LONDONDERRY CATHEDRAL

Samuel Lewis

1837

The cathedral, which also serves as the parish church, was completed in 1633, the former one, erected in 1164, having been destroyed by Sir Henry Docwra. The cost of the building, amounting to £4000, was defrayed by the Corporation of the City of London: it is principally in the later English style, with various decorations since added, which do not harmonize with its prevailing character, and consists of a nave and aisles, separated by stone pillars and arches, with a tower at the west end surmounted by an elegant octagon spire terminating in across and spear; on the east gable is a cross springing from the central battlement.

The entire structure is 240 feet long, and 66 feet broad; the height of the tower and spire is 228 feet from the churchyard. In 1778, the Earl of Bristol, then Bishop of Derry, completed a new spire of hewn stone, with open ornamented windows, and the old tower was raised 21 feet; but in 1802, owing to the dilapidated state of the tower, the spire was taken down and soon after rebuilt from a fund of £400, half of which was contributed by the Irish Society and half by Bishop Knox and the citizens.

The Society also contributed a sum for the embellishment of the cathedral in 1819; and in 1822 the old roof of lead was replaced by a slate roof. A new organ was erected in 1829 by subscription, to which Bishop Knox contributed £100, and Dean Gough and the corporation £50 each. On the north of the communion table is a handsome monument of Italian marble, by Behnes, erected in 1834 to the memory of Bishop Knox, at an expense of £500, raised by subscription: on an elevated plinth is an inscribed tablet, above which is represented a tomb surmounted by a mitre, on the right of which is a full-length figure of Religion, and on the left another of Charity with a babe on her arm and two other children of different ages standing at her knees. There are various other tablets, one of which, to the memory of the father of the Rev. William Hamilton, D.D., is inscribed with the epitaph of that distinguished naturalist.

The bishop's palace, built about the year 1761, during the prelacy of Bishop Barnard, is a substantial and commodious building, occupying the site of the Augustinian convent: it was almost rebuilt by the Earl of Bristol, when bishop, and after the damage which it sustained by being occupied as a barrack in 1802, was repaired by Bishop Knox. The gardens in the rear comprise nearly two acres, and extend to the city wall; having at the above period been appropriated as a parade, that designation is still applied to the adjacent part of the wall. The deanery, a large unadorned edifice of brick, was built in 1833 by the Rev. T. B. Gough, the present dean, at an expense of £3421. 16. 8 ½., to be reimbursed by his successor.

Adjacent to the city wall on the west is a chapel of ease, a rectangular building, erected by Bishop Barnard, whose descendant, Sir Andrew Barnard, became the patron: the chaplain's original stipend of £50 is now paid out of the property of William J. Campbell, a minor, who claims the advowson. A free church was built, on the north of the city by Bishop Knox, in 1830, at an expense of £760; and a gallery was erected in 1832, at a further expense, including the cost of a vestry-room and the introduction of gas, of £145, raised by subscription.

The R. C. chapel occupies the site of the monastery of St. Columb, and is situated in a street called the Long Tower, from the lofty round tower which formed the belfry of the Dubh-Regles, the original church built by St. Columb. This chapel was completed in 1786, at an expense, including the cost of some additions in 1811, of £2700, of which £210 was contributed by the Earl of Bristol, and £50 by the corporation. The Presbyterian meeting-house, in Meeting-house-row, has a chaste and handsome front, of which the pediment and corners are of Dungiven freestone: it is supposed to have been built about the year 1750, at an expense of nearly £4000, and was repaired in 1828 at an additional cost of £700.

The Primitive Wesleyan Methodist chapel, in the same street, was originally a store, which was used by Wesley on his visit to this city in 1763: his congregation built the Wesleyan Methodist chapel in 1783, but on the separation taking place the Primitive Methodists returned to their former place of worship; part of the building is still let for a store, and the chapel is used as a Sunday school between the intervals of divine service, for which the dean pays a rent of £20.

The old Wesleyan Methodist chapel was vacated on the completion of a new chapel built in 1835, at an estimated expense of £1100, raised by subscription, towards which the Irish Society contributed £100; the ground floor is used as a vestry-room and a school-room for 300 children. There are also places of worship for Presbyterians in connection with the Seceding Synod, a plain building erected in 1783, at an expense of £450; for Covenanters, built in 1810 at a like expense; and for Independents, built in 1824 at an expense of £500.

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