View allAll Photos Tagged introspective
i created this and the next photo, one year ago, approximately, if not exactly. the moody and introspective quality of these photos reminds me of the work i used to create and post here on flickr. i haven't posted here in ages. i am currently, sporadically, posting on instagram. handle is @eltaff, btdubs. it's interesting how the content has shifted (and remained similar) between two phases of sharing art. interestingly enough, the last few photos on this flickr account were approximately the same time as the first few photos on the other account. and then, there are many holes i see in a the streams of sharing. just observing the ebbs and flows.
St Botolph Aldersgate, London
The eastern half of the City had four churches dedicated to St Botolph, each at one of the City gates, a reminder that St Botolph is traditionally the patron Saint of travellers and wayfarers. Three of the churches survive, and this is one of them.
St Botolph without Aldersgate sits on the corner of Aldersgate Street and Little Britain, across the road from the Museum of London, with Postman's Park wrapped around the other two sides of it. The medieval church was undamaged by the Great Fire, but when Aldersgate Street was widened in the late 18th Century the church was knocked down and rebuilt by Nathaniel Wright. The new church is modest, but in a good way, an introspective moment before the modernist noise of London Wall and the Barbican kick in.
For many years this church was hardly ever open. It is home to a particularly evangelical congregation, and the church's only services, the so-called Aldersgate Talks on Tuesday lunchtimes, are focused on the exegesis of Bible passages for the benefit of those who like that kind of thing best. I was quite excited to find the church open on a Saturday morning a couple of years ago. Unfortunately, there was a meeting on inside - lots of very earnest looking men in black suits who glared at me when I poked my head around the door. They didn't look very welcoming, so I fled.
However, all that has changed. St Botolph now partly serves as the visitor centre for Christian Heritage London, who have put up a sequence of display boards which detail a fairly fundamentalist protestant history of Christianity from the First Century (very good) to the Twentieth Century (very bad). So for the modest sum of one pound you may enter the church and read them. The exhibition is open every day except Tuesday and Sunday.
And the church? Well, after all that fuss about getting in I must admit that I was a little disappointed, I'm afraid. The ceiling is gorgeous, great sugary fondants of plaster swelling and dripping in geometric patterns. And the east end is lovely, the apse beautifully decorated, although of course the altar has been removed and the space turned into a meeting area. It was rebuilt further west in 1829 to facilitate more road-widening, but appears to have retained Wright's design, albeit updated later by the Victorians. Otherwise it appears an almost entirely 18th Century interior.
However, successive generations have not served it well. The 19th Century glass in the north windows by Ward & Hughes is not good, its preachy gallery style quite out of harmony with the decoration, and the post-war Farrar Bell scenes of events in evangelical history on the south side are pedestrian at best. The glass up in the clerestories looks better, though perhaps only because it is further away. And the modern congregation has gutted the furnishings, replacing them with modern chairs that are turned away from the east towards a side wall in the protestant manner. Perhaps the best thing of all is the sequence of good, interesting memorials which date back over four hundred years, although you may need to discretely move some of the display boards to get to them.
What a surprise, it's old. Also, random fact: totally engrossed in a novel by John Fowles called "The Magus."
*I'm enjoying the song, "If I Die Young."
I was staying in the french countryside with one of my best friends last week (her parents are amazing and are francophiles who moved there when she was four), and we spent the time biking across sunflower fields, reading novels, and writing. i became very introspective, and wrote a lot in my journal. bizarrely, i was looking at a website of literary quotes and one of sylvia plath's quotes was almost identical to something i had written in my diary only a few days before. It was literally off by a couple of words, which was absolutely unsettling, seeing as she was a manic depressant lol! Anyway, here was the quote:
"I can never read all the books I want; I can never be all the people I want and live all the lives I want. I can never train myself in all the skills I want. And why do I want? I want to live and feel all the shades, tones and variations of mental and physical experience possible in life. And I am horribly limited. "
--Sylvia Plath
It seems phony and hackneyed, but honestly there is not enough time in one lifetime for me to do everything I want to do. There is too much beauty, too many places to see--and I want to see everything. I want to see every slum, every palace, every stone and nook and cranny. I want to create art for many lifetimes over. It's not dying that scares me, it's the inability to create, to continue telling stories through images and words.
