Excerpt from The Antiquary, Vol. 33
The fate of Peterborough Cathedral is still, at the time of going to press, in the balance, and is the most important question which has occupied the attention of antiquaries during the past month. The Society of Antiquaries passed the following resolution at the first meeting of the session on November 26: "The Society of Antiquaries of London has heard with great concern that it is proposed to take down and rebuild the upper portion of the west front of the cathedral church of Peterborough, that being, in the opinion of Mr. J. L. Pearson and Sir A. W. Blomfield, the only method by which the stability of this part of the church can be secured. The society feels sure that the Dean and Chapter fully recognise their great responsibility as custodians of a national historical monument, but it would venture to urge upon them the propriety of considering whether the desired end cannot be obtained by a less drastic method than that proposed, such, for instance, as the scheme submitted by the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings in its letter to the Dean and Chapter of April 29, 1896. By this scheme the Society of Antiquaries understands the whole of the exterior of this unique west front would be left practically undisturbed." Resolutions of a similar import were also passed by the Royal Archaeological Institute and other societies. A letter to the Times from Sir J. Charles Robinson opened a discussion in the columns of that paper, and the subject has been pretty freely canvassed in the daily and weekly journals. The result so far has been that the immediate destruction of the building has been averted, and the Dean and Chapter have received a deputation from the Society of Antiquaries which is described in a further letter to the Times by Sir J. Charles Robinson.
Sir J. Charles Robinson writes to the Times as follows: "I formed one of the deputation from the Society of Antiquaries appointed to confer with the Dean and Chapter of Peterborough on Friday last (December 4). We were received with the utmost courtesy; the views of the society were well and clearly explained by our spokesman, Sir Henry Howorth, and the reply of the Dean was equally explicit. The discussion lasted upwards of an hour and a half, and the entire situation was made perfectly clear. It appeared that, acting, as the authorities were fully justified in doing, on the advice of the eminent architect to whom they had committed the undertaking, the order had been given to commence the work forthwith, and that probably one of the gables of the west front would have been immediately pulled down but for the action taken by the Society of Antiquaries, which called forth my letter to the Times of December 1. The deputation, two of the members being professional architects, before the meeting, had carefully examined the dislocated stonework of the gables, etc., on the scaffolding erected for the purpose of shoring up. I should here state that the evil, which undoubtedly exists, is entirely an internal one, and that there is practically no outward evidence of it whatever. The Peterborough west front is, in fact, to all outward appearance in the most admirable and perfect state of preservation, inimitably fair and beautiful, literally without a patch or a blemish. There cannot, then, be two opinions as to the desirability of keeping up this noble structure in its intact state, and it will be admitted that only on the most certain and convincing evidence, and after an exhaustive consideration of alternative remedies, should the melancholy conclusion be arrived at that reconstruction would be inevitable. On this point professional opinion is divided; doctors disagree, in fact.
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