The UK's only Hippolyte Loret organ, smuggled out of Paris in 1904, is going to Canterbury for restoration. A free exhibition opens at the school on 19 October.

A pipe organ that nuns smuggled out of Paris in 1904 is to be restored, after Sacred Heart High School in Hammersmith won a £247,788 grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

The school says it is the only organ in the UK by the 19th century Belgian builder Hippolyte Loret. It has sat in the school’s chapel on Hammersmith Road for more than a century. Until late last year, everyone there assumed it was an ordinary English organ.

The grant was announced in a council news release on 17 September. The school’s own project page sets out what happens next, and some of it is open to the public.

How a stop knob gave it away

The organ expert William McVicker spotted a stop labelled “Flûte Pyramidale”. That was the first clue that the instrument was not what the school thought, according to the council.

Close-up of white porcelain organ stop knobs with French names in red and black script, including Basson Hautbois, Flûte Pyramidale, Fugara 4 pieds, Voix Céleste and Gambe 8 pieds
The French stop knobs, including the Flûte Pyramidale that set off the search. Photo: via H&F Council

The school’s research then traced it back to Paris. Its account runs like this:

  • Loret built the organ and it was installed around 1861 in the Chapelle des Saints-Anges, at the Paris headquarters of the Society of the Sacred Heart
  • in the early 1900s the French government moved to seize the property of teaching congregations
  • the sisters dismantled the organ and shipped it across the Channel in 1904
  • a school journal entry for 5 February 1904 records the arrival of “a clock and the organ” from “our persecuted French Houses”

The Paris site was seized, as the sisters had feared. The school says it is now occupied by the Musée Rodin and a secular school.

The council describes the organ as one of the rarest in the world. The school calls it “believed to be the rarest organ in the UK”. Its chapel, designed by J.F. Bentley, the architect of Westminster Cathedral, is Grade II* listed.

The Loret organ's carved wooden case with silver pipes, set in a gallery above carved oak panelling under the chapel's dark timber barrel roof
The organ in its gallery in the school chapel. Photo: via H&F Council

Where the money has come from

The school has raised £327,815 in total, including the Lottery grant, according to the council. Its project page also credits grants from the Vine Hill Trust and the Ruiz Corbella Trust, and donations from parents and the public.

The Lottery grant pays for more than the organ. The school says it also funds public and cross-school events about the site, which it describes as notable “for its longevity of Catholic women’s activism”. The council dates that heritage back to 1669.

What happens to the organ now

Mander Organ Builders, of Canterbury, have been appointed to restore it. The school expects the organ to be taken apart and moved to the workshop in November 2026. It hopes to have it back by late summer 2027. The council gives the return date as August 2027.

Once it is back, the school plans public recitals and choral concerts, and organ lessons for its students. A grand recital to mark the organ’s return is planned for November 2027.

What you can go to

The school has listed these public events on its project page:

When What Cost
Mon 19 to Fri 23 October, until midday on the Friday Community exhibition in the café foyer at 245 Hammersmith Road Free
Fri 20 November, 7pm Talk: the story of the organ smuggled out of Paris in 1904, with an exhibition and refreshments £12
Fri 14 May 2027, 7pm Talk: The Nunnery at Hammersmith, with a heritage trail and the cloister paintings To be confirmed
August 2027 Heritage Reassembled: see the organ as it goes back together Free

The November talk runs from 7pm to 9pm, with doors at 6.45pm. Tickets are £12 including refreshments, and are booked through the school. The ticket price also gets you a look at the school’s 130 metres of cloister wall paintings.

What it means for you

  • The free exhibition is the easiest way in. It runs from Monday 19 to Friday 23 October in the café foyer at 245 Hammersmith Road, finishing at midday on the Friday.
  • Book early for 20 November if you want the full story. The event page showed 13 people booked when we checked.
  • Enquiries go to the school at comms@sacredh.lbhf.sch.uk.

For more ideas across the borough this autumn, see what’s on in Fulham this month.

Sources