In 1900 Robert Barr Smith, a philanthropic Presbyterian paid for a semi-octagonal apse to be created at the high altar end of the cathedral in place of the original chancel wall.

THE LADY CHAPEL was created in 1904 out of the apse when Mrs Priscilla Sims gave the reredos. The Chapel is a small worship space within the larger space of the Cathedral. and is dedicated to the honour of Mary, the mother of Jesus.  One of the titles she has been given by Christians is ‘Our Lady’ and hence this space is named ‘The Lady Chapel.’

The Lady Chapel is the location of a daily service of Holy Communion at 7.30 am and a mid-week service of Holy Communion at 10 am on Wednesdays.  It is also a place for personal prayer and meditation, as well as ‘place of retreat’ where people like to come to get away from the hurly-burly of their day and to have somewhere to be quiet and to think or to pray.

THE LADY CHAPEL WINDOWS. The striking stained-glass windows here in the Lady Chapel were made in Whitefriars, London in the prestigious stained-glass workshops of James Powell & Sons to designs by John William Brown (1842-1928). Brown had previously worked for William Morris and Co.  The windows reveal the strong influence of the Arts and Crafts movement and were originally and wrongly attributed to Morris and Co.  They were installed in 1904 and were the gift of Robert Barr Smith.  The window on the right depicts the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Day.  The central window depicts ‘Christ the King,’ picking up the theme of the central panel you saw on the reredos and also of the Christus Rex.  The window on the left shows Jesus’ commissioning of his disciple Peter – another scene from the life of Peter that supplements the four you saw on the reredos.