Canterbury Cathedral, Canterbury

I was in Canterbury in early May to attend a conference at Kent University, but I couldn't very well come all this way and not visit the Cathedral. I will make it clear from the outset that I am not religious; this was not a pilgrimage, but more an opportunity to indulge my love of history and my growing respect for architecture. For those of you who have read my other Canterbury Reviews, you may recall that I did not particularly enjoy Canterbury city, but this was easily the highpoint of my trip (better even than half the conference papers I had travelled the length of England for, I'll admit). I am going to take this opportunity to tell you about my visit to this magnificent building and I hope that if any of you are passing this way, you too will be encouraged to visit!

Founded in 597AD, Canterbury Cathedral is the Mother Church of the Anglican Communion. The first Archbishop of Canterbury was St Augustine, sent by Pope Gregory the Great himself; the story goes that the Pope had seen "Angle" (English) slaves for sale in a market in Rome and was struck by their beauty, remarking that they were "not Angles but Angels". Such a people, he was convinced, should be converted to Christianity, and so he ordered Augustine and a group of attendant monks to England to begin this work. Soon consecrated a Bishop, Augustine established his seat (or "cathedra") at Canterbury. Recent work by the Canterbury Archaeological Trust has actually revealed the remains of this original Anglo-Saxon cathedral (burnt down in 1097) beneath the present medieval structure and to everyone's surprise found it to be nearly as big as its Norman successor.

The current Cathedral is an organic building, having taken many decades to build and being subject to many changes, replacements and additions along the way. The 11th century building by Bishop Lanfranc, erected to replace the destroyed Anglo-Saxon building, was built in the Romanesque style (like Norwich and Durham cathedrals, for example). However, when another fire gutted the choir in 1174 the new Gothic style (developed from groundbreaking geometrical theories) brought graceful soaring columns and beautiful rib-vaulting to Canterbury Cathedral. This put the building at the forefront of an architectural revolution - the first Gothic cathedral to be built in Britain. Over the next 300 years the cathedral underwent major rebuilding programmes, had new towers and additional chapels added; it was later given a sympathetic Victorian restoration, and the additions and changes have continued well into the 20th century. This is a living museum of architecture.

However, the two things that Canterbury Cathedral is most famous for are not actually related to the architecture of the building. The first of these is the murder/martyrdom (delete as appropriate) of Thomas Becket in 1170. Becket was appointed as Archbishop by his friend King Henry II, and appointed with the task of bringing the Church to heel under the monarchy; he did the reverse, arguing strongly for the rights of the Church and the supremacy of canon law above civil law (Church over state). I'm sure you all are familiar with the line, "will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?", although interestingly enough no contemporary documents actually record the King saying this. (Although he was noted as having a tantrum on Christmas Day 1170 and shouting "what miserable drones and traitors have I nourished and promoted in my household, who let their lord be treated with such contempt by a low born priest", which pretty much amounts to the same thing). Four knights, seeking to ingratiate themselves with their King, took it upon themselves to "persuade" Becket of the monarch's point of view on this matter, ultimately attacking him with their swords in his own cathedral. A short time after, Becket was made a saint and his jewel-encrusted tomb stood for 368 years in the cathedral, becoming one of the most popular places of pilgrimage in the medieval world. Until Henry VIII had it desecrated as part of his dissolution programme, that is. Today, a single candle marks the spot where the tomb once was, which to me somehow seems more appropriate.

The second famous point is that Canterbury Cathedral is home to the tomb of the Black Prince, Edward, Prince of Wales; he is one of only two Royal burials in the cathedral. The eldest son of Edward III, the Prince was attributed his reputation for wearing black armour into battle; he is considered to be one of the finest generals of the medieval period and probably would have made an exceedingly good King if he had not inconveniently died a short while before his father. The leader of the victorious English army at Crecy at the age of just 16 and also victor in Poitiers 10 years later when he captured the French King, these victories made him enormously popular with the English public (although there was probably a lot less enthusiasm for the level of taxes need to fund these campaigns). The tomb itself is still extant and was placed right next door to where St Thomas' shrine once lay, and features a gold-coloured effigy of the Prince as a knight. It was a large and deeply impressive monument, but better still there is a display case containing the Prince's original weapons, which have survived remarkably well from the 14th century.

