“Putting it all back” at the Oxford Oratory

 It was about a month ago that the Oxford Oratory publicly launched its “Putting it all back” restoration of the sanctuary in the church of St Aloysius.

Several years of planning have gone into this phase of the scheme, and it is clearly at the heart of the project.

The ceiling painting and the reredos were restored several years ago, with the statues being removed for conservation, with missing features restored and the highlight gilding renewed, as was that on the wall beneath. 

In essence the sanctuary will be restored to its original appearance with the High Altar against the wall of the apse and its structural setting recreated. Details of the plans can be seen at Putting it all back

I was one of those who wrote in to the Diocesan advisory committee strongly in support of the project - slightly unusual for me as when I usually write about planning proposals in the secular sphere it is to oppose them… That must have been about five years ago. 

In the intervening time of waiting the spandrel paintings on the side walls have been uncovered and restored. They, like much of the interior decoration of the church, had been painted over in the 1960s or 70s.

The sanctuary has now been screened off and a temporary altar erected in front of it for the time the work takes to complete.

From this week’s Parish E-newsletter:

Progress on the sanctuary is now quite hard to miss.

The previous altar has been completely dismantled and its concrete foundations are now visible. The old flooring has been salvaged. The walls crossing the sanctuary supported the floor and will support the new one. The ledge that formerly held the tabernacle has been taken down. It was surrounded by (now rare) English alabaster pieces recycled from the original altar. These are too small to form any part of the new altar, but they’ve been saved to be reused for something else in the future. The tabernacle will be heading off for restoration soon.

Meanwhile good progress is being made on the apse repairs too, especially the stained glass repairs, despite our poor conservationist being subjected to four seasons per day on top of our scaffolding this week!

Image and text, slightly amended, from the Oxford Oratory website