The Insider's Guide to Britain: Cathedrals

Showing posts with label Cathedrals. Show all posts

York

York is about as big a city as you'll find on this site. It makes our list because of its walled-in medieval feel, cobblestone pedestrianized old-town, and multitude of fascinating sites, all within walking distance of each other.

York Minster (Cathedral) is, in our opinion, one of England's finest, second only to Cantebury. It's the largest cathedral in Northern Europe and you get that sense wandering around inside. Try to catch a concert to experience an extra dimension of its mystical power.

Betty's Tea Room is famous across England. Expensive but worth it. (For cheaper fare there is a handfull of pubs that do 2 for £10 specials and serve pretty decent food)

Walking the three miles atop the medieval City Wall is a great way to get a feel for York's layout, work in some exercise, capture a unique view of the cathedral, and experience the city's medieval roots.

The pedestrianized Old-town is chockablock full of small shops, street performers, fine restaurants and tea rooms, and old buildings. Have a stroll and imagine you are living 700 years ago.

York's Train Museum, housed in the spectacular train station, is the best and biggest of its kind in England. If you are into trains do NOT miss it.

The many Ghost Walks on offer in York play up the city's history of hauntings. Well worth the tenner it will cost you.

Recommended Hotel: The Bar Convent lies just outside one of the city gates and is the real deal. Still a convent but the nuns are all so old now that they need an extra source of income, so they turned to hospitality. The chapel and glass-roofed courtyard where they serve tea and breakfast are alone worth the stay. Choose a room named after your favorite saint (we chose Laurence, the patron saint of students and barbecues), but book in advance as this is a popular place to stay.

Recommended Reading:

Whitby Abbey

Imagine the ruins of an old cathedral perched above the North Sea, dripping with gothic mystique. This is the ruined abbey that inspired Bram Stoker to write Dracula and set part of his classic there. The church next door is surrounded by a gothic style Victorian cemetery, complete with bat-winged skeletons and large blackened tombstones. The church is also interesting architecturally, being constructed in a mishmash of different asymetrical sections, each from different eras in time.

The view to the North features the medieval town of Whitby. Now a thriving and unique modern city, you'll find every amenity there and plenty to do and see. Check out their website for a complete list.

We strongly recommend visiting in April or October during the Whitby Goth Weekend. Witness hoards of fully-clad goths strutting around the city and abbey and posing for the mass of photographers. What an experience!

Suggested Reading:

Suggested Movies:

Liverpool

Beatles fans, ahoy! Liverpool is a lively city on the rise with a moody wharf (or quay, pronounced "key"), full of restaurants, shops, and all things Beatles. You can tour the childhood homes of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, too, but you'll need to book those tours in advance. They're not too expensive, there's just limited space. Liverpool Cathedral has some of the most impressive bells in the country, so be around for the chiming of the hours if you want to have a listen.

Canterbury Cathedral

Canterbury is a quintessential cathedral and one of our favorites. It's set in the center of pedestrianized, cobblestone Canterbury town, which still maintains its Medieval flavor. The Cathedral itself is huge, dramatic, home to lots of interesting relics, and of course a famous murder site (Thomas Becket in 1170). An audio guide walks you around the cathedral pointing out the coolest stuff.

Recommended Movies:

Salisbury Cathedral

The tallest spire in England, Salisbury Cathedral is an inspiring sight inside and out, set in a quaint town. The cathedral has an excellent boy choir, and is also home to the oldest clock in Europe and a really interesting new baptismal font. For the full experience, definitely read Wiliam Golding's The Spire before you go!

Recommended Reading:

Gloucester

Amazing Cathedral, especially for Harry Potter Fans -- the hallways of Hogwarts were filmed here.

For Beatrix Potter fans, the quaint house of the Tailor of Gloucester houses a museum dedicated to her books. Gloucester is a fairly large city and a popular shopping destination.

Recommended Reading:

Recommended Movies:

Tintern Abbey

JMW Turner's paintings and William Wordsworth's poem helped make this place famous, and it is one of the most dramatic, majestic, and eerie of all the ruined abbeys in Britain. Nestled in the rolling hills of South Wales, it is picturesque, magnificent, haunting, and humbling! Just standing among the ruins gives you a sense of being outside of time, and with a bit of imagination the experience gets even better.

Tintern Abbey was a bustling and wealthy monastery until Henry VIII destroyed it during the dissolution (1536). Henry had started the Church of England and thought the monasteries were becoming too wealthy and corrupt. What better place to cash in on funds he desperately needed? He dissolved the monasteries, often killing the monks who resisted, and took all the land and wealth for himself. Tintern Abbey is a shell of its former self - literally. It is a glorious building without a ceiling, with grass for a floor, and stairs that lead nowhere.

Bath

Nothing beats Bath. It is one of only two World Heritage cities in Britian (the other is Edinburgh), and it deserves the recognition! Bath was the Hollywood of the early 1800s, where the rich would go to see and be seen. Fashionable ladies strolled the avenues, and available young aristocrats looking for life partners spent nearly every night at the "pump rooms," dancing and mingling. It would have been a sight to see.

Nowadays, it is a different kind of site to see! Bath has been a popular resort destination since Roman times at least! Hot springs in the ground inspired the Romans to build a massive bath house for public bathing - this has been excavated and you can visit it - it's surprisingly similar to public pool complexes today. In the Middle Ages, people build another bath house (not knowing that only seven inches away the Roman baths lay hidden underground!), and then, after Queen Mary bathed in the waters and miraculously overcame her infertility in the 1700s, Bath became to place to be. Aristocrats from all over the country spent their summers there, bathing in the mineral water, drinking it, shopping, and socializing. During this heyday, pretty much the whole town was built up - and now it is one impressive monolith of grand limestone Georgian architecture. The city's historic center is just small enough to get around everywhere on foot (and lots of fascinating walking tours help guide you around).

But the cool thing about Bath is that it's full of really great museums that are sometimes half empty of tourists, or in the case of the delightful Museum of Bath at Work, totally empty!

The Bizarre Bath Comedy Walk at night is highly recommended -- a hilarious evening tour around the town! You'll need to stay the night in Bath to do this, which will make you happy.

Of course we mustn't forget Bath's most famous champion, Jane Austen herself. She lived in Bath for a while, as did most of the characters in her books. Bath is a Jane Austen mecca for fans, and a few museums and tours bring the novels alive. If you want your trip to Bath to be REALLY cool, I highly recommend the following: