7 Creative Vew Uses For Cathedrals

Cathedrals hold a special place in the built environment. They are important for their scale and splendour as well as their significance as places of worship.

They attract large congregations and, in some cases, even greater numbers of tourists.

Most cathedrals have been around for hundreds of years and many have an air of timelessness. Change is constant even in our oldest cathedrals.

Here we take a look at seven cathedrals that have undertaken some amazing projects to look after their heritage.

1. Winchester Cathedral

Parts of the Cathedral building are Norman, dating from 1093. It was remodelled from the 14^th century (adding the soaring Gothic arches) to the 16^th century. It is the burial place of many historical figures: from William Rufus, son of William the Conquerer, in 1100, to Jane Austen in 1817.

In 2017. Winchester Cathedral underwent a huge amount of conservation and building work as part of a wider project, Kings and Scribes: the birth of a nation. This includes the conservation of historic material and stained glass, as well as treasures like the magnificent 12^th century Winchester Bible. It also created new exhibition and education space for visitors.

2. York Minster

This huge medieval cathedral was built over 250 years between 1220 and 1472, although there have been at least three other Minsters around the same site. Particularly famed for its stained glass, it contains 128 windows, including the Great East Window, the largest expanse of medieval stained glass in the country.

York Minster conserved the Great East Window as part of the York Minster Revealed project, which created several apprenticeships in traditional craft skills such as stone masonry and stained glass conservation. The Minster has also improved interpretation and redesigned the Undercroft Museum, making it fully accessible.

3. Sheffield Cathedral

Sheffield Cathedral is the oldest building in the city still in daily use, and parts of it date from the 13^th century. The Chancel and the Sanctuary were built in the 15^th century, while the impressive hammerbeam roof in the Chancel is probably from the 16^th century.

The project A place for all people aimed to make the cathedral a more welcoming place for all visitors, and to engage with a wide audience. It included developing a new fully accessible entrance and improving both the accessibility of the external public space and movement within the cathedral through a series of ramps and platform lifts.

4. Gloucester Cathedral

There has been a monastery on or around the site of the present Cathedral for over 1,300 years. It is the site of the coronation of the nine year old Henry III in 1216, and the burial place of Edward II in 1327. The Cathedral building only narrowly escaped demolition under Oliver Cromwell.

In 2016, 150 solar panels were installed on Gloucester Cathedral roof while carrying out essential lead repairs. The solar panels generate about 25% of the energy used by the Cathedral.

5. Durham Cathedral

Originally built as a monastic cathedral for a community of Benedictine monks, Durham Cathedral boasts some of the most intact surviving monastic buildings in England. Today, it is part of a World Heritage Site and welcomes over 700,000 visitors a year.

The project Open Treasure aims to improve the visitor experience through new exhibitions, facilities and spaces. This included creating a new exhibition space within the medieval Monks’ Dormitory area, updating the café and shop, and making these areas fully accessible.

6. Rochester Cathedral

The desire to make the most of its space and collections led to Rochester Cathedral to renovate the library and Crypt to create more display space. This  allowed for the creation of a state of the art exhibition area. The centrepiece of the new exhibition is the Textus Roffensis, a document from 1122 which sets out English laws dating back to 600. The beautiful Crypt is also now a much more flexible space and is available for private hire.

7. Blackburn Cathedral

Blackburn Cathedral was formerly the parish church of St Mary the Virgin, becoming a cathedral in 1926, when the Diocese of Blackburn was created. Essentially a Georgian building, designed by John Palmer and consecrated in 1826, it stands on a site associated with early Christianity.

Blackburn Cathedral completed a major development project that has improved the experience of visitors not just to the cathedral, but to this part of Blackburn more widely. The area round the cathedral is now home to offices, shops, leisure space and a hotel. The project has also created new living space for Cathedral staff and scholars, new staff offices, conference facilities and offices for hire, and a café.

Further Reading:

• Places of Worship – Historic England website
• The Destruction and Rebirth of Coventry Cathedral
• Not so run of the mill: 8 inspired converted mills in West Yorkshire