Town mouse visits Westminster Cathedral
Clive finds much to admire in London’s Westminster Cathedral


St David's Day took me to Westminster Cathedral, to see the mosaic of St David that was blessed by the Pope last year. Westminster Cathedral is one of the wonders of London. The Byzantine style may have been chosen to avoid rivalry with Westminster Abbey, and a brick cathedral could be built far more quickly than a stone one. All the rose-red fabric, bar the last 50ft of the campanile, had been finished by the architect J. F. Bentley's death in 1902, a mere eight years after he began the design.
The enrichment of the interior has taken longer. Strangely, the brickwork here is almost black-perhaps from incense and candle smoke. But glittering mosaics, which a priest described to me as ‘soothing and serene, yet exhilarating', are slowly covering the walls.
I had always thought St David was known as the Waterman because he mortified his flesh by praying in water, but the Welsh artist Ifor Davies shows him with a beaker, showing he only drank water (bad enough, you might think).
The work, largely made by Tessa Hunkin of the Mosaic Workshop, shows that the art of mosaic-making is far from dead-and just as well: the present Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, has set his mind on completing the domes.
Sign up for the Country Life Newsletter
Exquisite houses, the beauty of Nature, and how to get the most from your life, straight to your inbox.
Country Life is unlike any other magazine: the only glossy weekly on the newsstand and the only magazine that has been guest-edited by HRH The King not once, but twice. It is a celebration of modern rural life and all its diverse joys and pleasures — that was first published in Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee year. Our eclectic mixture of witty and informative content — from the most up-to-date property news and commentary and a coveted glimpse inside some of the UK's best houses and gardens, to gardening, the arts and interior design, written by experts in their field — still cannot be found in print or online, anywhere else.
-
The century-old enamelling technique used to create Van Cleef's lucky ladybird brooch — which has something in common with Country Life
The technique used in the jeweller's Geneva workshop has been put to good use in its latest creation.
By Hetty Lintell Published
-
‘The best sleep in the sky’: What it’s like to fly in United’s Polaris cabin, approved by American icon Martha Stewart
United’s Business Class cabin goes by the name Polaris and Martha Stewart is a fan. So, how does it fare?
By Rosie Paterson Published