St Albans Cathedral
St Albans Cathedral
The Cathedral and Abbey Church of St Alban is a Grade I listed Church of England cathedral at Sumpter Yard, St Albans, Hertfordshire, seat of the Bishop of St Albans. Historic England records a Norman church of 1077–88 of which the north nave wall, transepts and crossing tower survive; Wikipedia gives the consecration date 28 December 1115.
- Location
- St Albans, Hertfordshire
- Country
- England
- County
- Hertfordshire
- City / town
- St Albans
- Address
- Sumpter Yard, St Albans, Hertfordshire, AL1 1BY
- Postcode
- AL1 1BY
- Built
- 1077–88 Norman core; later medieval work; west front rebuilt 1890s
- Consecrated
- 28 December 1115
- Architect
- Paul of Caen (Norman abbey); later restorations by George Gilbert Scott and Lord Grimthorpe
- Denomination
- Church of England
- Dedication
- Alban
- Diocese
- St Albans
- Grade
- I
- Style
- Norman; Early English; Decorated; Victorian restoration
- Materials
- Flint rubble and reused Roman brick; Barnack, Totternhoe and other stone; lead and tiled roofs
- Grid reference
- TL 145 070
- Opening hours
- Open Monday to Sunday 8.30am to 5.45pm. The Abbots Kitchen is open Monday to Saturday 9.30am to 4.30pm and Sunday 12.30pm to 4.30pm.
- Access
- Accessible toilets in church. Accessible toilets nearby. Level access to the main areas. Non-accessible toilets in church
Overview
Walls are of flint and reused Roman brick from Verulamium; the crossing tower is almost entirely of Roman brick. Later work includes Early English western bays on the north nave, a later thirteenth-century chancel arcade and retrochoir, a Decorated Lady Chapel, and a south nave rebuilt after 1323. Lord Grimthorpe rebuilt the west front and many windows in the 1890s; George Gilbert Scott directed earlier Victorian repairs from 1860. Roofs are lead and tile.
Interior plaster and wall paintings survive from the Norman church. Notable fittings include the reconstructed shrine of St Alban (c.1320), the fourteenth-century watching loft, and monuments of abbots and of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester. The former Benedictine abbey became a cathedral in 1877. RCHME notes one of the longest cathedral plans in England, on high ground above the River Ver.