Virtual Tour of Rochester Cathedral
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The Exterior - 12th century arches - more info
Ascending to the ‘Kent Steps’ area, the south porch leads out to the Cloister Garth. Here a tranquil garden and monastic ruins give you space to reflect and relax.
Gundulf established the monastic community but the ruins in the Garth are from the buildings erected by Bishop Ernulf (1114–24). He knew about monastic communities’ needs, having been Prior at Canterbury and Abbot at Peterborough. He built the Chapter House, now roofless with a palm tree in the middle, the dormitory and refectory. They suffered badly in the fire of 1137 when the monks were forced to live elsewhere for a time. At the Dissolution, Henry VIII commandeered the monastic buildings to create a royal palace, but it was soon abandoned. At one stage a nineteenth-century Canon’s house existed up against the Cathedral on the bank.
The picture above shows the Cloister Garth, once the peaceful heart of the monastic buildings, now a tranquil garden.The twelfth-century arches on the eastern side give a flavour of the buildings the monks’ inhabited.
Come and visit the Cathedral, and see it for real. Stroll around the rose bushes and the mulberry tree, sit and think for a while, or visit the tea rooms in the Old Deanery – approached through the Chapter Room ruins.
