Lincoln Cathedral | Lincoln, United Kingdom

[Matthieu]

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/peter.fairweather/docs/Lincoln_cathedral.htm

Lincoln Cathedral shares with Durham the most spectacular placing of any of the British cathedrals. It can be seen from approximately 20 miles in certain directions.

The Cathedral was built mainly in three periods: Norman (1075-1092), Early English (1191-1250 then 1256-1300) and then alterations and additions in 14th & 15th Centuries. In the late 17th Century the Wren Library was built and the cloister walk restored. Various other works and restorations have been carried out ever since.

The Cathedral is 482 ft long and the crossing tower is 271 ft high. The chancel vault is 74 ft high and the nave 82 ft. The majority of stone used in the construction is local Oolitic limestone.

The main visitors entrance is by the south door in the west front and as you enter the Cathedral shop is on your extreme right. Sometimes you may find the Nave full of chairs in rows but very often it is completely empty and is quite breath taking. Do come and enjoy a visit!



More info on this website, do pay it a visit ;). You won't regret it.

http://www.skyscrapernews.com/images/buildings/384_pic1.jpg

http://www.skyscrapernews.com/images/buildings/384_pic2.jpg

http://www.skyscrapernews.com/images/buildings/384_pic3.jpg

http://www.skyscrapernews.com/images/buildings/384_pic4.jpg

http://www.skyscrapernews.com/images/buildings/384_pic5.jpg

http://www.skyscrapernews.com/images/buildings/384_pic8.jpg

http://www.skyscrapernews.com/images/buildings/384_pic9.jpg

http://www.skyscrapernews.com/images/buildings/384_pic10.jpg

http://www.skyscrapernews.com/images/buildings/384_pic13.jpg

http://www.skyscrapernews.com/images/buildings/384_pic14.jpg

http://www.skyscrapernews.com/images/buildings/384_pic15.jpg

http://www.skyscrapernews.com/images/buildings/384_pic16.jpg

http://www.skyscrapernews.com/images/buildings/384_pic17.jpg

http://www.skyscrapernews.com/images/buildings/384_pic19.jpg

http://www.skyscrapernews.com/images/buildings/384_pic21.jpg

http://www.skyscrapernews.com/images/buildings/384_pic26.jpg

http://www.skyscrapernews.com/images/buildings/384_pic27.jpg

[Jakob]

The cathedral looks huuuuuge and I like the medieval style. Gets an 8.5!

[Phobos]

9/10
Everything except the main facade is superb.

[Philip Cronin]

I've been working on this one. I might put some more pictures up later.

9.5/10, which is my top mark for buildings that aren't the Taj Mahal.

[Monkey]

9.5

It's wonderful but I prefer Salisbury Cathedral. (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=158261) :)

[nick_taylor]

10 - Absolutely awe inspiring. The tallest Cathedral in Europe without a spire. With the spires (which were unfortunately destroyed by lightning). Tallest building in the world for around 238 years until the main spire was blown down. Also first building to exceed the Giza Pyramids :yes:

[Philip Cronin]

As I said, I've been working on this one, among many others which I will be posting shortly. Here is my collection, apart from the duplicates with Exarchus.

http://www.2and2.net/Uploads/Images/5%20cath1.jpg

An engraving from 1851

http://www.2and2.net/Uploads/Images/9%201851%20%20from%20S.jpg

http://www.2and2.net/Uploads/Images/10%20cathedral.jpg

http://www.2and2.net/Uploads/Images/10%20LincMay-31.jpg

http://www.2and2.net/Uploads/Images/11%20lincwest-300.jpg

The central tower

http://www.2and2.net/Uploads/Images/13%20lincoln1.jpg

From the North East

http://www.2and2.net/Uploads/Images/18%20cathed16.jpg

http://www.2and2.net/Uploads/Images/20%209%20Cathed_Plan.gif

http://www.2and2.net/Uploads/Images/21%20aerial.jpg

Nave looking East

http://www.2and2.net/Uploads/Images/30%20Lincolnfvgfg.jpg

Nave looking West

http://www.2and2.net/Uploads/Images/32%20cathed4.jpg

http://www.2and2.net/Uploads/Images/35%20lc11.jpg

http://www.2and2.net/Uploads/Images/40%20cathed12.jpg

http://www.2and2.net/Uploads/Images/41%20cathed10.jpg

Chapter House

http://www.2and2.net/Uploads/Images/51%20cathed14.jpg

http://www.2and2.net/Uploads/Images/52%20cathed15.jpg

http://www.2and2.net/Uploads/Images/53%20cathed13.jpg

http://www.2and2.net/Uploads/Images/60%20lincnight1.jpg

http://www.2and2.net/Uploads/Images/61%20Lincol~3ti.jpg

[DamienK]