The cathedral is situated in the heart of Canterbury city centre - you can see it for miles around, so finding the building is not going to be too difficult (although the local council have placed abundant street signs to help you out in this respect). The cathedral precincts are all closed off, and the only way into them is to pay at the obligatory turnstiles (£5 adults/ £4 concessions). This at first surprised me; my last experience of visiting a cathedral was at Durham, where there is a discrete honesty box requesting a "suggested donation" and I guess I rather expected the same here. Your entrance fee will allow you access into the precincts and the cathedral itself, along with the attendant visitor facilities (shop, toilets, refreshments) but will not provide you with any information about the building other than a simple ground plan to find your way around the site, which is of a considerable size. To find out more, you need to pay extra for either an audio tour (40 minutes, in English, French, Dutch, German, Spanish, Italian and Japanese) which was somewhere around the £2 mark or a guided tour (running 3 times daily at 10:30, 12:00 and 2:30 for 90 minutes in English only) that cost £3.50 for adults and £2.50 for concessions. I opted for the guided tour.

The tour guides at Canterbury Cathedral are all volunteers, but are highly trained and enthusiastic about the building. My tour was a small group of just 8 people, so it felt very personal (I suppose a lot of people baulked at paying extra after shelling out at the turnstiles) and was led by a very knowledgeable man who clearly knew what he was talking about. The tour covered the history - or at least a summary of it, as it is very complex! - and the architecture of the cathedral, both inside the main building and through the cloisters, crypt and chapter house too. I would highly recommend one of these tours to get the most out of your visit, as unless you happen to be an expert on ecclesiastical architecture you are going to be just wandering around looking at carved stones, statues and stained glass windows without having any real clue what you are looking at. This was money well spent, I thought.

Overall, I consider the hours I spent at Canterbury Cathedral to be enjoyable, informative and I suppose, inspiring (which is a very odd thing for a non-religious person to be saying, but that was very much how I felt when I left: upbeat, happy, relaxed). Yes, it was hardly a cheap visit, but as the building costs around £9,000 a day to maintain I feel I can hardly begrudge them that. It was also crowded and the whole experience would have been more pleasant if the hordes of visiting schoolchildren and teenagers had been better controlled, but I tried not to let that put me off. This was a good day.

Highly recommended!

- Visitor Facilities
The visitor facilities were pretty good, considering the large numbers of people that the cathedral gets as worshippers, pilgrims and visitors each day. The precincts were impeccably presented with plenty of litter bins and seating available, and the toilets were very well maintained. Seasonal refreshments (sandwiches, ice creams, cakes, drinks) were available in a small kiosk, but I didn't sample these. A large shop marks the exit route from the precincts back onto the outside streets, but be warned that the doors between precinct and shop are one-way, so once you have wandered in, there is no getting back to the cathedral. A two-way door is available to the street, in case you wish to return to do any shopping at a later point; the shop sold a range of souvenirs (which you can have a look at and buy online at www.cathedralshop.co.uk) that were good quality but pretty expensive.

- Visitor Information
Opening hours: Monday to Saturday, 9am to 5pm (winter) or 6.30pm (summer). Sundays, 12.30pm to 2.30pm and 4.30pm to 5.30pm. No guided tours on Sundays.

Main services: Daily Holy Communion at 8am; Sunday service at 11am; Evensong at 5.30pm Monday to Friday and 3.15pm on Saturdays and Sundays.

Wheelchair access: Most areas of the precincts and cathedral are accessible by wheelchair, and adapted entrances/exits and routes are marked on the free site plan you are given.

Entrance price: £5 adults / £4 concessions.

Website: www.canterbury-cathedral.org or www.cathedralshop.co.uk

Contact: (01227) 762862 or enquiries@canterbury-cathedral.org