Resurrection for Wanstead organ

A happy new life beckons for the pipe organ which was built into the front room of a house in Hereford Road, after a buyer was found. The entire instrument has been carefully dismantled and will be upgraded into its new home.

The organ was built by the late Gordon Forster, a member at Wanstead United Reformed Church where for many years he would play on Sundays. He died 10 years ago and his widow Diana decided to downsize, meaning the organ needed either to have a new home or be sold for parts, as we reported last month.

Joe Forster, Gordon and Diana’s son, writes:

The organ has been sold. It is being dismantled and taken away. This has taken two days, and three vanloads. The buyer is a Belgian organist and computer programmer who now lives in Tunbridge Wells. The organ will be built into his house there. Some parts may first go to his family firm in Belgium for restoration and modification. On seeing inside it, he said the workmanship was extremely precise and professional. It is purely mechanical, with electrical and pneumatic controls but no electronics. However in its new home it will be fully computerised, incorporating the latest control gear. The couple of hundred pipes, from a few inches to nine feet in length, and the wind delivery hardware will be the same, so the sound will be as traditional as it always was.

Now we are left with a few holes in the floor and some 1960s wallpaper on show.

Here is the organ being played by Gordon’s friend, organist Eric Doig.

Church pipe organ in Wanstead house faces its last Amen