Norwich Cathedral

Norwich, United Kingdom

No longer standing

Demolished or destroyed.

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Norwich Cathedral in Norfolk, England is the seat of the Bishop of Norwich and the mother church of the diocese of Norwich. Construction began in 1096 under Herbert de Losinga, the first Bishop of Norwich, with the crossing tower completed last; the cathedral's Norman structure of flint and mortar faced with cream-coloured Caen limestone once made it the largest building in East Anglia, measuring 461 feet long and 177 feet wide. The present spire, completed in 1480 as a stone replacement for an earlier wooden structure, stands at 315 feet and ranks as the second tallest in England. The cloisters, begun in 1297, are the fourth largest in England. Damaged by rioters in 1272 and repaired by 1278, the cathedral underwent south transept remodelling by architect Anthony Salvin around 1830, and a new hospitality facility by Hopkins Architects opened in 2010. The cathedral's medieval roof bosses represent some of the world's greatest surviving medieval sculpture, having endured the iconoclasm of the Tudor and English Civil War periods. The cathedral once housed England's earliest astronomical clock.