Blog 6: Westminster Cathedral
Just a twenty minute stroll is all it takes to arrive at Westminster Cathedral, that is, if you are studying at Notre Dame’s London campus. Merely one year ago, I found myself on this very stroll on a Sunday evening making my way to the massive edifice. Of course, one cannot simply walk to the cathedral without first passing by the London Eye, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey. If nothing else, the walk to church was a great way to sight see on such borrowed time when studying abroad.
Arriving at Westminster Cathedral is a funny experience. Just moments before your arrival, you may pass a local stationary store or a McDonald’s location and then, suddenly, you are staring at a magnificent piece of history that happens to stand 285 feet tall as the largest Catholic church in the United Kingdom. You almost don’t even have the time to process the amount of grandeur you have seemed to stumble upon.
This grand church is designed in a Neo-Byzantine style and constructed out of brick without any steel reinforcement. The interior of the church is also striking. Perhaps most noticeable is the nave of the church, also known as the center aisle. Stretching 59 feet wide and 230 feet long, the aisle ushers you in to the altar at the very back of the cathedral. This processional space is breathtaking. While it directs your eye to the crucifixion imagery at the back of the cathedral behind the altar, the nave also opens up the heart and mind to the spatial dynamics of the church which seats 3,000 people. As stated by Kieckhefer, “It [a procession] serves as a sign of spiritual progress only if it rouses worshipers from ordinary consciousness by its sheer dramatic force” (Theology in Stone, 27). In viewing the space, one is certainly awakened by the sheer size and grandeur of the processional space. After completing our lectures and readings for this week, I was reminded of this impressive center aisle and gained with this remembrance an appreciation of its size.
An element of this space that I found a bit unusual for a cathedral is the intensely dark mosaic work on the upper half of the space whereas one might expect to find a sensation of light to be communicated through ceiling art in a church. Oftentimes, churches are designed in a way to articulate a sense of upward thought and projection towards God, which is why it is common for artists to see a church ceiling as not a ceiling at all, but rather, an opening to Heaven. It is for this reason that the dark and somber tiles mark an interesting tone in the cathedral. However, these dark tiles are offset by tremendous lighting efforts and gilded artwork that illuminates throughout the space. The space dramatically utilizes natural light in order to illuminate the large crucifix artwork tiled into the back-most wall. This conversation between lightness and darkness therefore leaves its onlookers in contemplation. The same time that one might feel sadness surrounded by dark tile, the glory of God is quite literally illuminated for an onlooker.
The cathedral is certainly notable for its size, but perhaps it is often overlooked for its physical significance. As history would prove, the establishment of Catholics in England (and the United Kingdom) has not always been peaceful. Therefore, the sheer existence of Westminster Cathedral stands as a reminder that Catholics are free to practice their faith and welcomed in this practice. It is a victory. The cathedral is dramatic therefore in both its architectural choices and its historical significance.
