Roman Catholic Cathedral of St John the Baptist

This is a cruciform cathedral built in the Early English Gothic style of the 13th century. The walls are constructed of Beer stone, Pennine Gritstone and clunch (a form of chalk) over a brick core, with details in Frosterley marble and lead roofs. The plan includes chapels projecting eastwards from both transepts and a sacristy at the end of the south transept, which adjoins the separately listed Cathedral House.

Exterior

The entire exterior is executed in ashlar masonry with consistent use of lancet windows set under hood mouldings decorated with stiff leaf carving. These windows are framed by shafts of stone or Frosterley marble.

The west front stands between turrets that feature blind arcading on their upper stages and are crowned with spirelets. The main entrance is deeply recessed within a gabled porch flanked by blind arches, with three tall lancet windows above and three more in the gable itself. The timber doors are decorated with elaborate ironwork.

The aisled nave extends for ten bays, divided by buttresses that rise to support flying buttresses at clerestorey level, topped with finials. Each bay contains a single lancet window. On the north side, the baptistry and porch project slightly from the two western aisle bays. The porch door is deeply recessed and flanked by statue niches, while the baptistry has a single lancet window. Both features have arcading in their gables. The south side mirrors the north but with simpler aisle windows. A late 20th-century Narthex extension projects from the second bay from the west, and St Joseph's Chapel is attached to the three eastern bays, matching the aisle style and projecting one bay beyond it under a pitched roof.

The south transept comprises three bays with tall, plain lancets on the east side above St Joseph's Chapel and the Sacristy vestibule. The southern gable end, positioned above the single-storey apsidal-ended Sacristy, contains five lancets and a wheel window, with a spirelet at one corner. St George's Chapel projects from the east side of the transept with a projecting gable and octagonal turret. The north transept features three tall lancets flanked by buttresses with statue niches on its north end, and the two-storey apsidal-ended Walsingham Chapel projecting from the east side. A projecting porch on the west side has double doors with elaborate ironwork set under a carved tympanum depicting a crucifixion flanked by figures. The crossing tower rises in three stages with slim clasping buttresses at the corners. At the belfry stage, each face has two pairs of lancets with blind arcading above and a crenelated parapet.

The eastern arm of the Cathedral extends for three bays with flying buttresses above aisles that terminate in octagonal spirelets. The east end is highly decorative, featuring deeply recessed lancets arranged in groups of five on three levels, flanked by buttresses with statue niches rising to octagonal spirelets. Below the east end, a columbarium of four bays features quadripartite vaulting in clunch. It is accessed via ramped, walled walkways through portal arches of Pennine Gritstone.

Interior

The interior is vaulted throughout: quadripartite vaulting in the nave and aisles, tierceron vaulting in the transepts, crossing and sanctuary. The floors are laid with Hoptonwood stone. All windows, doors and arcading follow the lancet style with hood mouldings and stone or Frosterley marble shafts, except for the nave and sanctuary arcades, which rise from large drum columns. Stiff leaf decoration appears throughout, becoming more frequent and elaborate towards the eastern end.

West End and Nave

The vaulted north porch contains timber doors with elaborate ironwork beneath an arch decorated with a band of carved figures. Adjacent to the porch is the entrance to the sunken baptistry, which retains its original wrought iron gates. Blind arcading surrounds the octagonal font of Frosterley marble, which has a suspended cover. Windows dedicated to Our Lady and St John the Baptist provide light. Above the western gallery, three lancets contain a crucifixion scene flanked by Moses bearing the Commandments and the prophet Elijah. The gallery is supported on an arcade, and beneath it the main west doors have metal-framed cast glass inner doors designed by Russell Taylor Architects in 2006.

Above the north and south nave arcades are triforia with four arches per bay separated by engaged shafts that rise to the vaulting. The triforia are not functional wall passages but open onto roof voids above the aisles. The clerestories above contain plain glass in simple lancets, while the aisle lancets hold geometric grisaille glass moved from the clerestories after 1946. Eight bays of the nave contain benches with built-in kneelers and simple flat-topped ends set on late 20th-century timber platforms, with more found in the transepts.

Aisles

In the south aisle, blind arcading in six bays is interrupted by projecting piers with clusters of marble shafts flanking a single fluted shaft that rises to the vaulting. The fourth bay from the west has a larger central arch with clustered columns, and an entrance to the Narthex extension was created through the arcade in the second bay in 2004. The blind arcading in the north aisle has a different rhythm and deeper clusters of shafts, but only a plain stone shaft between each rising to the vaulting. The second bay from the north porch door contains a picture of Our Lady of Czestochowa and a stone memorial plaque erected in 1982 to commemorate Polish men and women who died in the Second World War. In the fifth bay, painted decoration in gold and blue by Lillian Dagless of Walsingham sits behind a statue of St Anthony of Padua dating from 1939. In the tenth bay, a small piscina in Frosterley marble stands beside a secondary north entrance door.

