Description
Writing in 1932, Sir Edward Maufe said: ‘The ideal has been to produce a design, definitely of our own time, yet in the line of the great English Cathedrals; to build anew on tradition, to rely on proportion, mass, volume and line rather than on elaboration and ornament.' Pevsner described the building as 'sweet-tempered, undramatic Curvilinear Gothic', and that the interior was 'noble and subtle.'
The tower is 160 feet (49 m) high, and contains twelve bells, ten of which were cast by Mears and Stainbank in 1965. The bells were augmented to 12 with two Whitechapel trebles in 1975. The largest bell weighs 30cwt (just over 1.5 tonnes) and is tuned to the key of D. At the top of the tower stands a 15-foot (4.6 m) gilded angel, which turns in the wind. Inside, the cathedral appears to be filled with light, with pale Somerset limestone pillars and white Italian marble floors.
The Angel on the top of the tower was given in memory of Reginald Adgey-Edgar of the Intelligence Corps, who died on active service on 5 January 1944. The supporting pole for the Angel houses mobile phone antennas for T-Mobile and 3, at a height of 49m.
In 2008 a garden opened at the cathedral, bearing the name of Seeds of Hope.
Read more about this topic: Guildford Cathedral
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“The next Augustan age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic. There will, perhaps, be a Thucydides at Boston, a Xenophon at New York, and, in time, a Virgil at Mexico, and a Newton at Peru. At last, some curious traveller from Lima will visit England and give a description of the ruins of St. Paul’s, like the editions of Balbec and Palmyra.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)