Westminster Cathedral
The site on which the cathedral stands in the City of Westminster was purchased by the Diocese of Westminster in 1885, and construction was completed in 1903. Westminster Cathedral is the largest Catholic church building in England and Wales and the seat of the Archbishop of Westminster.
Thomas Walsh (Vicar Apostolic of the London District)
Walsh is most remembered for his commissioning of two cathedrals, the Cathedral of Saint Chad, Birmingham and Nottingham Cathedral and St Mary's College, Oscott, and his association with the distinguished architect Augustus Welby Pugin. In 1848, he was named Vicar Apostolic of the London District, with the intention of him being the first Archbishop of Westminster when the hierarchy was to be restored in 1850, but he died before that happened, in Golden Square, Soho, London on 18 February 1849. He is buried in the crypt chapel of St Peter, in the Metropolitan Cathedral of St Chad. A large Gothic-revival memorial to him with a recumbent effigy, designed by Pugin and carved by George Myers, was erected in the North aisle of the Cathedral in 1851, after being exhibited in the Mediaeval Court of the Great Exhibition in Crystal Palace, Hyde Park, London.