So goes the famous quote about the Early English Gothic portico of the cathedral of Saint Peter, Saint Paul and Saint Andrew in Peterborough, construction of which begun in 1118 and was completed in 1237. With its three towering arches - each one of which is 82 feet high - the celebrated West Front is totally unique, without precedent or successor in Medieval architecture, and the cathedral is one of the most important 12th century buildings in Britain to have remained largely intact. Overall height, to the top of the towers, is 156 feet.
This is the third church to have stood on the site: the first, Medeshampstede Abbey, survived from 655 to 870, when the Vikings destroyed it. The second, a Benedictine establishment, lasted from 966 until 1116 before it then burnt down. Guess they got lucky with this one, which has withstood King Henry VIII's 16th century Dissolution of the Monasteries, vandalism during the English Civil War in 1643, and a deliberately-started fire in November 2001.
The cathedral contains the tomb of Henry VIII's first wife Catherine of Aragon (one of the ones he didn't execute or divorce), who died in 1536. In 1587, Mary, Queen of Scots, who had been executed nearby, was buried here, but later moved to Westminster Abbey on the orders of her son, King James I, who presumably felt that Peterborough wasn't a great place to spend all eternity. He had a valid point...
From July 2006, this facade was clothed in scaffolding for a half a million pound plus restoration. This was only finished last month...which seemed like as good a reason as any for taking a picture of the building I walk past every weekday on my way to and from work.
Uploaded partly for my good Flickr friend, So Much Ice Cream, who came all the way across the Atlantic about this time a year ago, only to find the wonderful old building I'd so often waxed lyrical about to her completely shrouded in scaffolding and plastic sheeting. This is what you missed!
Taken in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England on January 11, 2007.
