This film tells the complete story of the restoration of the organ at Bristol Cathedral – a once-in-a-generation project to preserve and renew one of the Cathedral’s most important musical treasures.
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This film tells the complete story of the restoration of the organ at Bristol Cathedral – a once-in-a-generation project to preserve and renew one of the Cathedral’s most important musical treasures.
In 2024 the instrument was carefully dismantled and transported to Harrison & Harrison’s workshop in Durham, where a year of skilled craftsmanship restored its 3,838 pipes, ranging from tiny pipes measuring just 10 millimetres to the largest at almost 10 metres in length.
Made possible through the generosity of funders, supporters, musicians and the wider Cathedral community, the project has renewed the organ for future generations while respecting its historic character. The organ was formally rededicated in September 2025, launching a year of concerts, talks and events celebrating the return of this extraordinary instrument and inviting new audiences to discover its sound and story.
This timelapse film captures the months of work involved in restoring a pipe organ, illustrating the extraordinary combination of craftsmanship, engineering and musical heritage involved.
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This time-lapse film captures the remarkable removal and reinstallation of the organ in the Chapel at King’s College, Cambridge, during its major 2016 restoration. Over nine months, the instrument underwent its most significant programme of work since the 1960s, ensuring that it could continue serving the Chapel for generations to come while remaining fundamentally true to its celebrated 1930s design.
Thousands of pipes were carefully removed and transported to Harrison & Harrison’s workshop in Durham for cleaning and repair, while restoration and conservation work took place inside the empty organ case in Cambridge. Alongside repairs to the organ’s inner mechanisms, new technology and modern materials helped improve reliability without changing the instrument’s essential character.
As this film shows, restoring a great organ is an extraordinary combination of craftsmanship, engineering and musical heritage – all carried out while Chapel life continued around it.
When an organ has been cleaned and rebuilt after restoration, one of the most important stages is “voicing” – the careful process of tuning and balancing every pipe so the instrument sounds as it should.
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When an organ has been cleaned and rebuilt after restoration, one of the most important stages is “voicing” – the careful process of tuning and balancing every pipe so the instrument sounds as it should. After months away in the workshop, thousands of pipes must be checked individually.
At first, the organ can sound surprisingly strange: sour, uneven, dissonant and sometimes almost “hurdy-gurdy” in character, with notes speaking too loudly, too softly, or not properly at all.
In this film, Andrew Scott from organ builders Harrison & Harrison explains his work over several weeks once a restored organ had returned to its home in the Chapel at King’s College, Cambridge. Listening carefully to every stop and every note, he demonstrates how organ builders adjust tuning, balance and speech pipe by pipe until the instrument’s full colour, richness and character gradually return.
