Portsmouth Cathedral, officially known as the Cathedral Church of St Thomas of Canterbury, is an
Anglican cathedral church in
Portsmouth, England. It is the cathedral of the
Diocese of Portsmouth and the seat of the
bishop of Portsmouth. The
cruciform building was constructed in the
Romanesque style on land donated by
Norman lord
Jean de Gisors in the 1180s and dedicated to
Saint Thomas Becket, who was martyred around ten years earlier. It was made a cathedral upon the establishment of the Diocese of Portsmouth, which was split from the
Diocese of Winchester in 1927, after which it was extended in a "
Neo-Byzantine" style by
Charles Nicholson.
This picture shows the cathedral's chancel, which, along with the transepts, are the only remaining sections of the original medieval building. The baptismal font, made to a ninth-century Greek design, is placed in the centre.Photograph credit: David Iliff