The New Murrey and Blue blog

I must admit to having ‘all wrong’ about Bristol. For a long while I thought its cathedral was likely just an overgrown parish church and did not visit, preferring to explore the famous church of St Mary Redcliffe instead. How wrong I was. The cathedral was, in fact, a large Augustinian abbey, founded by Robert FitzHarding, who became Lord Berkeley. The abbey has been used as a filming location for several shows, including THE WHITE PRINCESS, which was about Elizabeth of York. Its interior is unique and stunning, and well worth a visit for anyone looking to see what an un-ruined medieval abbey might have looked like inside.

However, the cathedral has also now opened an adjacent chapel that was last accessed by the general public in 1541. This is the Lord Mayor’s Chapel, once part of medieval St Mark’s Hospital, which was built in 1230. It was sold off by Henry VIII in 1541 and became the Lord Mayor’s private chapel in the 1700’s, one of only two extant in the country and was generally off-limits, except for a few services.

It has a lovely ceiling and fan-vaulting, as well as interesting later features like stained glass from a now-vanished Victorian folly, Fonthill Abbey which had a 300 foot tower which, unsurprisingly, collapsed.

I feel another visit to Bristol may be in order soon!

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/bristols-secret-chapel-open-public-8559076

Photo:The Lord Mayor’s Chapel, Bristol, courtesy Wikimedia.