Commanding silence

In the second of two articles, John Goodall looks at the post-Second World War restoration of Llandaff Cathedral and its outstanding collection of 20th-century furnishings

- John Kenyon and David Robinson

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.