8/10

[gothicform]

not impressed by the pics of it, ill dig out the 30 or so i have and post them later.
i should point out that lincoln had not one but three spires. the tallest was the tallest structure ever built until the effiel tower. the two on the shorter towers were removed in the early 19th century after their weight caused the towers to become unstable. these two towers alone were taller than salisbury, look at what you have now and imagine something twice the height...
my company works extensively on restoration projects within the cathedral, i get to see this building in great intimate detail and its truely stunning. what i love most about restoration work is you get so close to history, if youre a tourist you can look but cant touch, i get to actually dangle on ropes from 70ft up. its a joy to see detail in stained glass from the distance of six inches, or the wonderful carving that has gone into things at the cathedral.
the cathedral also has a massive library. lincoln used to be the largest dioscese in christendom which is why it, and the cathedral are so big, the disocese stretched all the way to the outskirts of london and this was the richest part of england in the middle ages. amongst the books and papers at lincoln cathedral is the magna carta, the legal basis of the law in the usa, canada, uk, and the rest of the ex british empire.
the massive frontage you see in the first picture used to be fully painted. it consists of a carved arrangement of the heirarchy of christendom, like the best of cathedrals designed to tell a story. imagine being confronted by a 100ft tall 200ft wide painted and carved freize.
we have been looking at options for the cathedral assuming nothing else falls off it, the nave is being dealt with at the moment at the cost of around 1 million and the main window is just about finished with restoration. assuming no more unexpected things happen that require cathedral money there is the option to raise the spire again, one of my clients who contracts work out to us is designing a variety of options for it right now.
the photographs posted sadly arent very good. there is utterly no way this building is worth an 8/10 given its one of the finest pieces of gothic architecture in the world.
it is possibly my favourite building in the world and i can look out of the window and see it. ive seen all the great cathedrals of england, bath and wells, peterborough, durham, york minster and canterbury and this beats them all, the only one to come close in my book is st pauls which is in different category. this is without a doubt the best 'traditional' english cathedral, not to mention the most influential.
this, the victorians decided was the most english of all designs, thats why parliament or tower bridge reference it so heavily, its the best example of what everyone imagines england is like including the english and im ever so proud that we work to keep this thing standing.

[Matthieu]

Interesting stuff. It's true than we can't imagine this just looking at those pictures.

[Britannia]

Re-building Lincoln's mighty towers would be an awesome project and is certainly worthy of Lottery and other money. I'm sure there must be a way to do it considering the advancements we've made in materials and construction processes that could make such a structure safer, lighter and cheaper.

I've always thought the great cathedrals at York, Durham, Canterbury etc. look unfinished without spires. I guess the problem with adding spires is the prohibitive cost.

Easily a 10 out of 10. A stunning building.

[gothicform]

ill give you a couple of examples. i actually get to crawl in the roof space above the vaulting, its pretty dusty and minging at times but its wonderful to see the actual craftsmanship at work. another example is going up the tower, the tower is closed to the public for health and safety reasons (they might jump off!) the view from there is amazing and you get a whole new perspective of the building. anyway ill dig out the pictures and post them...
i should add lincoln has the oldest standing architecture in the entire country. walk from the end of lincoln high street all the way up steep hill to the cathedral, you will see everything from roman, danish, medieval, tudor, georgian, victorian, modern, international all on one street. it is unquestionably the most diverse architecture in the country.

