A sermon in concrete

“One of the great interiors of the last 50 years.”

I had a day in Bristol last week. The morning was devoted to photographing James and his vibes on level 8 of a concrete car park. My afternoon commitment was cancelled so I had a few hours to spare before seeing old friends in the evening.

I decided to visit Clifton Cathedral. I have long admired the exterior but had inexplicably never been inside.

I’m very glad I did.

I stepped inside and took an awed intake of breath. I had the cathedral to myself. I glanced around and admired the beautiful simplicity of the concrete, the light and the space. This is my kind of interior.

Pevsner’s Architectural Guide to Bristol wrote that the Cathedral was a “sermon in concrete”.¹

What a fine description.

Mike Jenner called it “one of the great interiors of the last 50 years in Britain”.

I’m inclined to agree.

In awe

I’m not a practicing Christian but I was brought up in a Church of England household and the stories are part of who I am.

The meditative qualities and splendour of a place of worship speak to me. Not on behalf of a known religion, but in my own contemplative way.

A visit to Coventry Cathedral in my teens is one of the most profound experiences of my life. The spatial beauty of the building awed me.

I had visited with my father, an architect. He designed a number of Catholic Churches in the 1970’s-80’s in the East Midlands (I don’t think I need an analyst to explain why I am drawn to such buildings).

Like the architect of Clifton Cathedral, Ronald Weeks, my father wasn’t a Catholic and maybe this helped.

Ronald Weeks thought so:

“It's surprising how much people take for granted. Not being Catholics we could ask all sorts of questions which appeared naïve – like – “What is an altar?”, in which one would get conflicting answers... each question would lead to a discussion which in turn helped to banish pre-conceived notions so we could plan right from scratch.”²

Not taking things for granted. It’s good advice for many things.

Clifton Roman Catholic Cathedral was completed in 1973 for the sum of £601,268. It was described as the “ecclesiastical bargain of the 1970’s”.

It is the first Catholic Church built in the 1970’s to be Grade II* listed.

It was the first Cathedral to be built under new guidelines from the Second Vatican Council which wanted to make the congregation feel more involved.

1. From 100 Years, 100 Buildings on the 20th Century Society website

2. Wikipedia has a full description of the Cathedral’s history and build