Cathedral six

The best I could do in the tricky morning light: the hole where the north western tower used to be, rather shorter than the central western tower which it used to flank. South western tower alive and well, just visible above the grand porch to the right. I suppose after a rather chequered building history, the monks ran out of puff and did not replace the northern one when it too fell down. Or perhaps Bishop Eustace just wanted to get on with his door.

On the other side of the wall built to seal the hole, there is a rather ugly bit of modern ecclesiastical art. All credit to the cathedral for trying something modern, but, to my mind, some of their choices in that department are not very good at all.

PS: I am not sure about the Jenkins' suggestion in today's Guardian that the Church of England should turn over these white elephants to some heritage outfit. These places were intended to be sacred, and, as a life-long atheist, I prefer decaying real sacred, complete with bells, books and candles, to the sort of thing that Disney - or even the National Trust - might do instead. The church really is part of our heritage, and I would be sorry to see it go under. As it is, what was the rather grand tied house allocated to the bishop, a few yards beyond the porch, suffered the indignity of having to masquerade as a lawyer's office in the TV adaptation of one of the Dalgliesh stories from P. D. James.

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