Sacred Heart Launches Appeal to Save Rare Organ

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Over a quarter of a million needed to restore unique instrument

The organ was made over 160 years ago. Picture: Sacred Heart

December 29, 2025

A Hammersmith school has launched a major fundraising campaign to restore one of the rarest pipe organs in the world — the UK’s only known surviving instrument by Belgian master craftsman Hippolyte Loret.

Sacred Heart High School, on Hammersmith Road, needs to raise £257,000 to return the long‑neglected organ in its chapel to full playing condition. Experts have now confirmed that the instrument, overlooked for decades, is a “long‑lost gem” of international significance. Its extraordinary story is set to feature in a forthcoming BBC documentary.

The school hopes that once restored, the organ will be used for public recitals and help revive organ tuition for students.

The organ’s story stretches back more than 160 years. In the mid-19th century, the Society of the Sacred Heart in France commissioned Loret — one of Europe’s most respected organ builders — to create an instrument for a Parisian school chapel.

But in the early 1900s, the French government moved to seize the order’s assets. Determined to save the prized organ, a resourceful nun arranged for it to be secretly dismantled and shipped to London in 1904, where it was rebuilt in Sacred Heart’s chapel.

Over time, the instrument fell into disuse and was assumed to be a standard Victorian organ installed when the Grade II* chapel was built. That belief was overturned when Dr William McVicker, curator of the Royal Festival Hall organ, was invited to inspect it.

“Expecting to be examining a disused English Victorian organ, he looked, stepped back and exclaimed: ‘No!’” said Alex Dijkhuis from Sacred Heart High School, who is helping to publicise the restoration.

A single stop labelled Flute Pyramidale — a feature McVicker had only ever seen once before, in a Brussels church — confirmed the truth. The Hammersmith organ is the only example of Loret’s work in the UK, and one of only a handful surviving in Europe.

Specialist organ builders Mander, based in Canterbury, have begun work on the restoration. Research in the Society of the Sacred Heart’s archives has even uncovered a letter from Loret apologising for the size of his original bill — which he justified by noting the number of unusual features he had included.

“Few state schools have an organ, and this one wasn’t even listed on the national organ register,” said Alex. “Our hope is that, once restored, it will be used for public recitals and to give students the chance to learn to play this precious instrument.”

The school is now appealing for support to help bring the historic organ back to life for future generations.

Read more about the appeal and make a donation.

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