Cathedral Church of St Nicholas

The Cathedral Church of St. Nicholas, Newcastle upon Tyne, is not like other northern cathedrals such as Durham and Carlisle. It has never had either a monastic cloister or a cathedral close separating the church from the town around it. For over 900 years St Nicholas has been the parish church of Newcastle, but when in 1882 the new Diocese was founded it also became England’s most northerly cathedral.

Very soon after the building of a castle by Robert, William the Conqueror’s eldest son, in 1080, the first parish church on the site of St. Nicholas’s was erected. The first wooden building was rebuilt in stone towards the end of the twelfth century, twice damaged by fire in the first half of the thirteenth century, but repaired and extended in the following years.

Towards the end of the fourteenth century the walls were heightened and a clerestory inserted to allow more light into the church. By the end of the fifteenth century with the addition of the splendid stone crown and tower, the church was in very much the same form as we know it today.

Dedicated to St Nicholas, patron saint of children, we have a special concern for the place of childhood in our society and this plays a particularly important part in our developing educational programme. Every year we play host to a huge range of services, events and activities as well as simply “being here” as a place of stillness, reflection and spiritual refreshment at the heart of the city.