After falling silent eight years ago, one of the UK’s largest – and loudest – concert hall instruments is bursting back into life.
Standing 14 metres high and encompassing more than 5,000 pipes, Bristol’s revered Britton organ is making its comeback this weekend, revived and revitalised after a painstaking restoration.
“It’s an amazing instrument,” said Jed Hughes, the organist who has the job of keeping the instrument’s manifold keys, stops and pedals moving ahead of its public return at the Bristol Beacon concert hall.
“All organs have their own personalities. I’d describe this one as majestic and proud. It is confident that it can say exactly what it wants and needs to say. The volume is amazing without deafening you. They’ve brightened up the sound a bit and it fits the space perfectly.”
The instrument was built in 1955 by master organ builders Harrison & Harrison after two of its predecessors were destroyed by fires in 1898 and 1945.
Created for civic rather than religious purposes, it was played at what was then known as the Colston Hall for more than 60 years, becoming a centrepiece of the city’s musical heritage.
When a major refurbishment of the venue began in 2018, Harrison & Harrison was asked to restore the organ, one of the few of its kind still working.
Its staff carefully removed every pipe, valve and bellow, catalogued each of the many thousands of components and transported them almost 300 miles north to the company’s workshop in Durham.
There, decades of grime and grit – plus nicotine staining – were scraped away and repairs made. Some of the work was heavy, some intricate – the largest pipe is 10 metres long, the smallest the size of a little finger.
More than 1,000 pneumatic motors were refitted with new leather and the console, which features four keyboards, was rebuilt and mounted on a frame, making it easier to move around. The hope is that rock bands as well as classical musicians will use it in their shows.
The revamped Bristol Beacon reopened in November 2023 but it has taken until now to get the organ ready, which included “voicing it” – making sure it precisely fits the venue’s main space, the Beacon Hall, which holds about 2,000 people. It is loud but can also produce subtle string and woodwind sounds.
On Sunday, the celebrated organist and broadcaster Anna Lapwood will play to a sold-out crowd but in the meantime, it has been up to Hughes to keep the organ match ready.
“The killer with organs is that if they sit and don’t get played, everything stops,” said Hughes, who describes himself as organ janitor. “Regular use is the best thing for an instrument.”
So he has been coming in every week, kicks off his shoes, preferring to play in his socks, and performs for about three hours to an empty concert hall. “Problems may develop like a note sticking,” he said. “When that happens I notify Harrison & Harrison and it’s normally a matter of poking out a bit of dust or something and then it’s fine again.”
Among the stories that have been highlighted during the restoration project was how in 1909, suffragettes hid in one of the Britton organ’s predecessors overnight to disrupt a political speech to call for votes for women.
The idea now is to make the organ more accessible to Bristol citizens and in February people are being invited to join a choir, even if they have no prior experience of performing in public, and sing along on stage with the organ.
A new scholarship programme is already training the next generation of young Bristol organists, trying to make sure organs remain relevant and loved.
Three of them, Joshua, Christopher (both 15) and Jenna, 13, visited this week as Hughes filled the hall with music. “It sounds marvellous,” said Christopher. “It fills the hall so well.” Jenna plays the piano, drums and clarinet but loves the organ. “It’s got lots of buttons, stops. It’s fun to play.”
Simon Wales, the chief executive of Bristol Beacon, described the Britton organ as a restored jewel. “Its history is woven deeply into the cultural life of Bristol. The new sound is colossal.”
