Virtual Tour of Rochester Cathedral
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The Quire - more info 13th century wall painting
From the transept, the Quire Crossing and turning back to the west is the Quire itself, the heart of the Cathedral where worship is offered daily.
There are a number of interesting and distinctive details in the quire, where the Anglican offices of Matins and Evensong are said, or sung, daily. There are two children’s choirs, boys and girls, supported by lay clerks, and a voluntary adult choir. Visiting choirs also sing.
The solid walls to north and south were a distinctive feature of Gundulf’s quire. They are still there underneath the Early English arches and plaster, added when the quire was rebuilt after the second big fire. The quire stalls contain remnants of those put in around 1227 when the Early English Quire was completed – these remnants are the oldest surviving stalls in Britain. The striking pattern on the walls of the 1350s was repainted in the nineteenth century but goes back to the 100 Years War.
The picture above shows the quire, with its blend of Gundulf’s original enclosed design, early thirteenth-century rebuilding, fourteenth-century wall decoration and furnishings and nineteenth-century restoration: this is the geographical, historical and spiritual centre of the Cathedral. Above the Crossing, with its wooden roof painted in 1840, is the bell chamber.
