ST. PAUL’S REPAIRS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 887, 3 February 1930, Page 13

ST. PAUL’S REPAIRS

17 YEARS’ WORK ALMOST COMPLETED SAFE FOR THE PRESENT Seventeen years’ work on the reconditioning of the fabric of St. Paul’s Cathedral is nearing completion. A great thanksgiving service is to be part of the celebrations which are being arranged to mark <the conclusion of a gigantic task. The date so far selected for the service is June 25, at noon. The King has signified his: hope to be present, and the Archbishop of Canterbury will preach the sermon, writes the church correspondent of the London “Sunday Times.”

The restoration work of the past 17 years at St. Paul’s has included vital parts of the historic building. There has been contributed £450,000 from alll parts of the Empire, representing large and small individual gifts from £5,000 to sums of Is and 6d. A little Australian girl who was dying expressed the wish to her father to send 5s to the fund, and in due course the contribution reached the cathedral authorities. Canon Alexander, who has served during the whole period of 17 years as treasurer of the fund, and has directed and. maintained the appeal by thousands of letters, told me another interesting fact concerning the affection, entertained for St. Paul’s by ordinary men and women. No less than. £6,000 has been received in the boxes placed in the cathedral for the preservation fund. On an average this represents £1 a day since 191.4. These generous gifts have heartened the Dean and Chapter in their great endeavours, supported as they are by noble help' from the City Corporation and City Companies. Never once in the long and anxious period—particularly during the war, when only time-expired men were employed —did the work stop on account of financial reasons. In the course of the work no fewer than 10,000 scaffold-boards have been in use under the dome, and 6,000 square feet of wood were employed for the screen shutting off the dome from the nave. The great steel chain, 450 ft long, which has been fitted to the drum of the dome, weighs about 30 tons, with links 15ft long and 2ft high. Altogether about 300 tons of steel have been requisitioned for 'the repairs, as well as hundreds of tons of liquid cement and new masonry. Stupendous problems were involved in connection with the foundations and the great weight of the cathedral from the floor to the top of the cross. It Is calculated that the total pressure upon earth aseribable to the weight of the dome and its supports amounts to over 67,000 tons. This calculation indicates that the task of the experts in completing their work suqeessfully is au outstanding achievement, in cathedral restoration. The question that naturally arises is: “Are tile cathedral authorities satisfied that the stability of St. Paul’s is now assured?” In reply, I may quote the opinion of one well qualified to speak. “When everything is completed,” he said to me, “the cathedral will be safe for many centuries and probably stronger than the original building.” This opinion is, however, limited by one essential and important point. The authorities will not give any guarantee of safety unless the shallow foundations of the cathedral remain undisturbed from excavations in the vicinity of the cathedral for a new bridge across the Thames or for tube railways. Any such projects, if carried out, would, in the view of the experts cause irreparable damage, and possibly disaster.