[gothicform]

jon, many of the great cathedrals never did have spires.
fiberglass options are being looked at for the cathedral, which as you say is lighter and safer. the costs are still prohibitive though and the lottery prefers to spend its money on other things. the cathedral itself could afford to pay for them if only stonework stopped falling down. i have some renderings somewhere of what the cathedral will look like with spires, i will see if i am allowed to post them.
the vaulting of the nave came close to collapse a few years ago. there was actually green netting hung under it to stop the pieces from hitting people below.

[Matthieu]

We have some similar cathedrals in France that would need to be finished. I hope you'll end this one. Because some people here will feel obliged to compete and maybe Laon, Beauvais or Narbonne will have complete cathedral at least.

[Monkey]

anyway ill dig out the pictures and post them...


Yes ... please do.

[gothicform]

just to start things rolling i found some stuff on my network from a survey we did of the stone work quality around the windows (some of them are pretty rotted to the point they have merged)
http://www.skyscrapernews.com/dump/inner.window4a.jpg
this was done for stained glass restoration. the idea is to know precisely the size of every single last little piece of stone, we then dismantle the area around the window marking every last little bit and take out the window, afterwards we can put it back together perfectly. the cost of this is about 5,000 for a small window.
this gives you an idea of the size of the larger ones, this one as you can see is held by struts to stop it collapsing because it was so big. you can get an idea of the scale from the person walking next to it. this by the way is a tiny portion of a 360 degree pano...
it was the size of these windows and the idea of flooding the cathedrals with light from massive windows that caused the buttressing you see on cathedrals. windows of this size severely weaken walls so it was important to strengthen them by other means. after a while they decided why not make them more elaborate so you started to have them with picturesque sculptural touches, in the case of lincoln imps were added. they always served a purpose though.
http://www.skyscrapernews.com/dump/P8140004.jpg
if anyone has any questions about the cathedral, or other english churches of the period and their engineering or restoration feel free to ask.

[Matthieu]

Gothicform edited my first post and posted his pictures in.

Plz, check them. ;).

[Monkey]

Utterly stunning pics ...

[gothicform]

cheers will, i cant believe people are marking this building down so much.

[Matthieu]

Hardouin Mansart isn't a reference IMO.

For the rest, well many people give bad notes to many building sometimes. But overall the rating remain stable because it's true for every building. So it put more or less a balance.

[gothicform]

i mean compare it to other buildings on the list, look at what is above lincoln cathedral. i have a feeling one of the main reasons british cathedrals are being marked down so much is because they arent painted inside unlike catholic ones. thats a cultural thing though, catholic and orthodox ones relied on a lot more on painted freizes than english ones. what i maen is compare the ratings for english cathedrals to french ones and youll see what i mean.
people dont realise how massive lincoln cathedral is. if you removed the chapels from inside you could lay tower 42 along inside it horizontally.

[Matthieu]

i mean compare it to other buildings on the list, look at what is above lincoln cathedral. i have a feeling one of the main reasons british cathedrals are being marked down so much is because they arent painted inside unlike catholic ones. thats a cultural thing though, catholic and orthodox ones relied on a lot more on painted freizes than english ones.

Well, I don't have explication on the low votes on English cathedrals. Some French cathedrals also got low notes too. But that's the way it goes, I think it's hard to really say if a note is fair or no in the mind of someone. Overall, the French are higher rated, so it might be, as you said a cultural thing.

The Basilique de la Fourviere and the Basilica Nuestra Senora del Pilar, also had low votes, and they are quiet a lot decorated inside (that's the least we can say).

[gothicform]

italian churches are decorated differently, they have much less by the way of stained glass windows and have paintings instead of sculptures as the main decorative forms. also they dont tend to have things like fan vaulting on the ceiling. do we have a poll on peterborough yet?

[Matthieu]

italian churches are decorated differently, they have much less by the way of stained glass windows and have paintings instead of sculptures as the main decorative forms. also they dont tend to have things like fan vaulting on the ceiling. do we have a poll on peterborough yet?


Not yet. You have a sticky thread of an updated (well updated) list. Where you can check if there is a poll on a building already and with the link to the existing poll.

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=157171

[gothicform]

when i get time ill do every single major cathedral in the uk. shocked p'borough isnt done, i believe its the only church in the world with 3 80ft tall arches at the entrance. we need st albans too which has the longest nave in the world.

