Notre Dame organist to give inaugural recital in Wimbledon

The restoration of the historic organ at Sacred Heart Church in Wimbledon is progressing well and is due for completion in time for Easter 2011.

Sacred Heart's magnificent organ was built on a Cathedral scale by the firm of J W Walker & Sons, in 1912.  It is a rare surviving example of an organ of tubular-pneumatic action - every part of the mechanism is driven by compressed air, which passes through miles of metal piping - while other organs of the Edwardian period have been irrevocably altered through the substitution of modern electric actions.

The Jesuit parish won a Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) grant of £237,000, towards the £360,000 needed to restore its historic and rare Edwardian organ.  Last April, the firm of Mander Organs dismantled the instrument, and took it to their workshops in Hackney, where craftsmen faithfully restored its cracked bellows and countless leather motors, before reinstating it within the Sacred Heart in time for Easter 2011.  The inaugural recital will be given by Olivier Latry, organist of Notre-Dame de Paris.  Date and time to be confirmed.

A short video on YouTube (and the Sacred Heart web site) shows the main reservoirs (bellows), some of the larger pipes being returned to the instrument, and various shots of the inner workings of the organ - plus the new floor, before it was covered with pews!


 Video

 Sacred Heart parish