Brentwood Cathedral
The Brentwood Cathedral ( Cathedral Church of St Mary and St Helen ) in Brentwood in the East Anglian county Essex is the Episcopal Church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brentwood and the parish church of the Catholic local church. It was built with a neo-Gothic predecessor church from 1989 to 1991 according to plans by the London architect Quinlan Terry in forms of the Italian Renaissance and English Baroque .
history
The first post-Reformation Catholic Church in Brentwood was built in 1837. The brick building now serves as a meeting center. In 1861, a new, larger church made of ashlar in neo-Gothic style was built for the grown community next to the old one , an east - facing three-aisled basilica with a pointed helmet tower and rectangular choir .
In 1917, the diocese of Brentwood was founded from parts of the Archdiocese of Westminster . The parish church was elevated to a cathedral. In the 1970s it received an extension made of reinforced concrete . However, this was regarded as unsatisfactory, and anonymous major donors contributed the funds for the current construction together, the May 31, 1991 the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Basil Hume ordained was.
Architecture and equipment
For the new cathedral construction, with its classic column arrangements , triangular gables , pilasters and semicircular portico, Quinlan Terry resorted so consistently to styles from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries that the actual time of construction can only be recognized by experts at second glance. The floor plan is a rectangle with an aspect ratio of 3: 5. The two-storey main room , crowned with lanterns, is surrounded on three sides by single-storey side aisles separated by wide arcades ; on the fourth side in the south these correspond to the central and south aisles of the old church, which now form the choir.
In the white and light gray interior, on the shorter axis from the main portal to the old church area, there are the liturgical places Ambo , Altar and Bishop's Chair , all also in the classicist Baroque style. The flat ceiling, in the middle of which the lantern opens, is richly decorated with gold leaf ornaments. While the stained glass windows from the 19th century create a colored semi-dark in the neo-Gothic room behind the altar and bishop's chair , the arched windows of the new building are hand-made clear glass panes with a lead grid structure based on models from the 18th century, which let the daylight flood in brightly. From the ceiling hang large brass - chandeliers . Round reliefs with the Stations of the Cross by Raphael Maklouf are placed between the side aisle arches.
organ
The organ was built in 1993 by the organ builder Percy Daniel in an existing organ case. The instrument has 49 stops on three manuals and a pedal . The actions are electro-pneumatic.
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Individual evidence
- ↑ a b website of the cathedral
- ↑ a b c Documentation from the architects' office ( Memento from March 31, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ history
- ↑ information on organ (English)
Web links
- History and description (website of the cathedral, English, with pictures)
- Documentation by the architects' office ( Memento from March 31, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (English, with pictures and sketches)
Coordinates: 51 ° 37 ′ 10.9 ″ N , 0 ° 18 ′ 23.2 ″ E