Westminster Chapel
Westminster, Greater London
A witnessing church; a church worth witnessing.
A warm welcome to Westminster Cathedral, the seat of the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster and the Mother Church for Roman Catholics in England and Wales. For over a hundred years countless Christians and visitors of every faith and none have crossed the threshold of this holy place, sensing the presence of God and filling it with prayer and contemplation.
Our Cathedral was opened in 1903, designed by John Francis Bentley, the leading church architect of his day, and inspired by the early Byzantine architecture of the Mediterranean. Since 1930 the Cathedral has been home to a shrine of the English saint and martyr St John Southworth, a Lancashire priest who lived and ministered to the poor in the streets of Westminster and died for his faith in 1654.
Over a hundred different varieties of marble decorate Westminster Cathedral (126 at the last count), almost certainly more than in any other building in England. They come from twentyfour countries on five continents and many of them were used in ancient Greece and Rome. Simon Jenkins says that the interior 'is one of London's finest indoor spaces'.