page_title: St George's Cathedral, Southwark
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: St George's Cathedral, Southwark / History
caption_attribution_description: English: A Church Rises From the Ashes- Bomb Damage To St George's Cathedral, Southwark, 1942 A priest, probably Father Dixon, stands in the roofless shell of St George's Roman Catholic Cathedral, on the corner of St George's Road and Lambeth Road in Southwark, South East London. The Cathedral was severely damaged by an incendiary bomb attack which gutted the building on 16 April 1941. The photograph is taken from the altar end of the building, looking back down the nave towards the door.
context_page_description: The Metropolitan Cathedral Church of St George, usually known as St George's Cathedral, Southwark is the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Southwark, south London and is the seat of the Archbishop of Southwark.
  The cathedral is the Mother Church of the Roman Catholic Province of Southwark which covers the Archdiocese of Southwark and the Dioceses of Arundel and Brighton, Portsmouth, and Plymouth. It is the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Archbishop of Southwark. The building was erected in 1848 and reopened after extensive war damage in 1958. It is architecturally listed in the initial category of Grade II.
  The cathedral is opposite the Imperial War Museum on Lambeth Road in London. In Westminster Bridge Road, close by to the north, is its eponymous Primary School and the headquarters of CAFOD.
context_section_description: St George's was built in 1848, when it was opened by Bishop (later Cardinal) Wiseman. Previously, the local Catholic community had used a small chapel on London Road, also dedicated to St George, but the arrival of Irish immigrants in the area necessitated the construction of a larger house of worship. In 1852, following the restoration of the Catholic hierarchy, it became one of the first four Catholic churches in England and Wales (and the first in London) raised to cathedral status since the English Reformation. It was designed by Augustus Pugin, famous for his work with Charles Barry on the design of the rebuilt Houses of Parliament, in decorated Gothic, from yellow stock brick with Portland stone dressings. Pugin was the first person to be married in the church on 10 August 1848, to his third wife Jane.
  St George’s was restored and redecorated by the Scottish ecclesiastical architect Frederick Walters between 1888 and 1905. 
  In October 1920 St George's was the site of the funeral Mass of Irish nationalist Terence MacSwiney, Lord Mayor of Cork, who died on hunger strike in Brixton Prison. John Lavery painted a well-known painting of the funeral, which is in the collection of the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork.
  The Cathedral was badly bombed during World War II, following which the adjacent Amigo Hall served as the pro-cathedral. Within the external structure of Pugin’s building, Romilly Craze designed a rebuilt 20th century Gothic revival Cathedral, which was opened in 1958. The surviving elements of the bombed Cathedral were the two chantries and the Blessed Sacrament Chapel, which had been designed by Pugin’s son Edward in 1856.
  Pugin’s original design include taller towers and a spire. Neither under when built nor when rebuilt was there sufficient funding, and these elements remain unrealised. 
  Since the reconstruction it has resumed its role as a focal point in the local community and has played host to many notable visitors, including the Dalai Lama (1998) and Pope John Paul II (1982), the latter being depicted in one of the Cathedral's stained-glass windows by Goddard & Gibbs.
caption: Catholic priest Father Dixon walks through the cathedral in 1942, after extensive damage was caused by incendiary bombing
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