Guinness Family

Members of the Guinness family presented sixteen lead crystal chandeliers to hang in the nave and transepts of Westminster in 1965. This was to mark the 900th anniversary of the founding of the Abbey built by Edward the Confessor and which was consecrated on 28th December 1065. The whole Abbey had been extensively cleaned in preparation for the celebrations. Eight chandeliers hang in the nave and four in each transept. They are ten feet high and three feet wide with seventy low energy light bulbs per chandelier. Each one is composed of just under 500 pieces with the individual glass pieces or drops shaped by hand. The work was carried out in secret (code name Operation Killarney) at the Waterford Glass Company in Ireland. They were designed by A.B.Read in collaboration with the Abbey's Surveyor S.E. Dykes Bower. Messrs Troughton & Young made the metal work and installed the chandeliers. Every two years they are winched down to floor level for cleaning and polishing. The chandeliers they replaced were re-used in the Abbey precinct offices and the Library.