We have divided the fundraising campaign into the different sections that we require to complete the organ.
Please click a button below to choose a donation category that you would like to contribute towards.
If you are making a large donation, please avoid transaction fees by making a bank transfer, labelled ‘Organ Campaign’, to:
Parish of St Mary’s with All Saints
40-52-40
00016059
General donations will be put towards the areas of work on the organ where they are needed most urgently.
Our Give us the keys! section allow you to make a donation towards the building of a new console.
Our Rescue a rank! section allow you to make a donation towards the refurbishment of the original pipes in All Saints’ Church.
Purchase a pipe – we need pipes of varying sizes to help complete the renovation. Smaller pipes provide the higher notes, larger pipes produce the heavy, lower notes. You can also choose to donate a whole rank of pipes to help us achieve our goals quicker!
2024 saw the 150th anniversary of All Saints’. The church is an inspiring building designed by G. E. Street, with interior decoration by William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones, making it one of the architectural gems of London, and a very fine and complete example of the Arts and Crafts movement.
The original organ was installed piecemeal and completed in the 1890s. This instrument lasted until the 1970s, but because of neglect it fell into disrepair. Following the fire and rejuvenation of the church in the 1990s, most of the instrument was removed and was replaced by a digital organ which failed in 2024.
Music is an integral part of worship, and organs have been the backbone of this for centuries. The organ is at the heart of our worship, but also features in concerts and teaching. Organs are synonymous with churches. They accompany and inspire throughout the yearly cycle of Christmas, Easter, All Saints’ Day, and everything in between. Their sound also punctuates and enriches major life events such as baptisms, weddings, and funerals.
With this project we want to create an instrument which is worthy of the beauty of the space, which inspires listeners, and which will strengthen the church’s role as a musical and spiritual hub of the community.
In preparation for this campaign, we have drawn on the expertise of independent consultants, and have appraised other ‘cheaper’ options. A second-hand instrument will not fit in our current space, and would risk obscuring the windows for which the church is Grade II* listed.
Digital options are not only musically inferior (consider the difference in clarity between one pipe per note, compared to 4 speakers for all the notes), but do not have a track-record of longevity. Over the same time span they often cost as much. We want a high-quality, longterm solution.
The pipes we see are only part of the story. The sets or ‘ranks’ of pipes sit on soundboards, under which are bellows or wind reservoirs. When a key is pressed at the organ console, a signal is sent to open the relevant pipe, and to allow air through it, thereby creating musical notes. Each organ has different stops to create different styles of sound, and at different ranges – small pipes for high notes, and large pipes for low notes! The new organ will have around 1,350 pipes and 25 stops. The organ will be built off-site, and then installed into the church, followed by several weeks of ‘voicing’, where a specialist matches each pipe to the rest of the instrument, and to the acoustics of the church.
Bishop & Son are a London-based organ builder with over 225 years of tradition and experience. They have come up with a scheme which restores the southern organ case in the chancel which was removed in the 1990s. It will match the existing case, and both will be refitted with pipes.
The major change from the old design is to utilise the top of the west archway from the current vestry, and place pipes there to project into the nave of the church.
The console (keyboards, stops, and pedalboard) will be remote, so will be able to be moved around the church for concerts, teaching, workshops, and recitals.
Building and installing an organ to last for 150 years will cost £350,000, including VAT. We will be applying to grant-making bodies but some of these will require evidence of success in raising funds without their guarantee of funds. We are therefore inviting All Saints’ congregation, our friends and supporters to contribute generously towards the total cost.