"Portsmouth’s Anglican cathedral is the mother church of our diocese and the base for the Bishop of Portsmouth. It hosts many of our most important diocesan events – confirmation services, ordinations of new ministers and diocesan-wide celebrations. It’s especially popular at Christmas and Easter, when multiple services have to take place to fit everyone in. Acts of worship in a variety of different styles happen here every day of the year.
It also has an important role in the city of Portsmouth, hosting civic events, school services and events of artistic and cultural importance. It’s open every day for visitors, and thousands of people pop in to spend a moment in peace and quiet, to take in some of its architecture and heritage, to browse through the bookshop, or to ask for prayer from one of its chaplains.
Our cathedral is unusual in that it also has a parish – much of Old Portsmouth and the city’s Naval Base. For those who live in that part of Portsmouth, the cathedral is their parish church, and weddings, baptisms, funerals and midweek activities happen there, much like any other church.
Portsmouth is also unusual in having both Church of England and Roman Catholic cathedrals in the same city. The two cathedrals work well together and are both part of the inter-denominational group Churches Together in Central Portsmouth.
The Anglican cathedral only became a cathedral in 1927 when the Diocese of Portsmouth was carved out of the old Diocese of Winchester. The history of the building stretches back to the 12th century, but the impressive west end of the cathedral was only completed in the 1990s. More recent developments include the transformation of Cathedral House – on the other side of St Thomas’s Street – into a music centre, rooms for community use and cathedral offices."
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"History: Around the year 1180, Jean de Gisors, a wealthy Norman merchant and Lord of the Manor of Titchfield, gave land in his new town of Portsmouth to the Augustinian canons of Southwick Priory so that they could build a chapel "to the Glorious Honour of the Martyr Thomas of Canterbury, one time Archbishop, on (my) land which is called Sudewede, the island of Portsea". It was given so that they could build a chapel dedicated to the honour of St Thomas of Canterbury, who was assassinated and martyred ten years earlier. This chapel was to become, in turn, a parish church in the 14th century and then a cathedral in the 20th century.
The medieval building, dedicated in 1188, was cruciform in shape, with a central tower, which was used as a lookout point and lighthouse, over the crossing. Of the original building, only the chancel and the transepts remain. The church survived a French raid in 1337 which had laid waste most of Portsmouth during the Hundred Years War. However, in 1449, Adam Moleyns, Bishop of Chichester, was murdered by local sailors. The town's inhabitants were excommunicated and the church was closed. In 1591, Elizabeth I worshipped in St Thomas's Church.
During the English Civil War, when the Parliamentary forces attacked the town in 1642, the Royalist garrison used the church tower to observe the movement of enemy forces. Parliamentary gunners positioned in Gosport fired on the tower and inflicted damage to the church. This resulted in the ruin of the medieval tower and nave. With the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 came the authorisation by Charles II for a collection in churches across the country to raise the £9,000 required to rebuild the tower and nave, which took place from 1683 to 1693. The nave was built in the classical style. Galleries were added in 1708 to cater for growing congregations, and were extended in 1750. The wooden cupola with a lantern for shipping was added to the top of the tower in 1703. A ring of eight bells was given at the same time. Two additional bells were cast in 1957 and currently the central tower contains a total of 12 bells. All of the bells were cast at Taylor's Bell Foundry and are hung in the wooden octagonal part of the tower. Various repairs and alterations were made during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In 1902, the church was closed for two years so that much-needed work on the foundations could be carried out. During this period, St Mary's Colewort, a chapel of ease, served as the temporary parish church.
Architekture: The formal entrance into the cathedral is through the bronze west doors, designed by Bryan Kneale. The design is based on the tree of life, an ancient symbol representing the renewal of life. The completed nave is a square space that is enclosed by an outer ambulatory. The ambulatory is low and vaulted. Because the furniture in the nave is not fixed, it can be used for various means, including concerts and exhibitions as well as services. On the rood screen, beneath the nave organ case is a sculpture called Christus by Peter Eugene Ball. The nave organ case was designed by Didier Grassin in 2001; the inside of the panels were designed by Patrick Caulfield. The left side depicts night, with a stylised lighthouse shining on the sea (which alludes to the City of Portsmouth's motto, "Heaven's Light Our Guide"). The right door depicts day, showing the sun and the hull of a fishing boat.
The tower is pierced to provide an organ loft raised on a low dark passage. The font (1991), made to a Greek design of the ninth century, is placed centrally between the nave and the quire. In the south tower transept is the bronze statue of St John the Baptist by David Wynne. It was cast in 1951 as a memorial to a Winchester College pupil killed on the Matterhorn. On the north wall of the south tower transept is the painting The Miraculous Draught of Fishes by William Lionel Wyllie. The north tower transept contains a ceramic plaque of the Virgin and Child by the Florentine sculptor Andrea della Robbia. The principal altar stands on a podium of Purbeck stone, with mosaic work by Richard Noviss. The lectern was the gift of Edward VII in 1903. The pulpit was installed in 1693 and is all that remains of a three-decker pulpit. The organ case, built by Francis Bird, with carved figures of cherubs and King David playing his harp, belongs to the Nicholson Organ and bears the date 1718.
In 1939, an extension of the Portsmouth Cathedral used granite from a quarry as far away as Pulau Ubin, Singapore, which was then a British colony."
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