St George's Cathedral, Cape Town

The History

An act of faith

The building of any cathedral is an act of faith. Few are completed in a lifetime; there are exceptions such as Coventry Cathedral in England, built within a decade. But others take longer.

The Cathedral Church of St George the Martyr in Cape Town is still incomplete. Three wars, depressions and recessions have delayed the completion of the vision of Robert Gray, the first Bishop of Cape Town, to have a cathedral worthy of the Mother City.

The early English colonists at the Cape of Good Hope had no church building of their own; they had to rely on services conducted by military chaplains at the Groote Kerk and the Castle. It was not until October 1827 that on a fleeting visit to this outpost of his See, the Bishop of Calcutta consecrated land at the bottom of Government Avenue, and the faith of the community looked like being fulfilled. On 21 December 1834 St George's Church opened for divine service. It had no rector, and chaplains conducted the services until Bishop Gray arrived in his newly-created diocese in 1848.

The church had already been made a cathedral on 25 June 1847, in anticipation of Gray's appointment. Here he installed his cathedra (throne). However, the Bishop was disappointed in the building — believed to have been a copy of St Pancras Church in London — and his desire was to begin, as soon as possible, a cathedral more worthy of the glory of God. It was a dream he was not to realise, and he died in Cape Town on 1 September 1872.

William West Jones was consecrated on 17 May 1874 in Westminster Abbey to be the second Bishop and Metropolitan. Nearly 25 years later he became Archbishop. Like Gray, he was anxious that the diocese have a finer cathedral church. Again, there was delay. By 1887, however, the Diocesan Synod had appointed a committee to collect funds for a new cathedral. Optimistically they hoped to have it finished by 1897 to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Bishop Gray's consecration.

In those ten years not a stone was laid. There was an economic depression at the Cape and events were leading towards the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War. Nevertheless, a New Cathedral Building Committee began finalising plans for the building. The design of Mr Herbert Baker, F.R.I.B.A., the diocesan architect, was accepted. It was arranged that the new cathedral should stand east to west, at right angles to the old cathedral.

The building of the cathedral

The foundation stone of the cathedral was laid on 22 August 1901 by the Duke of Cornwall and York (later to become George V). The stone is in the easternmost projection of the apse and can be seen from the bottom of the Avenue. It bears a cross and the letters AMDG (Ad Majoram Dei Gloriam — To the greater glory of God). The Anglo-Boer War was still raging and the stone stood alone until 1904 when a new beginning was made on Herbert Baker's design with the building of the foundations of the choir section. On 13 November 1906 Lord Selbourne, High Commissioner of South Africa, and Sir Walter Hely-Hutchinson, Governor of the Cape Colony, were present at the thanksgiving for the resumption of work. The service was held in the first completed section, the crypt, which mirrored the vaulted design of the chancel that was to rise above. During this period the foundations of the cathedral were completed. Concrete was laid on solid rock, reaching an average depth of four metres, with plinths rising up to a level which would eventually carry the chancel. (Nearly 70 years later this undercroft was 'rediscovered' and opened up from the crypt.)

The new cathedral began to rise at the eastern end. Before he sailed to England in March 1908, Archbishop West Jones called his people together to thank God for the many works that they had been allowed to accomplish, among them that they were now 'watching with anxious and eager eyes our noble and majestic cathedral mounting at last'. He died two months later, but his hard work and generosity towards the cost of the cathedral were not forgotten. It was decided that the north chapel should be built in his memory. Within 18 months of the Archbishop's death the chapel was completed at a cost of £4400. Despite a severe economic depression, this money was raised almost entirely in South Africa, and in small sums.

The foundation stone of the chapel was laid on 20 November 1908 and was dedicated less than a year later on 28 October 1909, in honour of St John the Baptist, the patron saint of St John's College Oxford, of which William West Jones had been a Fellow. Within four years the nave had been linked to the old cathedral. Then came another war and it was not until 1930 that the Earl of Athlone and Archbishop William Carter laid the memorial stones for the north transept. The completion of the transept in 1936 brought reality to Baker's grand design.

Since then building has progressed by fits and starts. In 1939 the north aisle was finished; in 1963 the Lady Chapel and south aisle were completed, and in 1978 the belfry and the Link section, with additional seating, were built. But St George's Cathedral is still incomplete.

See also The People's Cathedral