School's pipe organ 'one of rarest in Europe'

"It emerged that the organ, by Belgian craftsman Hippolyte Loret, was smuggled out of Paris in the early 1900s to stop it being seized by the French government. Alex Dijkhuis, from the school, said organ expert Dr William McVicker had described it as "one of the rarest in Europe". McVicker, curator of organs at the Royal Festival Hall, visited the school in May 2024, having been asked to check on the condition of the instrument."

"McVicker suspected the instrument could be a Loret, and research revealed the Society of the Sacred Heart in France had indeed commissioned the Belgian to build the instrument for one of its Parisian school chapels more than 160 years ago. But, in the early 1900s, hostility to religion by the French government led to the closure of convents across the country."

Sacred Heart High School in Hammersmith houses a rare pipe organ built by Belgian craftsman Hippolyte Loret and believed to be the UK's only Loret instrument. The organ was covertly dismantled in Paris in 1904 and smuggled to London to prevent seizure by an anti-clerical French government, then reassembled in the school's Grade II*-listed chapel. Organ curator Dr William McVicker identified French nomenclature on the stops and described the instrument as extremely rare. The school is seeking more than £250,000 to restore the pipe organ and preserve its historical and musical significance.

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