People receiving Covid vaccines soothed by organ music at Salisbury Cathedral

800-year-old building has become UK’s most spectacular and historic  temporary vaccination centre 
Salisbury Cathedral has been converted into a vaccination centre
PA
John Dunne @jhdunne16 January 2021

Soothing organ music is being played as over 80s get their covid jab at the historic Salisbury Cathedral. 

The 800-year-old building has been converted into a vaccination centre.

Local GPs have booked patients in to receive their injections at the cathedral where a special programme of music has been created to make the experience less daunting. The music will be played on its 19th-century Father Willis organ.

The Very Rev Nicholas Papadopulos, Dean of Salisbury, said:  “We are proud to be playing our part in the life-saving vaccination programme, which offers real hope in these difficult times.

"Staff of our local NHS and their patients will receive a warm welcome to their cathedral, and we assure them of our constant prayer.”

Salisbury Cathedral
PA

Dr Dan Henderson, co-clinical director for the Sarum South Primary Care Network, said: “It’s great to be further expanding the Covid-19 vaccination programme in Wiltshire.

 “We are following the priority order set out by the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation and the NHS will be in touch when it is your turn to be vaccinated. The huge vaccine programme is a marathon, not a sprint, but we will get to everyone. Only patients invited by the NHS should attend and were being asked to only arrive five minutes before their appointment time.”

The cathedral, refectory and gift shop are all closed and services are taking place online.

Meanwhile the medieval nave of Lichfield Cathedral in Staffordshire has also also turned into a vaccination centre.

The cathedral has in part been transformed into a field hospital where jabs can be administered. 

The Dean of Lichfield, the Very Rev Adrian Dorber, said: “It’s a real glimmer of hope after a very dark year, and we are delighted to be able to offer the place as a nice, airy, socially distanced space in which this can take place. I hope it’s a symbol of how all the communities can come together to facilitate the rollout of this amazing vaccine.”

“We’ve got some really well-drilled volunteers and a really capable staff, who have gone into battle action and done it.”

Michael Fabricant, the city’s MP, tweeted: “They came in the middle ages for the cure. They still come today.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in