A BRITISH VALHALLA

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 9, 5 October 1918, Page 10

A BRITISH VALHALLA

THE PROPOSED WAR MEMORIAL. The scheme drawn up by Mr. William Woodward, the architect, fgr the erection of a memorial chapel iu honour of all our heroes who have sacrificed their lives for their country in the present i war, would, if carried out, add a very beautiful architectural feature to Westminster (says the "Globe")'; It would, in fact, provide a fitting complement to the improvements, which nave recently been made in the laying out of the public gardens to tho south of the Victoria Tower, besides providing a national Valhalla for the honouring of our famous dead.

11l addition to providing a place for monuments to heroes who have fallen in the war, the chapel would tlso fulfil the requirements of the Royal Commission which sat in 1890 and 1891 to consider the want of space for monuments in Westminster Abbey. The idea was then that a memorial chapel should be erected as an adjunct to the Abb6]v so as to provide for monuments for the next one or two iiundred years, and the then Archbishop of Canterbury urged that it should ha a building sacred in the sense "that it should b'o possible to be used for services like the rest of the Abbey, as any of tho chapels might be." ' . All these requirements would be met in the proposed chapel, which would have- a seating accommodation of between 3000 and 4000 persons. It is Mr. Woodward's ambition that the erection and completion of this Valhalla should include specimens of the highest terms of craftsmanship painting, stained glass, mosaic, bronze, and woodwork,, and provision for the rendering of the most beautiful sacred music for the solemn services of the church.

The stylo selected by Mr. Woodward is late Gothic, so as to be in harmony with the House of Parliament and Henry Vll's CJiapel, its near neighbours. The chapel would have a total length, from east to west, of 145 ft.: a total width, including the aisles, or 73ft.; and a height, including the vaulting, of 70ft. These dimensions roughly correspond to those of Gloucester Cathedral. The eastern end of the chapel would be devoted to a polygonal apse, containing the altnr.

It is on the north, south, and west walls, between the nave urches and the nave windows above, that Mr. Woodward lias provided the opportunity for the employment of all that is beautiful in ecclesiastical art. The vaulting would be of mosaic,'the windows would be filled with stained giass, and between each window and itho nave arch beneath it would be an inscription executed in mosaic , , commemorating the units of the various services. The arches of the nave .and the- nave piers would be highly enriched'with appropriate carving in stone, in harmony with the carved strings and with the capitals of the piers. It is also suggested that throughout the chapel provision should be made for inscriptions, on the , walls and columns in memory of the men and women of the respective services who have made the supreme sacrifice for tl\eir country.