St Chad's Cathedral

St Chad’s Cathedral stands in central Birmingham, a red-brick Gothic Revival church set in a small public garden near the city’s main thoroughfare. Designed by Augustus Welby Pugin, it was finished in 1841 and became a cathedral in 1852. The building is one of only four minor basilicas in England and holds Grade II* listed status. It serves as the seat of the Archbishop of Birmingham, currently Bernard Longley, with Canon Brian McGinley as dean. The cathedral occupies the site of an earlier St Austin’s church built in 1808 on steeply sloping ground beside a canal wharf. The cathedral is worth visiting for its pioneering role after the English Reformation. Pugin, who converted to Catholicism in 1835, planned the church from the start as a future cathedral. John Talbot, 16th Earl of Shrewsbury, gave generous support, and the relics of St Chad were brought here after surviving the Reformation. During the Second World War an incendiary bomb struck the south aisle but the water from burst heating pipes put out the flames. In 1941 Pope Pius XII declared it a minor basilica, recognising its historical importance. Inside, the nave rises almost twice as high as it is wide, with a tall arcade of slender shafts. The chancel decoration includes a helical pattern in gold leaf and the words Sanctus Sanctus Sanctus Dominus Deus Sabaoth. The blue wooden ceiling carries monograms and floral motifs inspired by Ely and Peterborough Cathedrals. Pugin designed the high altar under an elaborate baldachin, the bishop’s oak chair upholstered in green velvet, and the choir screen. The crypt below serves as a rehearsal room for the choir and contains family tombs and former clergy memorials.