Roman Catholic Cathedral of St Mary and St Boniface

Roman Catholic Cathedral of St Mary and St Boniface

This is a substantial Gothic Revival cathedral built in Plymouth limestone rubble with limestone dressings. The structure comprises a five-bay nave with clerestory, a four-bay chancel with canted east end, lean-to aisles to both nave and chancel on the north and south sides, and transepts with chapels positioned in the angles between the transepts and chancel aisles. A small square tower stands to the north near the west end, accompanied by a stair tower to its side.

The exterior displays predominantly paired lancet windows, with those at the east featuring quatrefoil or round plate tracery above. The west end of the nave features a rose window with trefoil tracery over triple lancets, and similar windows appear on the transepts. A roll-moulding runs beneath the windows. The two-stage tower is notably slender with clasping buttresses. The south doorway is a moulded pointed arch with two orders of engaged shafts, surmounted by a statue set in a trefoil-headed niche. The second stage contains a round window above four lancets with engaged shafts on either side, and tall two-light windows light the belfry. The broached spire is steeply pitched and extremely slender, decorated with lucarnes containing Decorated two-light windows. The west door of the south transept has a pointed moulded arch. The main entrance at the west end comprises two Caernarvon arches on engaged shafts with cushion capitals, fitted with new doors. A modern covered way or narthex with steeply pitched gables supported on cruciform concrete posts now encloses this entrance, linking the cathedral to the Cathedral Centre immediately to the west. The Centre retains a portion of the former Convent of Notre Dame (1865, by J A and/or C F Hansom) as its façade; the remainder was destroyed during the Plymouth blitz.

The interior features a five-bay nave with chamfered arches of two orders set on octagonal granite columns with bell capitals. The four-bay chancel has chamfered arches of two orders set on marble columns with fine foliate capitals to the ambulatory. Trefoil-headed recesses articulated by shafts with foliate capitals articulate the east end. The chancel arch comprises two chamfered orders set on shafts with foliate capitals, while arches with engaged columns and capitals serve the organ chamber, south-east chapel, and transepts; those to the transepts are taller and feature foliate capitals. Scissor-truss roofs are supported by corbels throughout; the chancel roof contains painted panels.

The cathedral has undergone considerable internal change and reordering, most notably to conform with the liturgical practice of Vatican II. The altar, dating from a 1994 refitting, now stands on a hexagonal dais at the crossing of the nave and transepts, approached by a granite walkway called the Pilgrim Way which marks the main routes through the building. The new ambo or lectern stands near the west end; the original pulpit in the chancel has been removed. The original stone font remains to the north-west, positioned in front of the aumbry with beaten copper doors in Art Nouveau style. New seating in the nave and chancel faces inward towards the walkway.

At the east end of the chancel, the presbyterium contains a new cathedra and clergy seating backed by a timber screen with a hanging rood or crucifix dating from F A Walters's work of the 1920s. Behind this lies the Lady Chapel in the apse, featuring a decorative tiled floor set with memorial plaques to the bishops of Plymouth whose remains are interred beneath. The chapel is lined with trefoil-headed sedilia flanking a carved reredos depicting the Taking Down From the Cross and the Coronation of the Virgin, with figures of saints above on engaged columns and a central figure of the Virgin and Child. An altar on marble shafts stands below.

To the east of the south transept stands the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, containing a carved reredos with gilt decorative canopy placed here in the 1920s and protected by decorative wrought-iron screens. The south transept displays a brass monument with recumbent figure by Hardman & Co. to Bishop William Vaughan, d.1902. The north transept forms the Sacred Heart Chapel, with carved panels and niches; the chapel to its east now contains the organ, a replacement of 1997. The north-east chapel, with decorative tiled floor and trefoil-headed piscina, is now the Peace Chapel of Saints Patrick and George and contains the First World War memorial. The south-east chapel houses the Pietà, a sculpture of the Virgin holding Christ taken down from the Cross, inspired by Michelangelo's sculpture in St Peter's, Rome. The north porch, separated from the nave by a glass screen, now serves as the Chapel of Reconciliation. The sacristy to the north-east, adjoining the Clergy House, contains a 18th-century Flemish altarpiece.

Around the walls of the nave are Stations of the Cross carved in Beer stone by Joseph Cribb of Ditchling, dating from 1958. Cribb had been apprenticed to Eric Gill. The cathedral contains a number of stained glass windows by Hardman.