In the December 27, 1984 edition of The Times of London, Architecture Correspondent Charles Knevitt interviews James Bambridge, Master Builder. Mr Bambridge was 56 at the time.
Bambridge is dividing his time between the Dorset village of Winterborne Stickland and 110th Street on the edge of New York’s Harlem. “His job for the past five years has been to finish building the world’s largest cathedral. His main task at present is to train eight new stone carvers in a tradition killed by the advent of modern architecture in the United States. An $80 million appeal was launched in September and more than seven million dollars has already been committed. Two towers will be built to finish off the west front.
The task will be a culmination of Mr. Bambridge’s lifetime with stone. He was apprenticed at fifteen, attended the Brixton School of Building in London and then was employed with the City Builders, Trollope & Colls. He worked on the US Consulate in Toronto and on MP’s accommodation at Westminster. In 1967 he then moved to Liverpool’s Anglican Cathedral. Ten years later he was appointed master mason at Wells Cathedral and in 1979 was asked to help complete St. John the Divine.
Five years at the Cathedral
He now spends five weeks at home in Dorset producing working drawings and full size details, then returns to New York for three weeks, supervising the work and the setting out shop. He has two British assistants, Mr. Stephen Boyle, the site construction manager, who served some time at York Minster; and Mr. Nicholas Fairplay, a carver and cutter.
If the job had come my way 15 years ago, I would not have been able to do it. I needed to work at Liverpool first: it rounded me off
– Jim Bambridge
The cathedral has its critics, especially among the local black community, half of whom are jobless. Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker, once Martin Luther King’s chief of staff, believes the cathedral is irrelevant because it represents white culture and money.” The Cathedral Stoneyard Institute has employed many of these neighborhood youths in its apprentice program supported by the Harlem Commonwealth Council. Mr. Bambridge says: “The building is more important than any man, I am keeping faith with those artisans and clergy who started it all off.”
- The Times, December 27, 1984