished the job,” and indeed, the transept, facing the castle yards presents an almost entirely new frontage. It is very finely done and is crowned by the heraldic figures of various animals, the emblems of Henry VII.