Clifton Cathedral

The cathedral church of SS. Peter and Paul (known to most people as Clifton Cathedral) by Percy Thomas is one of my favourite buildings I visited during the summer break.

On approach I was hardly blown away at the sight of the exterior of the cathedral. Its lack of windows (from this view) made me wonder if the interior would be gloomy, maybe even suppressing. If it wasn't for the three giant in-situ concrete spires on top I don't think I would have recognised it as a cathedral at all:

Once inside the building however I was welcomed by a series of bright spaces. Straight in front of me was the main alter, delicately bathed in the sunlight passing through hidden roof lights. I was told that these roof lights drew more focus to the alter, as people wouldn't be distracted by anything going on outside if the cathedral were to have had conventional windows.

To my left (on the west side of the cathedral) were a series of stained glass windows that let in the afternoon sunlight, creating glimmering patterns on the floor. The windows had all the colour of classic cathedral stained glass windows, but unusually there was no picture or religious scene to be found in the design; just a jumbled pattern constructed from a collection of broken glass. I've darkened this picture to highlight the vibrant colours:

I could see that the floor plan of the cathedral was hexagonal, but the more I explored, the more hexagons I discovered. From the organ to the floor tiles, everything seemed to be hexagonal. The guidebook states:


'All the dimensions and angles within the building are based on an equilateral triangle height 1 ft. 6 in. base to apex and this is the controlling order that runs throughout'

Above the seating area were maybe fifty wooden 4-faced pyramids. These acoustic pyramids appear to help sound bounce back down to the audience, rather than have it reverberate around the in-situ white concrete above. Each prism looked about two metres in length.

My Grandfather is a classical composer and has written music specifically to be played at the cathedral. Instead of sitting the orchestra in the same place, he made use of the cathedral's nooks and crannies by scattering different sections of the orchestra around. For instance the choir sang on the second level, to create heavenly voices from above, which I'd imagine sounded quite compelling when accompanied with the natural light pouring in from the same direction. It was really interesting talking to him about how music can be shaped by architecture.

. . .

Brunel's suspension bridge was just a short walk away from the cathedral. I found myself talking to a man who walks up and down the bridge looking out for any would-be jumpers, as the bridge is an infamous location for suicides. I later watched the BBC's 'Climbing Great Buildings' where the bridge was also featured. I hope to write another blog entry on these series of programmes.



Bibliography:

All photographs are my own.

Reference from the guidebook, plus more architectural information about the cathedral can be found at:
http://www.cliftoncathedral.org.uk/   (The Cathedral > General Design)