Assignment three: Spaces to places.

Assignment Three.

Spaces to Places.

Visit pretty much any city in Britain and its cathedral will be a prominent feature.   They are places of great beauty and significance occupying an important space in British culture and history. 

The spire of Salisbury Cathedral, sitting as it does on a flat plain, can be seen from miles around with an open approach across a wide lawn, Lincoln Cathedral is on a promontory in the centre of the city and has clear access on three sides, and Durham Cathedral standing on its rocky outcrop surrounded on three sides by water dominates its surroundings. 

Canterbury Cathedral is different.  It is built in the centre of the city but is hardly visible from any point.  It hides and teases, showing only glimpses of itself until the moment one walks through the main gate when all is suddenly and magnificently revealed.

It is this game of hide and seek that I wished to investigate by walking round the city and photographing the limited glimpses one is offered from street level.  Many images of the Cathedral are clearly taken from elevated positions or like the painting by Henry Earp at a time before many of today's buildings were erected.

The first image is from University Road up on the campus north of the city.  I went there on a Sunday morning arriving at first light.  A light morning mist shrouded the city and the Cathedral was very indistinct.   I took pictures for about two hours recording the changing light conditions and altering the framing.  The selected image was one taken towards the end of the session which allowed the dark of the building to stand out against the lightening sky.  This is a view that will not have changed since the Cathedral was finished in 1096.  It is the only picture showing the whole structure.

I drove down into town and parked by West Gate.  From here there is no sign of the Cathedral.  I had to walk down to Palace Street to obtain my first view.  The low sun gave a near silhouette which I softened in Photoshop to allow some additional detail. 

The next two were taken from north east arm of Broad Street and are are typical of the views one gets with the main tower with only hints of the rest of the roof area.

A walk into into the south east arm of Broad Street and the City Wall and its fortifications are all that stands between the viewer and the the Cathedral but still it hides from view.  The next two images illustrate this nicely.

I know from an exploratory visit the previous week that trying to see the Cathedral from Burgate or St. Georges Gate is a waste of time so I went up onto the Old Wall and obtained the next two very different images.  The first is what is visible over the bus station and is limited to just the tips of the main tower.  

The second is from the top of the John Dane Gardens Mound and shows all of the roof area but still nothing of the walls.  This as good a view as is available from within the city short of entering the precincts of the Cathedral.

Dropping down into Dane John Gardens gives the next glimpse if the main tower as it appears between two Georgian terraces.

A walk east along Castle Street and St Margaret’s Street takes one back towards the Cathedral and has it framed between the old buildings and shop fronts.  This was now late on in the morning and the crowds were building up.  The last three images were taken on this last part of the walk.

The penultimate image is the view of the Cathedral as one passes through the gate in the defensive wall.  It is the first hint one has of the true majesty of the building and a hint as to its size.

The last is the view one has on entering into the Cathedral Close and leaves one wondering how such a building could be so successfully hidden.

Maps of where photograph were taken from.  

I set out to record the limited views a visiter to Canterbury has of the Cathedral but include a feel of the power that this building has over the area.  It is both unseen and ever present.