Cathedral Church of St Barnabas, Nottingham

St Barnabas has been on my list of places to visit in Nottingham for a while now, somewhere I kept meaning to visit every time I went to the Playhouse nearby, and I finally found time in November to take a look. Designed by Augustus Pugin, the architect of the interior of the Palace of Westminster, construction of the cathedral began in 1842 and it was consecrated in 1844 when a bishop from Rome brought the relics of St Barnabas with him. When it was opened it was the largest Catholic church built in England since the Reformation.

It’s designed in the lancet style, referring to the many pointed arches throughout, which gives the Cathedral an airy, open feeling, though there was a decided lack of windows which meant that the light for taking photographs wasn’t particularly good in places.

A lot of redecorating has gone on over the years, particularly a removal of much of Pugin’s decorative scheme which can now only be seen in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel which was restored in 1933. This was by far my favourite part of the Cathedral, decorated in rich colours that really aren’t done justice by photographs.

There were lots of other nice features to the Cathedral. They had for example some nicely designed stained glass windows, though the lighting was proving something of a problem to photograph them all. A few examples are below.