WESTMINSTER CATHEDRAL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22779, 15 January 1936, Page 14

WESTMINSTER CATHEDRAL

INTERIOR DECORATION CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP’S DECISION. (From Our Own Correspondent) (By Air Mail) LONDON, December 14. Dr Hinsley, the new Catholic archbishop, has called a halt in the interior decorations of Westminster Cathedral. The administrator of the cathedral says that the decision has been taken because of the scarcity of money. “ We have decided,” he said, “ not to spend money on mosaics until we have it in hand for that purpose. Up to the present the moneys that have been so allotted are all exhausted so far as 1 know. vV e do not want to run into debt in the way of further marble decorations. We are only going to expend money actually sent in for that purpose. “As things stand, money is much more urgently needed for other purposes. Our schools, for instance, are badly in need of attention, and have been in arrears too long. Besides, the artists and critics are very much divided among themselves ■with regard to the suitability of the decorations proposed, so for the moment we want to let the matter rest. This decision has come, however, after a protest by a number of experts. Last week a “ round robin ” was addressed to the archbishop by a group of architectural authorities. They are:—Sir William Llewellyn, president of the Royal Academy; Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, president of the Royal Institute of British Architects; Mr Glyxx Philpot, E.A., presi-

dent of the Catholic Art Guild; Mr Kenneth Clark, director of the Rational Gallery; Sir Robert Witt. Sir Wilham Rothenstein, Mr James ®° nc ’ -S 1r i Maclagan, Mr Charles Holden. Mr D. S. Mac Coll, Mr William Reid Dick, R.A., Mr Eric Gill, and Mr Edward Hutton. It is urged that there has not always been a real sense of what a great example of Byzantine architecture demands. Unfortunately, the architect, John Francis Bentley, died before his cathedral plan could reach anything like truition so far as decorative detail was concerned, and it is alleged that even m cases where he left directions these have sometimes been modified or contravened. The view of the signatories is that the work is so tremendous in its range and permanence that the only way is to have a committee of eminent Catholic architects and artists to consider and advise with respect to all that is proposed m relation to the completion of the cathedral and to put agreed views before the archbishop accordingly.