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‘Whistler’ at St Pauls…

The current incarnation of St Paul’s Cathedral was started in the late 1600’s and took 35 years to complete, however, there has been a St Paul’s Cathedral on Ludgate Hill since 604AD. The Cathedral, regarded as one of London’s most famous landmarks, has had many famous visitors and hosted the Royal Wedding of Charles and Diana in the 1981. It seems however that there is one famous visitor who refuses to leave…

There have been numerous reports of people in The Kitchener Chapel - a memorial Chapel to Lord Kitchener –looking upon his memorial, experiencing a sudden chill, this is said to be the first sign that the Cathedral's resident ghost, "Whistler", is about to make an appearance. Next, the low, barely audible sound of mournful whistling is often heard…

Gazing into the chapel, an old clergyman with flowing locks of grey hair, dressed in old fashioned robes, has been seen gliding across the chapel. His doleful, tuneless whistling is said to grow steadily louder as he crosses the room, before he disappears into the wall to the right of the gates. Everyone who has seen him says he follows the same path and that he always vanishes into the same section of the wall.

During renovation work to the Chapel, following the First World War, workmen uncovered a hidden door behind the exact section of wall where the ghost always disappeared. It opened onto a narrow, winding staircase that led up to a secret room within the main body of the Cathedral. Nobody had known of the room’s existence or purpose, with the exception of “Whistler” it seems, whose identity remains a mystery….

Who’s that Ghost at Westminster?

Cardinal Nicholas Wiseman, the first Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, passed away in 1865. Following unprecedented public grief, the Church decided to build a Cathedral in his honour and temporarily placed the Cardinal’s body to rest in Kensal Green Cemetery. They found a site in 1884, in the district of London we now know as Victoria, and commissioned the Architect, John Francis Bentley to create their vision of Westminster Cathedral.

The Neo-Byzantine style that Bentley adopted for this new project was greatly admired, and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) visited the ongoing build in 1900 and proposed to nominate Bentley for their highest honour, the Royal Gold Medal - despite Bentley not being a member of RIBA. However, due to Queen Victoria’s death, the medal nomination was placed on hold.

Bentley, who was struck down by cancer, died in 1902 just before the completion of the Cathedral, and a day before his deferred medal nomination. He did not live to see his greatest work come to fruition, nor gain the Royal Gold Medal many thought he so richly deserved. Some believed that Bentley should have been buried at the Cathedral, but he was laid to rest at St Mary Magdalen in Mortlake. It was reported that RIBA, after failing to award Bentley the medal, intended to erect a silver tablet to commemorate Bentley in the Cathedral or award the medal posthumously, but in the end, neither happened.

In 1907, the body of Cardinal Wiseman was lifted from its resting place in Kensal Green and moved into the crypt of the new Cathedral. He now lies in a Gothic tomb with an effigy of the recumbent Archbishop in full pontifical dress, above.

Westminster Cathedral, described as a “work of extraordinary beauty and grandeur” (S H Goodheart-Rendel, 1934), is almost brand new compared to St Paul’s and yet has already acquired a spectre. During the 1960’s, reports of a shadowy figure hovering near the main altar, led to much speculation as to whether it was the first Cardinal, rising from his resting place to see his tribute, or the Architect, Bentley who never received his… the mystery remains unsolved!