THE P RTAL
July 2014
By 1840 Golden Square had ceased to be a
fashionable location. Charles Dickens describes it in
Nicholas Nickleby as a great resort of foreigners: “Its
boarding houses are musical, and the notes of pianos
and harps float in the evening-time round the head
of the mournful statue, the guardian genius of a little
wilderness of shrubs, in the centre of the square”.
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ensure its preservation for future generations.
The heart of the instrument, its huge, central wind
reservoir, was carefully removed for re-leathering and
repair. This was last done circa 1960 by the Mander
organ company of London. This existing part was
riddled with holes and provided an unstable supply
to the organ’s historic pipe work. Wind pressure has
as it was when it was built in 1790
now been restored in order to allow the organ’s three
In 1853 a bas-relief of the Assumption by the Irish manual and pedal departments to speak properly
artist John Edward Carew was erected above the high without undue wind loss and pitch sag. Gary Owens
altar. When the sanctuary was reconstructed in 1875 Ltd. of Brecon who undertook the work currently
the bas-relief was moved to its present location about holds the tuning and maintenance contract for the
the door to the sacristy. The architect commissioned organ.
to remodel the sanctuary was John Francis Bentley
who wa s later to design Westminster Cathedral. An excluded from public and religious life
apse was constructed and decorated with marble and
On Palm Sunday 2013 the church in Warwick Street
mosaics. However, the original plan of reconstructing entered on a new phase in its life when it was given
the whole church was never completed.
into the care of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady
of Walsingham.
The main body of the church remains as it was when
it was built in 1790. The only significant change was
The church started its life as a centre for Catholics
the shortening of the side galleries so that they no who were excluded from public and religious life in
longer reach the east wall of the church. The original the 18th century. Now it has become the centre for
those Anglicans who have responded to the generous
pews in the galleries were left in place.
call of Pope Benedict XVI to reunite with the Catholic
The historic pipe organ at Our Lady of the Church, bringing with them an important part of their
Assumption and St Gregory appears to have been built Anglican patrimony.
by Lincoln in 1790. It was expanded by Green & Blythe
For additional information on the church
in 1804. In 1859 it was enlarged and rebuilt by Bishop
and the neighbourhood, see the book
& Starr. Further works were carried out in 1910 by
“Warwick Street Church”
Bishop & Starr and in 1961 by N P Mander. The organ
by Fr R C Fuller (Rector 1950-1973)
has recently (May 2014) undergone refurbishment to
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