ST PETER'S, EATON SQUARE

Great Clarion 4 (4.5" wind) Cornopean 8 Trumpet 8 (4.5" wind) Double Trumpet 16 (4.5" wind) Mixture IV Mixture II Piccolo Harmonique 2 Flute Harmonique 4 Hohlflote 4 Gemshorn 4 Octave 4 Stopped Diapason 8 Flute Harmonique 8 Hohlflote 8 Open Diapason III 8 Open Diapason II 8 Open Diapason I 8 Bourdon 16 Double Open Diap. 16 Solo to Great Swell Octave to Great Swell to Great Swell Sub Octave to Great Choir to Great		Swell (enclosed) Clarion 4 Vox Humana 8 Oboe 8 Horn 8 Contra Fagotto 16 Mixture II Flute Harmonique 4 Geigen Principal 4 Voix Celeste 8 Viole de Gambe 8 Rohrflote 8 Flute Harmonique 8 Geigen Principal 8 Bourdon 16 Tremulant Octave Sub Octave		Solo (enclosed) Tuba 8 (10" wind) Orchestral Oboe 8 Corno di Bassetto 8 Cor Anglais 16 Concert Flute 4 Concert Flute 8 Vox Angelica 8 Unda Maris 8 Voix Celestes 8 Viole de Gambe 8 Tremulant Octave Sub Octave Comb. Couplers Great Pistons to Combn Pedal Combination Ped. to Great Pistons
	Pedal Trumpet 8 (e) (4.5" wind) Trombone 16 (e) (4.5" wind) Bombardon 32 (e) (4.5" wind) Flute 4 (d) Bass Flute 8 (d) Violoncello 8 (c) Principal 8 (b) Sub Bass 16 (d) Violon 16 (c) Open Diapason 16 (b) Open Bass 16 (a) Double Open Diap. 32 (a) Solo to Pedal Swell to Pedal Great to Pedal Choir to Pedal		Choir Clarionet 8 Oboe 8 Mixture III Lieblich Gedact 2 Lieblich Gedact 4 Flauto Traverso 4 Salicet 4 Lieblich Gedact 8 Flauto Traverso 8 Salicional 8 Dulciana 8 Lieblich Gedact 16 Swell to Choir
The present organ in St Peter's is located on a west gallery but its predecesor (detailed above) was accommodated in the chancel. This instrument was destroyed when the church was completely gutted by fire in 1986; only the shell of the building remained standing. The interior of the "new" church is very striking, and quite different from the former building - which was a strange combination of Norman-style arches, together with Gothic piers and capitals. The organ in the "old" church was by T. C. Lewis and dated back to about 1872. It originally had three manuals but, near the turn of the century, a Solo organ and manual were added, also by Lewis. The wind pressure employed for the vast majority of the instrument's stops was 3.5 inches. The manual compass was to C, 61 notes, and the Pedal's was to G, 32 notes. The 32-foot Double Open Diapason was extended from the Open Bass (not the Open Diapason, as its name might suggest) and the 32-foot reed was almost certainly from the 16-foot, as it only went to middle C on the pedalboard (i.e. there was no 32-foot octave). It is not now possible to establish which other Pedal stops were derived by extension, so the superscript letters in the Stop List above merely indicate the most likely ones. Although the Great organ lacked Octave Quint and Super Octave stops, the composition of its two-rank Mixture was 12-15. On the Solo organ - which could be coupled to the Great manual, but not to the Choir or Swell - the 8-foot Concert Flute was of triangular construction, whilst the 4-foot version was rectangular. It is probable that the department's 16-foot reed, the Cor Anglais, went down to CC (whereas the same stop on the Lewis organ at Southwark Cathedral goes to tenor C only). Note the Viole de Gambe and Voix Celestes stops on both the Swell and Solo organs, and the harmonic flutes, at unison and octave pitches, on the Swell and Great. Prior to Lewis making extensive use of harmonic flutes in his instruments, his preferred type of open flute was the Hohl Flute. At St Peter's, there was room on the Great for Harmonic Flutes and Hohl Flutes at 8-foot and 4-foot pitches! Although Lewis rarely provided his Swell organs with a 2-foot stop, its absence from a scheme of this size is perhaps puzzling. The organ possessed around 4,000 pipes. This meant it had some 300 pipes more than the instrument that is generally thought of as Lewis' magnum opus; i.e. the organ in Southwark Cathedral (built in 1897). So, on the basis of size alone, the organ at St Peter's - rather than at Southwark - was Lewis' greatest work; his magnum opus. However, in tonal terms, the Southwark organ is almost universally acknowledged to be the superior of the two instruments. Indeed, the organ at St Peter's never enjoyed a reputation for anything in particular. It was a big organ by a quality builder but, seemingly, of not much interest. The instrument got a mixed review from Gilbert Benham in The Organ of July, 1926. The Choir organ, he said, was "a real gem... Every stop is of refined quality hardly, in my opinion, to be surpassed anywhere". Of the Great organ, he noted: "The diapasons have nothing of the geigen, stringy tone occasionally met with in the work of the builder" - but it's not clear if this was a compliment, a criticism, or merely an observation. He describes the Cornopean as "not a good stop", whereas the Double Trumpet was "excellent throughout, with plenty of weight". The Swell organ's voicing was "on orthodox lines"; its Mixture being "a brilliant one". The full swell, he suggested, was "improved" by the absence of the Horn. The Solo's strings were keener than their counterparts on the Swell, and the Corno di Bassetto did not have the fullness of tone possessed by the Choir's Clarionet. The Tuba was "not a very powerful stop" (he went on to suggest that a Tuba Mirabilis be added, as well as a big Pedal reed). The Solo flutes were "of the lieblich type". This last comment resulted in a letter to The Organ from a Mr. Lennard C. Cooper. He knew the instrument well and pointed out that, actually, the Solo flutes were not of stopped metal but of open wood! "In fact", he added, they were "the only manual stops of that material throughout their compass in the whole instrument". Cooper also corrected some of Benham's comments about the construction of the Pedal organ's stops. "All the pedal 16ft. flue work is of wood", he said (Benham reported that the Open Diapason and Violon were metal ranks). Additionally, Cooper recalled that the Great organ's Cornopean was "the idea of the late Dr. Huntley" (who, presumably, was one-time organist at the church). "No doubt he had his reason for inserting this", Cooper commented - perhaps reinforcing Benham's suggestion that it was not a terribly useful voice. It's impossible to say how much of the Lewis character was retained when the instrument was rebuilt by J. W. Walker in 1952.