The Cathedral Church of Canterbury [2nd ed.]: A Description of Its Fabric and a Brief History of the Archiepiscopal See — John Shaqi
The Cathedral Church of Canterbury [2nd ed.]: A Description of Its Fabric and a Brief History of the Archiepiscopal SeeWithers, Hartley
History
The Cathedral Church of Canterbury [2nd ed.]: A Description of Its Fabric and a Brief History of the Archiepiscopal See
Withers, Hartley
Canterbury Cathedral
Turning back towards the infirmary entrance we come to #the Lavatory
Tower#, which stands out from the west end of the substructure of the
Prior's Chapel. The chapel itself was pulled down at the close of the
seventeenth century, and a brick-built library was erected on its site.
The lavatory tower is now more commonly called the baptistery, but this
name gives a false impression, and only came into use because the building
now contains a font, given to the cathedral by Bishop Warner. The lower
part of the tower is late Norman in style, and was built in the latter half
of the twelfth century, when the monastery was supplied with a system of
works by which water was drawn from some distant springs, which still
supply the cathedral and precincts. The water was distributed from this
tower to the various buildings. The original designs of the engineer are
preserved at Trinity College, Cambridge. The upper part of the tower was
rebuilt by Prior Chillenden.
From the lavatory tower a covered passage leads into the great cloister,
which can also be approached from a door in the north-west transept. The
cloister, though it stands upon the space covered by that built by
Lanfranc, is largely the work of the indefatigable Prior Chillenden. It
shows traces of many architectural periods. The east walk contains a door,
leading into the transept, embellished with a triple arcade of early
English; under the central arch of the arcade is the doorway itself, a
later addition in Perpendicular. There is also a Norman doorway which once
communicated with the monks' dormitory: after the Reformation it was
walled up, but in 1813 the plaster which concealed it was taken away, and
since then it has been carefully restored. The rest of the work in this
part of the cloister is chiefly Perpendicular. The north walk is adorned
with an Early English arcade, against which the shafts which support
Chillenden's vaulting work are placed with rather unsatisfactory effect.
Towards the western end of this walk is the door of the refectory.
[Illustration: TURRET OF SOUTH-WEST TRANSEPT.]
The cellarer's quarters were outside the west walk, and they were
connected with the cloister by a doorway at the north-west corner:
opposite this entrance was a door leading to the archbishop's palace, and
through this Becket made his way towards the cathedral when his murderers
were in pursuit of him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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