[Matthieu]

Some great threads in perspective.

[Lostboy]

Hardouin Mansart isn't a reference IMO.

He seems very up himself, with an inflated opinion, exactly as my Andaluscian Friend said the traits of the Catalan are - though I'll not venture an opinion there. If all Latins were like you Exarchus, the North-South divide in Europe really would be only a cultural issue and linked to nothing more.

[Matthieu]

though I'll not venture an opinion there.

Good idea. Better stay out of sensible subjects.

[Lss911]

Prety amazing this cathedral!!

[nukey]

it simply has to get ten... as would Laon if there were a poll. Amazing.

[Matthieu]

it simply has to get ten... as would Laon if there were a poll. Amazing.

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=155141

[Fabio]

8.5/10

looks nice

[Idelby]

10/10 of course, one of the finest gothic facades in europe, the highest tower in europe, three towers (one of them interestingly leaning over) once the worlds tallest building, complete with a medieval bishops palace that you cant see here, and its awsome! well done for putting it on here, hahaha. I live in Lincolnshire and am in awe of the place :D

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:384_pic15.jpg

[El_Greco]

9.5/10

[Josh]

10/10 of course, one of the finest gothic facades in europe, the highest tower in europe, three towers (one of them interestingly leaning over) once the worlds tallest building, complete with a medieval bishops palace that you cant see here, and its awsome! well dont for putting it on here, hahaha. I live in Lincolnshire and am in awe of the place :D

The highest tower in Europe??

Very beautiful building! 9,5/10

[tpe]

9.5

It's wonderful but I prefer Salisbury Cathedral. (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=158261) :)


I tend to agree, although Lincoln does not disappoint. I prefer Durham to Lincoln, certainly, because of the more venerable associations.

I have always wondered how Salisbury would have fared today if Beckford's Fonthill had survived... Certainly, Fonthill's location is dramatic in comparison to Salisbury's.

[Idelby]

The highest tower in Europe??

Very beautiful building! 9,5/10

Yeah, its the highest church tower in europe, haha. There are taller churches in germany, but that is because they have their spires on top as well. If lincoln had it's spire (which blew down in the 1500's as it was pretty huge and most likely the largest of its kind ever made) on top of what is the largest tower in europe it would once again be the tallest church in this part of the world ;).
People also have been talking about why lincoln isn't very famous if its so huge and special, and thats a good point. The city has to try really hard to get people to go and raise its status because there isn't really anything else worth seeing close by - people might not go on holiday there so much, and it really is a pretty small city, away from most mainline railways.....But if you like cathedrals go, cos thats about as special as they come, haha.

[LMCA1990]

8/10- nice architecture.

[Idelby]

ill give you a couple of examples. i actually get to crawl in the roof space above the vaulting, its pretty dusty and minging at times but its wonderful to see the actual craftsmanship at work. another example is going up the tower, the tower is closed to the public for health and safety reasons (they might jump off!) the view from there is amazing and you get a whole new perspective of the building. anyway ill dig out the pictures and post them...
i should add lincoln has the oldest standing architecture in the entire country. walk from the end of lincoln high street all the way up steep hill to the cathedral, you will see everything from roman, danish, medieval, tudor, georgian, victorian, modern, international all on one street. it is unquestionably the most diverse architecture in the country.

Exactly :D I love walkign up and down the main street - I think its supposed to have the biggest cluster or most examples of norman domestic architecture in the country, all the houses (jews house and the restaurant place and the guildhall etc). Its an amazing city yet so small, haha.

[chukchi]

can't see the pics >(

[Medo]

excellent 9.5/10

[FJP]

Fantastic! Chapter house is amazing.
9.5/10

[forvine]

8.5/10

[Sinjin P.]

9.5/10

[Mosaic]

9/10

[marpa]

9/10

[gutooo]

9/10

[W!CKED]

9.5/10

[AM Putra]

I'm not regreting it. 9/10.

[Kelsen]

9/10

[clarky]

9/10

[Irekonline]

9/10

[Popiel]

9.5/10

[Nikkodemo]

9/10

[stasiua]

9/10