Cathedral Close - history and photo essay

The area of the Cathedral Close has been the heart of Exeter since the Romans first built their bath house, and basilica, in the First and Second Centuries. The earliest Christian burials date from the fifth century, and the church was well established by 680 when a young lad from Crediton came to the newly built minster for his education. The young man became St Boniface, credited for his work in turning Germans towards Christianity.

Leofric, Bishop of Devon and Cornwall, who was based in Crediton, obtained permission to move to the walled city of Exeter, as his seat was at risk of marauding Danish raiders. He arrived in 1050 and worked to improve an impoverished church in the city, surviving the Norman invasion, and even helping towards a smooth transition to Norman rule. During the great Norman, building age, a patch of land to the east of the old minster became the focus for a new Cathedral. Work was started in 1114 by Bishop Warelwast, and by 1200, despite several setbacks, the two great towers were complete. A period of rebuilding and improvement commenced in 1270, turning the Cathedral Yard into a massive building site, and a magnet for every vagrant around.

The Yard is Walled
After the murder of Walter Lechlade in 1283, Bishop Quinell obtained permission, from Edward I, to build a wall around Cathedral Yard with seven gates, that could be locked at night. It was this single act that delineated the boundary of church authority over secular within Exeter.

By 1637, the churchyard was becoming overcrowded from burials, and Bartholomews Yard was opened in November of the same year, while the Cathedral Yard closed for new interments. The first book, entitled Good Thoughts in Bad Times, to be printed in the city was printed by Thomas Hart in 1645 in St Peter's Yard; this was on a travelling press, which no doubt saw service during the Civil War, printing propaganda pamphlets. One of the earliest newspapers in the country, the Exeter Mercury, was first printed by Philip Bishop, also in St Peter's Yard, in 1714. In November 1703, a great storm swept the south-west, uprooting many of the large elms in Cathedral Yard. The limes that replaced them did not thrive, so more, young elms were planted, some of which survived into the twentieth century.

The Assembly Rooms, built in 1769 by William Mackworth Praed became England's first hotel in 1770, and still exist in the shape of the Royal Clarence Hotel. The great improvements of the early nineteenth century did not bypass the buildings around Cathedral Yard - in 1825 the old Broadgate was demolished and the building now housing Pizza Express, but better known as Tinleys, was constructed. The Courtenay's town house became the Devon & Exeter Institution in 1813, while Mol's Coffee House was occupied by John Gendall in 1834, the first to use the premises as an artists gallery. The space was also used for the annual November 5th bonfire, when city folk would celebrate the thwarting of Guy Fawkes, and burn effigies of the Pope, William Booth and others whom they thought religiously subversive. Riots would often ensue and the practice banned towards the end of the nineteenth century, not only to preserve public safety, but to safeguard the west side of the Cathedral from heat damage.

Most of the buildings around the Close survived damage in the 1942 blitz, although the Globe Hotel was lost to fire and the house where John Simcoe, the first Governor of Canada died, was totally destroyed. The latter has been faithfully rebuilt, and only a trained observer would know the difference. In 1971, St Mary Major Church, on the site of the old Minster was demolished. While the foundations were excavated, Saxon burials were discovered, and beneath these remains, a Roman bath house. After a thorough investigation by archaeologists, the site was covered with sand and grassed over.

Cathedral Yard and Close are, for the most part, now a tranquil haven in an expanding city. Popular with tourist and local alike, there is no better way of passing half an hour, than sitting in the Close and contemplating two thousand years of human history and events.

The group of three terraced houses in the north-west corner of Cathedral Yard is known as the Three Gables. They date from the late seventeenth-century.

St Petrock's Church is one of the traditional seven gates into the Close. The oldest part of the building fronts the High Street.

In the north-west corner, between the Three Gables (left in photo) and St Petrock (right in photo) was the Globe Hotel, which was lost to bombing in 1942; the empty space is now the main entrance to Cathedral Yard for vehicles.

A little further east can be found Broadgate, the ancient, grand entrance, to Cathedral Yard. Now a short street, the left side was the City Bank and the right hand side has Pizza Express, remembered fondly by many as Tinleys Tea Shop. Charlotte Treadwin, Queen Victoria's favourite lace maker, had her first lace showroom on the site of Pizza Express.

This is the original architects drawing for Wippells, dating from the 1880's. The building now houses Edinburgh Wool. Illustration courtesy of Dick Passmore

The Royal Clarence Hotel is the oldest hotel in the country. It is now part owned by Michael Caine, who is responsible for the high quality food in the restaurant. Alongside, in the old Dellers Cafe and Exeter Bank building, is Caine's Abode.

A favourite place for a quick snack, or tea, is the front of the Royal Clarence on a summers day.

Three buildings of historic importance - St Martins Church, consecrated in 1065, Mol's Coffee House, now Connection South West, and Hanson's Family Restaurant. 5 Cathedral Close was for about fifty years the workshops and showroom for Charlotte Treadwin's Honiton Lace business.

This postcard shows the same stretch of Cathedral Close, as the previous photo. However, dating from the first decade of the twentieth century, the iron-railed green is evident on the right.

This statue, unveiled in 1907, is of Richard Hooker, the Heavitree born theologian, who helped found the Anglican Church.

The Devon War Memorial was unveiled in 1921 by the Prince of Wales. It was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and is made from Dartmoor granite.

The famous West Window of the Cathedral faces Broadgate.

Last, take a look for Butch the smoking dog grotesque - he can be found on the north wall of the Cathedral, facing the Devon & Exeter Institution.