Transcribed from the 1909 edition , email Many thanks to the Royal Borough ofKensington and Chelsea Libraries, Local Studies department, forallowing their copy to be used for this transcription.
Notes Descriptive of theChapel,
its Furniture, and its Principal
Features.
p.2“I lift mine eyes, and all the windows blaze
With forms of Saints and Holy men who died
Here martyred and hereafter glorified;
And the great Rose upon its leaves displays
Christ’s Triumph and the Angelic Roundelays
With splendour upon splendour multiplied;* * * * *
And then the organ sounds, and unseen choirs
Sing the old Latin hymns of Peace and Love
And benedictions of the Holy Ghost.”Longfellow, Divina Commedia.
The consecration of the new Chapelof the Holy Spirit by the Bishop of London, on Tuesday, the 25thMay, 1909, marks the completion of the large scheme for theenlargement and beautifying of St. Peter’s, upon which theChurch Council has been earnestly engaged for nearly threeyears. The new organ has already been very fully describedin the “Dedication Service” booklets of last year,and it has been suggested that some description of the chapel maybe of interest to many who worship at St. Peter’s. Those who read it must pardon the writer if from inexperience orlack of knowledge he has failed adequately or accurately todescribe it, or if, in describing it, he may have been driven bythe depth of his own feelings to strike too personal a note.
The chapel has been erected to form at once an integralportion of the church and a feature distinctive in itself. Ancient precedents for such treatment are numerous, wherein arichness of material or ornament marks the chapel as a piousmemorial or its erection as an act of devotion. In thiscase it is attached to the north side of the chancel, and opensfrom the north transept by a wide and simply moulded archway inharmony with the chancel arch. A short neck, lighted by along lancet, connects it somewhat more richly with thechancel.
Occasion has been taken to gain light in this corner of thebuilding, and the exigencies of lighting in a confined area havelargely controlled the form of the chapel. It consists uponthe ground floor of three bays, in the upper part of twoonly. The east window is thrown back from the party wall,and carried by a rich segmental arch at the end of the secondbay. The recess thus formed at the east end shelters thealtar and reredos under a panelled vault into which the canopiesgrow.
p. 4The twoloftier bays of the chapel have LIERNE and slightly domicalvaults, each compartment intersected by the figure of a crossformed by the ribbing, which is brought down in an Ogee point tothe wall rib. The springers are arranged to form canopiesover a series of sixteen figures—Angels, Apostles,Prophets, Martyrs and Holy Church, the Archangel Gabriel and theBlessed Virgin in the Annunciation flanking the eastwindow. The head of our Lord crowns the eastern vault, andin the surrounding bosses angels bear the emblems of thePassion. The Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, surroundedby angels bearing the insignia of the various learned societieswith which the donors are associated, decorate the westernbay.
Upon the walls the or