Figure 1.-- A HBC reader tells us that this is the current uniform of the Westminister Abbey Choir. Formerly the boys had a striped blazer. Image courtesy of the MD collection.

Westminster Cathedral is the only Catholic cathedral in England. It is a relatively new cathedral. Cardinal Vaughan promoted the construction of a new metropolitan cathedral. It was built in Westminister and open in 1895. An important part of the concept of the Cathedral was a residential Choir School--the Westminster Cathedral Choir School. Choral services have been held every day since the Cathedral opened. The Choir School bowing to financial necesities was convered to a Cathedral School in the 1970s and non-choristers were accepted into the school as day boys. This also permitted an elargement of the school and according the the School "a richer efducational environment". The Choir continues to maintain a very high standard as permitted by competent instructors and the boarding system. We have no details about the uniform of the Westminster Cathedral choristers when the school was founded in 1895. Webelieve that in the 1980s that they the boys wore a cherry red blazer and matching cap wityh grey short pants. The school appears to have changed to a maroon blazer and they no longer wear caps. The image here shows the boys wearing the new maroon blazer. They still wearing short pants, but the longer style shorts popular in the 2000s (figure 1).
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