Making Peahen Homesick. Pt.2

And so we walk through the little archway under the drunken building that was the last photo in yesterday's post (oh, do keep up … Go and have another look at it if you can't remember).

Standing under the arch, we look across to the Erpingham Gate at the west end of the Cathedral Close.
But we're not going that way. Oh, no. We're turning right, past lovely Nicki's newsagents and the scrummy, musty labyrinth that is Tombland Books (a Dive haunt … old book heaven) and across the cobbled acre of Tombland itself.

Tombland is the old Saxon marketplace outside the Cathedral precincts.
We peasants were fairly resentful of authority back then (we haven't changed; see Kett's Rebellion … and the fact that we were a Socialist Workers Party City in the sixties and seventies and are now the only city run by the Greens) and we didn't like the Normans lording it over us, so we kicked the crap out of them and burned their places to the ground (quite justifiably in the view of this old Marxist).
As penance, the peasants were made to build the rather splendid gate below:

This is Ethelbert Gate (sadly not named after Ethel and Bert), my favourite of the Cathedral gates. It's got a lovely dragon on it, a recurring theme in Norwich houses of the time.

Do click on these pictures as they're a lot nicer viewed larger.

So anyway … through the gate we have the Cathedral Close, full of yummy little streets of mediæval houses. Don't even THINK about it. You can't buy them and the waiting list to rent is several hundred years long (true … you have to plan dynastically to have your descendants live there).

It can get pretty cutesy in places but it's a lovely place for a stroll and I used to come this way on my walk into the office (I think it's even nicer than my current walk along the Thames).

Right down on the river is Pull's Ferry.
When the Cathedral was being built, all the stone came by water from Caen in Normandy. It was rowed up the river to this point, where a canal was cut which led to the contruction site.
Pull's Ferry was built a couple of hundred years later to take people across to the Cathedral.

Below is Pull's Ferry from the river. It's somewhat gorgeous though it does get overrun with tourists in the summer, and geese in the winter. In front of it is what's left of the canal cut.

Walking further round the Close, there are lots of nice views of the Cathedral; this one showing some Dutch gables.

Below is the Cathedral in all its glory (do click on this one at least).
Justifiably (at least by Pevsner, and nobody argues with the Man) one of the finest half-dozen Cathedrals in Britain, and my second favourite after Durham.

It has these gorgeous flying buttresses around the east end (at least they're gorgeous to architectural historians and me).
Down there, nestled under the round chapel, is Edith Cavell's grave. She was a nurse in the Great War and was martyred; executed by the Germans. She's worth further reading, so look her up on Google. I'm only slightly biased by the fact that I was in Cavell House at grammar school.

Let's go inside, shall we?
This place was built by Bishop Herbert de Losinga (actually, it was built by hundreds of skilled craftsmen, but de Losinga had to raise the groats for it). He was Bishop of Thetford after the Norman Conquest but was a very naughty boy, so the Pope had him do penance by building Norwich Cathedral.
I've never been able to establish just what he did wrong, but judging by the Cathedral he must have been very naughty indeed!

I love this picture (below). It's stained glass lighting up one of the monumental Norman pillars supporting the arcading and clerestory.
None of your wussy Gothic frippery here; this is the full power and glory of High Romanesque architecture. Mighty and monolithic. I love it!

There are lots of lovely little nooks and corners in the Cathedral. This next picture is the chancel aisle, circling almost furtively around the east end and out of sight of the main body of the nave.
It has lots of tiny side chapels leading off it.

Below is the chancel itself. That's the naughty Bishop's tomb over there on the far side.

Look up from this spot and you're rewarded with some fabulous fan vaulting.

And this is the east end, wonderful windows lighting that vaulting and those strong Romanesque arches.

Look the other way from there and you'll get the view below.
This is the mighty organ seen from the choir stalls (I sung there once with the school, over on the far right).

The Cathedral Choir has a very high reputation. Composers such as Arvo Pärt premier their works here. The acoustics are breathtaking.
Choir and orchestra do a surprising amount of modern, "avant garde" works (happy Dive), as well as heartstoppingly beautiful evenings of Bach chorale.
Go there for concerts. It's worth the trip from anywhere on the planet.

Below is the fan vaulting above the nave. Each of those bosses is an intricately carved, painted and gilded scene from the Bible. Luckily for your neck, they've now installed a machine with a touch screen so you can view close-ups and commentary on each one.

Outside is the cloisters. More fan vaulting and more bosses, but on a much more intimate scale.

This is the view of the spire from the cloisters.
Pretty, isn't it?

Before we leave the Cathedral, here's the west window.

And this last one (below) is the view of the Cathedral from the river.

So there you have it. Dive's little Saturday morning wander around a few parts of Norwich.
Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.