England Guide
The East Midlands
Lincoln Cathedral
Opening time: May– Sept Mon– Fri 7.15am–8pm, Sat & Sun 7.15am–6pm; Oct– April Mon– Sat 7.15am–6pm, Sun 7.15am–5pm; access restricted during services
Price: £4 including guided tour
Address: Off Castle Hill
Telephone: 01522/561 600
Website: www.lincolncathedral.com
Beyond the arches of the medieval Exchequergate soars the glorious west front of Lincoln Cathedral, a sheer cliff face of blind arcading mobbed by decorative carving. Most striking of all is the extraordinary band of twelfth-century carved panels that depict biblical themes with passionate intimacy. The west front's apparent homogeneity is, however, deceptive, and further inspection reveals two phases of construction – the small stones and thick mortar of much of the facade belong to the original church, completed in 1092, whereas the longer stones and finer courses date from the early thirteenth century.
The cavernous interior is a fine example of Early English architecture, with the nave's pillars conforming to the same general design yet differing slightly, their varied columns and bands of dark Purbeck marble contrasting with the limestone that is the building's main material. Looking back up the nave from beneath the central tower, you can also observe a major medieval cock-up: Bishop Hugh's roof is out of alignment with the earlier west front, and the point where they meet has all the wrong angles. It's possible to pick out other irregularities, too – the pillars have bases of different heights, and there are ten windows in the nave's north wall and nine in the south – but these are deliberate features, reflecting a medieval aversion to the vanity of symmetry.
Beyond the rood screen lies St Hugh's Choir, its fourteenth-century misericords carrying an eccentric range of carvings, with scenes from the life of Alexander the Great and King Arthur mixed up with biblical characters and folkloric parables. The open and airy Angel Choir was completed in 1280 and is dotted with stone table-tombs, its roof embellished by dozens of finely carved statuettes, including the tiny Lincoln Imp, the central character of a legend devised with such success by nineteenth-century jeweller James Ward Usher that it became the city's emblem.