Cathedral Church Of St Thomas

CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ST THOMAS, PORTSMOUTH

This Grade I listed building began as a chapel of Austin Priory founded around 1180 for Jean de Gisors. It became a parish church from 1320 and was designated a cathedral in 1927.

The medieval core survives substantially, with the choir dating to approximately 1180–90 and the transepts to around 1190–1220. The old cathedral tower and nave were demolished and replaced between 1683 and 1693 with a new aisled nave and west tower; a cupola was added to the tower in 1703. The 18th and 19th centuries saw various alterations and restoration work. Major additions were made in 1935–39 by Sir Charles Nicholson and again in 1990–91 with a west extension by Michael Drury of Winchester.

The building is constructed of coursed rubble stone with ashlar dressings, and coursed squared stone and ashlar, with plain tile roofs. Its architectural style encompasses Transitional, Early English, Classical and Byzantine elements.

The plan comprises a four-bay aisled nave with clerestory, a two-stage west tower and transepts at the east end containing chapels. The 1930s additions extended the building westward by three bays with secondary aisles, a south porch and north cloister court; a west entrance bay was added in 1990–91. The choir has four bays and is aisled, with a south vestry.

The exterior features quoins and buttresses (some with offsets), pointed-arched openings to the earlier sections with some hoodmoulds, and parapets—some corbelled—with roll-moulded coping. The tower displays a clock on its south face at the upper stage, a parapet with corner merlins, and a two-stage octagonal cupola with angle pilasters and louvred sides. The cupola has sheet metal domes with small round-arched lights to the lower dome and a spire finial with a weather vane in the form of a ship (a 1954 replacement of the original). The nave has two tiers of hipped-roofed dormers of 18th-century origin. The north transept has cusped windows. The east end features stepped tripled windows with a blocked roundel above and a cross finial. The west end has a central round-arched entrance with six round-arched windows above and flanking towers. The north cloister court is in 16th- and 17th-century style.

The interior preserves 12th-century work exceptionally well, particularly in the choir. An unusual feature is painted-arched arcades set within larger round arches, supported on octagonal piers and clustered responds with engaged shafts (some replaced in marble). Blind arcades line the outer walls. The altar recess contains a plain stone altar with flanking niches and windows above having engaged shafts supporting arches. The vaults are quadripartite. The nave has pointed arches on clustered columns. The transepts contain collared queen strut roof trusses with butt purlins and straight wind braces. The nave displays tall, late 17th-century round-arched arcades and a richly decorated modillion cornice.

The building contains a notable series of wall memorials from the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries, featuring coats of arms, cherubs, urns and skulls. Of particular importance are two monuments in the tower: one to Sir Charles Blount (died 1600) with a tablet in classical architrave, trophies of war below and an armoured male figure kneeling at an altar above; and one in the choir's south aisle to George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, assassinated in Portsmouth in 1628, possibly by Nicholas Stone, featuring a tablet flanked by a trumpeter and a figure holding a laurel wreath, an eagle on an urn in a classical architrave, side-panels depicting trophies of war, and a coat of arms with trumpeting cherubs above. Various 18th-century floor tablets and other memorials are also present.

Notable woodwork includes a highly decorated hexagonal panelled pulpit of 1693 on a slender column with turned balusters to the stairs, and two fluted columns with Composite capitals supporting a sounding board (a 1904 replica of the original) featuring an egg-and-dart cornice, collared soffit carved with flowers, and an ogee cap supporting a trumpeting angel. Late 17th-century reused panelling appears in the nave piers, alongside a corporation pew with a royal coat of arms of 1695 above the mayor's seat. A panelled bowed gallery dates to 1706 and was extended in 1750. The restored organ case is the original of 1718 by Abraham Jordan Junior, featuring a central figure of David and cherubs, possibly by Francis Bird.

Mid-13th-century wall painting survives in the north transept, depicting Christ seated in judgment within a vesica piscis. Other features of interest include four old banners in the north aisle and fragments of Lord Nelson's HMS Victory Ensign Flag in the south aisle. An octagonal font of the early 16th century has an octagonal column and carved shields on its sides. The north aisle of the 20th-century nave extension displays the original weather vane, a golden barque with pennant dated 1710. An imported Della Robbia majolica panel depicting the Madonna and child is present, along with 19th- and 20th-century glass.