The Roman Catholic Metropolitan Cathedral of Westminster, Dedicated to the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, rose here between 1895 and 1903 largely by the efforts of Archbishop Herbert Vaughan (1892-1903) and his architect John Francis Bentley (who died in 1902). Vaughan's requiem mass on 26/06/1903 was the first major service here.

Sir John Betjeman said of this:
'J.F. Bentley's basilican cathedral is a series of surprises. First when near to it, you notice the fine quality of the brickwork contrasting with the proportioned bands of Portland stone. Everywhere the external detail is precise and delicate, the grouping of turrets, entrances and windows and blank spaces is carefully contrived and never dull, never fussy...From outside you do not expect what is the greatest surprise of all, that the cathedral looks larger inside than it looks from the outside.

The land was bought in 1884 only 55 years after the Catholic Emancipation Act completed the removal of the legal constraints that Roman Catholics had suffered for some 300 years when law and custom forbade them many rights in the United Kingdom. Although the law was changed there were plenty prepared to maintain the custom. The rising structure was mocked and derided.
There was little money for the project and that affected the design, the construction materials and the amount of decoration. The massive brick structure is in a Byzantine style which divides the nave (the highest and widest in England) into three square bays each with a dome above. Instead of external buttresses the arches of the transepts and chapels abutting the nave are thickened to support the pillars from which the domes rise. This provides usable space inside the building rather than taking up valuable ground outside. The use of brick, some twelve million were required, was a substantial saving, certainly on the use of stone. A detail of the minimal decoration is that the green marble for the pillars in the nave was obtained from a quarry traced by New Testament research. The same quarry, which had been closed for centuries, provided marbles for the Emperor Justinian's 6th century Sancta Sofia Basilica in Istanbul, which he initiated to re-establish the glory of the Roman Empire. There is every opportunity for considerably more decorative features should the Church wish it and have the means. Bentley anticipated that each of the domes would be finished with mosaics as are presently found in the Lady Chapel. There is an awful lot of space to fill.

O/S Co-ords:2923.7907
Source(s):

Westminster Cathedral - Souvenir Guide