CONFRONTING everyone as they walk through the west doorway of Llandaff Cathedral is an unforgettable—and to the first-time visitor—completely unexpected sight. Dominating the interior without obstructing the main vista is a great parabolic arch in hammered concrete supporting a standing figure of Christ in Majesty (Fig 1). It springs straight through the Gothic order of this monumental interior, clearly distinct from it, yet unifying the space. The combined creation of architect George Pace and sculptor Jacob Epstein, it is only the most celebrated intervention in a restoration project prompted by the devastation of this building by a landmine on January 2, 1941.
As described last week, before the 20th century, Llandaff Cathedral had an unusually complex architectural history. The majority of the fabric damaged by the landmine blast was Victorian (Fig 5). That probably explains why the complete restoration of the building was never in question. In this regard, it is intriguing to contrast the treatment of Llandaff with Coventry Cathedral, where the ruins of the medieval church famously became an architectural pendant to its modern successor.
At Llandaff, services were briefly removed from the building altogether, but, by the end of April 1941, the architect then responsible for the fabric, Sir Charles Nicholson, had created an ‘Emergency Cathedral’ in the east arm of the building. This was furnished with salvaged pews and a harmonium, its smashed windows filled with asbestos sheets. A temporary partition that closed off the ruin of the nave creaked and whistled with the wind in bad weather. This was hardly an ideal space, but it served.
Denne historien er fra April 15, 2020-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra April 15, 2020-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