St Joseph's Chapel

The eastern four bays of the south aisle form an arcade open to the sunken St Joseph's Chapel, originally a memorial chapel to the Duchess of Norfolk who died in 1887. The western bay includes an original timber tracery screen, probably designed by George Gilbert Scott. The chapel has vaulting similar to that in the south aisle, but the blind arcading and lancet windows are larger and more richly decorated. The glass reflects the original dedication to Our Lady with windows to Saints Barbara, Esther and a group of female saints with floral names, as well as one to St Paulinus of York. All are by John Hardman Powell working with George Gilbert Scott. In the chapel sanctuary, the arcading is more richly decorated and the floor is raised by one step, a change made when the altar was installed in 1957. The altar was moved westward in 1969. A simple late 20th-century timber screen stands behind it.

South Transept

The south transept has an eastern aisle containing an organ installed in 1903 and St George's Chapel. The chapel altar reredos consists of small-framed timber panelling below a window dedicated to Our Lady of Pity. The blind arcading to north and south contains memorial plaques to the fallen of the First World War. The southern end of the transept has a gallery behind three tall arches. The five lancets above contain stained glass depicting The Birthday of the Church, and below are confessionals with panelled interiors and timber doors with open tracery in the upper half. The west side of the transept opens into the Sacristy vestibule, which has geometric grisaille glass in the windows and a pair of doors with decorative ironwork leading to the Sacristy.

Sacristy

The Sacristy has a timber-panelled ceiling, wood block floor and partition walls enclosing the Principal Sacristy and Service Sacristy. The Choir Sacristy is at the east end. The Principal Sacristy, which connects to Cathedral House, is lined with fitted furnishings incorporating an altar, with another altar and sanctorium in Frosterley marble. The Service Sacristy also features fitted furnishings. From the Choir Sacristy, a passage with stone wall brackets for ceremonial staffs and a candle lighting niche leads under the south transept to the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament. From this passage, a stair descends to the former Lower Sacristy (now the Cathedral archive) in a semi-basement.

North Transept

The north transept has blind arcading at ground and triforium level with deeply set double arches on the east side and simple single arches on the west. The clerestorey windows above are simple except for an elaborate, deeply recessed arch with an ironwork screen (probably by John Oldrid Scott) in the northern bay of the eastern clerestorey. This denotes the 'secret chapel', a space above the Walsingham Chapel not formally dedicated as such and only accessed by a spiral stair in the wall. A statue niche is positioned above the double doors of the porch in the west wall. The three large lancets in the north end, collectively called the Queen's Window, were designed by Dunstan Powell and John Oldrid Scott and renewed by Adrian Gilbert Scott following wartime damage in 1942. The centre window depicts the Virgin and Child flanked by Queen Esther and Sheba and Solomon.

Walsingham Chapel

Projecting from the east side of the north transept is the Walsingham Chapel, which has blind arcading on five faces and vaulting above. Windows by Clayton and Bell from 1920 depict events associated with the Shrine of Our Lady at Walsingham, including those relating to the Dukes of Norfolk and the foundation of the Norwich church. The altar, dating from 1937, has a painted and gilded reredos with the crucifixion and a figure of the Virgin and Child above.

Crossing and Sanctuary

The crossing tower has blind arcading at triforium level with small, simple lancets above between clustered stone shafts rising to dramatic vaulting that frames a timber trapdoor to the belfry decorated with tracery. Under the crossing, a raised stone apron extends from the sanctuary with a simple table altar from 1997 by Anthony Rossi. The carved beam and rood from 1910-1911, installed by Robert Bridgeman and Sons of Litchfield and Peter Rendl of Oberammergau (possibly to a design by John Oldrid Scott), spans the chancel arch.

The sanctuary has four-bay arcades to north and south with plain drum columns, the easternmost embellished with marble shafts. Riddel posts stand in the westerly bays on each side, and simple timber benches flank the choir before the stone throne on four steps. To the east of this is a stone screen at the high altar position with six pilasters on the west face and a tester suspended above. The eastern window comprises two tiers of three lancets, the most highly decorated in the Cathedral. The triforium arcades are formed of paired lancets of similar richness. The eastern glass is a complex series of designs by Dunstan Powell relating to the Creation and Fall, the Redemption of the Human Race and the Sanctification of Mankind.

Sanctuary Aisles

Both side aisles have John Oldrid Scott's bronze screens in the easterly arcade arches, and the external aisle walls have rich marble shafts rising to the vaulting, reflecting the quality of work in the sanctuary. In the south aisle is the Blessed Sacrament Chapel with a window by Dunstan Powell depicting Biblical scenes relating to the Holy Sacrament. A doorway to the Choir Sacristy passage has a carving of angels with musical instruments above. In the northern aisle, the Chapel of the Precious Blood has an altar installed in 2022, designed by architect Suzi Pendlebury and Cathedral Mason Bruce Riley. It is made from French grey marble reused from the mensa of the 1957 high altar with new Clipsham stone elements.