By Angela Youngman
The chance of exploring hidden walkways and climbing high are proving an irresistible attraction for cathedral visitors keen to tour rooftops and towers.
Cathedrals are architectural marvels often with highly decorated, and carved ceilings spanning vast open areas.
More than half a million people have engaged with that campaign, reflecting the sheer scale of interest in what can be found high up in the buildings. Actively climbing to get a closer viewpoint is proving immensely popular, but it requires stamina! These tours definitely test fitness levels.
The Association of English Cathedrals’ summer campaign has focused on the wonders such as the roof bosses of Norwich Cathedral, the asymmetrical vaulting above St Hugh’s Choir, Lincoln, and the gravity-defying pendant vaulted ceiling at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford.
- Access is often by steep spiral staircases and these can narrow significantly towards the top, as they do at Worcester Cathedral, with its 235 steps.
- The tower at Salisbury has 255 steps and climbing to the top of the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral is a challenge of 528 steps.
- At Truro Cathedral, visitors have to climb a tight, steep 120-step spiral staircase and walk along narrow wooden gangways. Some of the spaces are small and can feel claustrophobic.
More and more cathedrals are offering these tours as a way of widening visitor engagement, and showing just how much work is involved in maintenance.
Among the cathedrals offering tower and/or rooftop tours are Chester, Chichester, Exeter, Gloucester, Guildford, Hereford, Lichfield, Lincoln, Liverpool, Norwich, Peterborough, Salisbury, St Albans, St Edmundsbury (Bury St Edmunds), St John the Baptist RC Cathedral (Norwich), St Paul’s, Winchester, Worcester and York.
A more limited access is available at Carlisle where visitors can opt for the “at height tour” along the clerestory, giving a closer view of the starry ceiling and the great east window, as well as the bell tower. Ely offers tours of its unique lantern roof within its octagon tower and is planning a new hidden heights tour.
Safety considerations are imperative. Visitors must wear suitable footwear, and be fit and healthy. Constricted spaces man bags are rarely allowed on tours.
Age limits for accompanied children vary from cathedral to cathedral. At Worcester, children have to be eight or over; at Winchester the minimum age is 12.
Guided tours can last up to an hour and a half. At Winchester, tour groups climb 213 steps, stopping off along the way to walk along the clerestory corridor and discovering the cathedral’s 16 bells. Climbing 218 steps at Hereford gives access to the top of the tower as well as the impressive lantern gallery and ringing chamber.
The hard work and effort definitely pays off. Visitors enjoy unexpected views across cathedral interiors, close-up scenes of the ceiling architecture and unforgettable panoramic rooftop views. For example, a climb to the top of the UK’s highest cathedral tower at Liverpool (101m, or 331ft) on a clear day should give you a view of the Blackpool Tower.
Access is always the determining factor as to what can be offered. Some cathedrals, including Coventry and St Philip’s Cathedral, Birmingham, lack any safe public access points to the higher reaches. Other cathedrals such as Chichester are exploring ways of opening up access wherever this is possible.
Oliver Tubb, head of marketing Chichester, says: “Our clerk of works and estates team are working on improving access to our triforium levels and training our guides, with an ambition to launch spire visits and roof tours before of our 950th anniversary next year.”
Chichester is working on installing new stairway handrails, platforms across the triforium level and improving lighting. Once the work is complete, visitors will be able to not only access the roof and spire but see the original craftsman marks made by the medieval builders when the roof was constructed. Visitors are interested in future access to the spire and roof, an iconic part of the Chichester skyline.
Tours are often fully booked well in advance. At St John the Baptist, Norwich, cathedral manager Charley Purves says: “The towers are one of the unique selling points. The ability to climb to the tallest point in Norwich and get a 360-degree view of the city and the county beyond are incredibly popular. Many public tours have sold out this year, as well as an increase in private tours being booked.”
Even the weather doesn’t deter visitors to explore the heights. Christina Suddons, head of marketing at Winchester, says: “In the winter months we offer three tower tours a week. When the Christmas market is on between mid-November to mid-December, there are extra tours so that visitors can view the event from above.”
