What is your favourite UK Cathedral (or Minster/Abbey)?

[Littledidsheknow]

The companion thread to my “favourite castles”thread!
Which is your favourite UK cathedral?
I love side chapels, bell towers, stained glass, cloisters, burial places, flying buttresses, crypts, interesting history… all the classic stuff!

I’ve particularly enjoyed Lincoln, York Minster, Winchester, Wells and Salisbury in recent years.
I used to live in Worcester, and enjoyed popping in there after a bit of shopping, too.

Please recommend your favourites! Thanks!

Norwich. Lovely cloisters, and some very old altar backing that was saved from the reformation by being turned into a table by the monks! Lovely historical city area around it too!

I’m so glad others think this too 💕

@DanceWithYourBalloon The mice are the signature of Robert “Mouseman” Thompson. He didn’t sign his furniture from around 1919 but added carved mice instead. There’s some in Ripon Cathedral too.

Although Gloucester has a Norman nave, the medieval fan vaulting is the star of the show in many ways. It’s the earliest in the uk.

Lincoln

I live in Durham but prefer Liverpool for the inside and Lincoln for the outside

Slightly bias as I live near Worcester and quite often walk through just because I can and it never fails to wow me. The other one I really liked was Paddy’s Wigwam in Liverpool, it’s just so funky!

Glasgow is a beautiful cathedral. With its green copper roof and blackened sandstone exterior it is really striking and distinctive - a real symbol of the city. It has amazing history being the only medieval cathedral to have survived the protestant reformation in Scotland and it has beautiful stained glass.

I also like Dunblane for its position perched on a hill above the River Allan. It's also a magnificent building in a reasonably small town.

Don’t confuse Westminster Abbey with Westminster Cathedral. WA is expensive, commercial, touristy and although it’s probably worth a visit as a historical tourism site, it’s not high on my list to go again. Westminster Cathedral, on the other hand, is free to enter, feels like a proper church, and is pretty well wholly arts and crafts in terms of art. I go in there every time I’m passing, and never cease to delight in it.

Ely, Peterborough and Carlisle are my favorites so far. The latter is small, but beautiful.

Cathedral City, yum

I adore cathedrals and usually think that the last one I’ve visited is the best! (In this case, Ripon).
I love Winchester for the box of William II’s bones up in the rafters, but my heart belongs to Coventry. Just thinking about it now I feel quite emotional and the acoustics are amazing. The ruins next door are a timely reminder of what treasures we lost in the war. I feel another visit coming on.

I quite liked Manchester when I went a few weeks ago. Otherwise Durham, Wells, Westminster (as a Catholic), Lincoln. I don't like York as you have to pay. Newcastle was depressing. Guildford looks interesting from the the outside.

Which one?

I do love living in Liverpool as well have 2 amazing cathedrals, and they are both so different. My great grandmother was there was the laying of the foundation stone of the Anglican cathedral.

@MeetMeOnTheCorner When visited they let my little sister have a prize of a little knitted mouse for finding them all. So lovely ☺️

Hard to choose! Gloucester, Liverpool and Tewkesbury are lovely!

@LoserWinnerIndeed I should have probably said Westminster Abbey. As a long term lover of medieval and royal history it has always been a favourite of mine. Still yet to visit Westminster Hall though despite my interest in Richard II.
If I ever get back to the area I shall make sure to check out WC.

Apparently the bass echo inside Coventry is 8 seconds long - Britten was really stressed about it while practising for the war requiem!

Westminster Hall is awesome. You can really feel the history.

Norwich and Hereford. Both lovely atmospheres.

St Pauls Cathedral - the views of London from above the dome is fantastical.

The crypt is fascinating.

This is one of loveliest threads I have ever seen on here thank you!

Makes me realise, although I have visited a lot of these, I really need to re-visit, it's been too long, and I have forgotten too many of them.

Norwich is the one I know best, I used to like visiting Thomas Gooding the skeleton, the cloisters and the treasury arch.

Winchester I also love dearly - the story of the diver is so amazing too.

Wells absolutely blew my mind - obviously the chapter house and its stairs (move over, Harry Potter, this is the real thing!) but also the X shaped chancel arch! What on earth! Such a beauty. Also the clock with the knights jousting.

Durham and the place is lovely too.

Ripon is definitely the most under-rated. They've also struck a really good balance between informing visitors about the history and keeping its primary function as a place of worship.

Brutalist 60’s architecture wins out so it’s got to be Guildford or Coventry for me!!

The Wells scissor arches were built in the 14th century because the tower above was in danger of collapsing. They were a structural solution by people who didn’t know they were structural engineers!