Issue 38 Summer web 23 - Flipbook - Page 22
Leicester Cathedral
Revealed project
The Leicester Cathedral Revealed project will complete the reordering of the cathedral, renew all the
building services, and create the new ‘Heritage Learning Centre’ (HLC). This extension to the cathedral
will be spread over 4 floors, with facilities for orientation, education, and hospitality. It will provide the
toilets, staff and volunteer spaces, and storage areas, that the cathedral currently lacks.
The project has come from a long relationship with the
Cathedral, starting in 2008 when we responded to an
advertisement seeking an architect for the reordering.
Our approach suggested considering the reordering as a
masterplan, a development framework, so it could
respond as timescales and funding opportunities changed.
We believe this approach won us the commission, and its
value has been borne out by experience.
Our masterplan identified the key functional and
liturgical shortcomings of the cathedral and its grounds,
the constraints, and opportunities to address them. We
proposed several key moves, including moving the altar
and font, uniting the divided space of the churchyard and
the former school playground, and demolishing the 1930’s
vestries, replacing them with better support facilities.
The first expression of its recommendations was the
creation of Cathedral Gardens, designed by Gillespies
landscape architects. This was well underway when,
in 2013, a quixotic exploration of the nearby car park
delivered the biggest archaeological find of recent years.
The positive identification of Richard III’s remains
presented a huge opportunity for the Dean and Chapter
to proceed with the reordering. However, the timescale
was equally challenging, with a fixed and short period to
the reinterral, and stakeholders with wildly divergent
views of what would be appropriate.
This unprecedented situation demonstrated the value of
the masterplan approach, as we were quickly able to show
how a suitable memorial could be incorporated, and
how the associated chancel works would contribute to
reordering. The project achieved two key liturgical
objectives: moving the high altar to the heart of the
church, under the crossing, and creating a highly visible
cathedral.
The events of the reinterral ceremony and Richard III’s
tomb had a huge effect on visitor numbers, bringing a
welcome influx of visitors to the cathedral and the city.
However, the ten-fold increase in visitors to the cathedral
amply demonstrated its inflexibility, lack of facilities, poor
access, and physical limitations. Dean and Chapter thus
Above, Leicester Cathedral
Revealed visualisation
image credit ©vHH Architects.
