A former Augustinian abbey on College Green, with a Norman chapter house and a rare medieval hall-church choir
Robert Fitzharding, a wealthy local landowner, founded St Augustine’s Abbey here in 1140 for Augustinian canons, and after Henry VIII closed it the church became the cathedral of the new diocese of Bristol in 1542. The oldest part to see is the chapter house, the canons’ meeting room, from the late 1100s, its walls covered in zigzag and interlaced Norman carving. The east end was rebuilt in the 1300s as a hall church, with the aisles rising as high as the central choir, which is rare in Britain and gives the inside an airy, open feel. The medieval nave was unfinished when the abbey closed and was pulled down; G. E. Street designed the present one in the 19th century, and J. L. Pearson’s twin western towers were finished in 1888. The cathedral faces College Green in the centre of Bristol, about 1.4 km from Temple Meads station, and the Clifton Suspension Bridge is about 2 km west.
