The Height of Good Taste

The Height of Good Taste

21 Nov 2017

Westminster Abbey – where The Arts Society will celebrate its 50th anniversary with a special commemorative service on 16 May – is creating a new exhibition space from one of the last hidden corners  in the building: some 20m above the nave in the triforium.

The £20m project, to  be known as The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries,  will enable the Abbey to display, for the first time, a vast array of objects in its collection, including effigies, manuscripts, sculpture, silverware, textiles,  a stuffed parrot and a rare example of a paper ‘peepshow’ of Queen Victoria’s coronation, found during the mother of all attic clear-outs, when Abbey staff drew up an inventory of the triforium’s contents.

The custodians, led by the Dean, Dr John Hall, have also sanctioned the construction of a new tower on the Abbey estate. It will be the first since Nicholas Hawksmoor (who succeeded his friend and mentor Sir Christopher Wren as surveyor) oversaw plans for the West Towers, completed after his death in 1745.

An old building it might  be, but Westminster Abbey’s history is one of near constant and innovative renewal. When Henry III tore down most of Edward the Confessor’s church to make way for what is now the present Gothic structure, his enthusiasm, and the considerable budget for renovation and glorification, was entrusted to master mason Henry Yevele.

Yevele’s skill and reputation had already seen him commissioned to execute designs for another tower – The ‘Bloody’ Tower – and the largest hammer-beam roof in northern Europe, just across the road at Westminster Hall. He was the go-to expert for grandiose projects, ubiquitous in his day – the medieval equivalent of Norman Foster.

The nave at Westminster Abbey, as we know it today,  is more or less what Yevele left us; and the gallery – also known as the triforium –  is located directly above it.

Triforia were a common feature of liturgical architecture when the Gothic style was at its apogee. The architectural  critic Nikolaus Pesvner lauds  a particularly fine example at Lincoln Cathedral. In addition to their role of housing buttresses, diffusing the vast weight of a structure such as  a cathedral or abbey, triforia were thought to have been used by monks, predominantly as working spaces and, later, to house spectators at important gatherings, such as coronations.

In more recent times, however, only a handful of people have been permitted  to ascend the narrow stone staircase discreetly located behind a wooden door marked ‘Private’, adjacent to the monument to John Clare,  the People’s Poet.

Anyone who has watched  a royal wedding on TV may recognise the view afforded  by the handful of commentators whose job it is to describe the nuptials in hushed tones, from the unique bird’s-eye angle afforded by the triforium.

John Betjeman, the late Poet Laureate, described the vista from the triforium as “the finest in Europe”. Betjeman, whose monument, an elegant 18th-century cartouche, was appropriately enough discovered lying in the triforium, served on the Abbey’s Architectural Advisory Panel and was a cheerleader for the space.

Fast forward to the 21st century and the man in charge of coming up with the design  of the new display space, as well as the freestanding access tower, is architect Ptolemy Dean. The brother of Young British Artist Tacita, Dean  is perhaps best known for  his work communicating the history of the built environment to TV audiences. A talented draughtsman, he is only the 19th person to enjoy the splendid official title of Surveyor of the Fabric.

Since his appointment and swearing in at a ceremony  that has changed little in half  a millennium, he has been preoccupied with the obligatory Quinquennial Survey,  spending every spare moment traversing the Abbey and its precincts checking for signs  of stress or corrosion of the marble stonework.

“We go over every single  bit of the building,” he said on taking up his new role. Soon he discovered that the repairs by his illustrious predecessors – including Sir Gilbert Scott  and Edwin Lutyens – had,  in some cases, hastened the deterioration of the stonework. The great architectural stars of their day “were so excited about modern materials,  they didn’t realise they were completely incompatible with the stone, both chemically and minerally,” Dean explained.

He plans to clad the 24m-high structure in lead. The glazing will be designed  to provide views for the new cultural pilgrims as they make their way up to the seventh level where a bridge will lead into the triforium.

The tower itself will be set in a discreet corner between  the 13th-century Chapter House and the 16th-century Lady Chapel on a site formerly occupied by an uninspiring 1950s structure used latterly as a toilet block. When the block was removed a few months ago, a number of finds were recorded, including many bones, believed to be those of clergy.

As the Abbey approaches the end of its first 1,000 years, it remains a treasure trove, yielding up its secrets little by little. And until the unveiling  of its newest space, those charged with ushering it into the next millennium are doing their best to maintain an air of mystery – with several of those working on related projects sworn to secrecy.

As the opening date approaches, all eyes will be  on the Abbey. But for those who can’t wait for a tantalising glimpse of the new gallery,  the Abbey has commissioned  a radical new work of its own: the first film shot in the Abbey by a camera mounted on a specially built drone. No one can accuse the Abbey of not moving with  the times. Perhaps one day,  the 21st Surveyor of the Fabric will find a dusty data file and wonder what was once stored within it. 

About the Author

Elizabeth Mistry

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