Another thing I was thinking about--how amazing a truly genuine human connection can be. Let's disregard all those fake friends and "friendly" acquaintances and those girls you hang out with because they're fun, but not necessarily profound. Let's forget about ALL of that. When I meet people like Josy (my best friend from France, mentioned above), I am reminded by how miraculous a friendship can be, when you don't need to explain yourself, when you can sit side by side in silence. Don't underestimate friendship--i've learned that if you make that effort to reach out, and to learn more about someone--even someone you may never meet again, there is always the opportunity to open a new door! For example, I met Josy while studying philosophy in Oxford last year. Unlike most summer friends, we made the effort to stay in contact, and as a result I ended up on the other side of the world, experiencing one of the most beautiful places in the world in rural southern France. The world is a small place, and there are almost always connections between seemingly unrelated people that can really propel you into interesting experiences.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
by Stephen Chbosky
Charlie is a freshman. And while he's not the biggest geek in the school, he is by no means popular. Shy, introspective, intelligent beyond his years yet socially awkward, he is a wallflower, caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it.
Charlie is attempting to navigate his way through uncharted territory: the world of first dates and mix-tapes, family dramas and new friends; the world of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, when all one requires is that perfect song on that perfect drive to feel infinite.
But Charlie can't stay on the sideline forever. Standing on the fringes of life offers a unique perspective. But there comes a time to see what it looks like from the dance floor.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a deeply affecting coming-of-age story that will spirit you back to those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up.
Read from October 03 to 04, 2012
:Jesús
" Everytime I see your face
my heart smiles...
Everytime it feels so good, and it hurts sometimes...
created in this world to love, to hold, to feel, to breath, to live you
dangerously in love.. ."
barcelona. the hotel was silent. i had left the window open. the sound of nothing. the curtains didn’t move. the bed smelled like soap and something else. something older. the weight of bodies not mine.
i didn’t sleep.
the sheets remembered.
"I am unique, an individual. I am powerful and possess a strong curiosity of the world. At times i may be quite and introspective while other times i outwardly share every feeling and emotion. I make the world a better place"
This must have been the first time I'd been on Peterborough Station since August 1975, although I see from the photographs I took on that occasion that the unpleasant footbridge in the distance was already present. What would my young bachelor version have thought if he had seen prefigured on this platform his hatted, sexagenarian self, meeting his wife off the train from Newcastle? The years, of course, are never kind to one's appearance. Heavier, no hair and fewer teeth, but leaving aside the physical aspect of the matter, there's not much difference. They say the essential personality is established by the age of five and my experience has tended to demonstrate the truth of this. I'm still the same introspective, faint-hearted nerd who had such a difficult time at school.
This young fellow is probably not far off my age when I was last here. He will reach my present age sometime around 2060. What will his life have been like? The times are not auspicious for his future happiness or, in the light of current economic tendencies, his prosperity. Ah well, one must live in hope ...the alternative being complete despair. As I like to remark in quavering tones across the foaming head of a pint of Old Peculier ...sometimes causing a stampede for the door of the saloon bar... those who live longest will see most.
Allison is my cousin Heidi's gorgeous daughter. She is always such a pleasure to photograph - bold & feisty - always posing for me the moment she sees me. This is one of my faves from my shoot with her in Ocean City, NJ on October 16, 2011. View On Black
I now have a facebook page. If you like my work, I would truly appreciate your support. Thank you! www.facebook.com/monsharicreations
Has it been 10 years? Yes and thirteen days. For throwback Thursday, it is certainly appropriate to showcase some Cal-P action.
Reflecting on one's past puts the passage of time into a more easily understandable sense. So rewind the calendar a decade and I was out 'wedgeeing' on the Cal-P. Introspective indeed.
Westbound Capital Corridor, may I introduce to you the all-EMD and distinguished SJRV-07. Now that's a meet. Mind you both are at full track speed.
Personnellement, je serais beaucoup moins élogieux que l'extrait du customer review sur Amazon, ci-dessous.
Le syndrome du 2e album avait encore frappé et "I'm the man" apparaissait comme un sous-produit (très) décevant du précédent "Look sharp".
Je me demandais pourquoi cela faisait si longtemps que je n'avais pas écouté cet album jusqu'à je mette sur la platine le remaster commandé récemment.
J'attends avec impatience le remaster de "Look sharp" qui ne devrait plus tarder à arriver.
"I'm The Man is Joe Jackson's second album and the followup to his debut Look Sharp! which spawned the excellent hit single "Is She Really Going Out With Him?" At the time, Jackson was part of an increasing new wave songwriter movement that also included Elvis Costello. But while Costello's career has been revered for continuously challenging himself musically, Jackson's career has become almost completely forgotten despite following a similar path.
This is a shame because Joe Jackson has produced some outstanding music over the years. I'm The Man continues the power pop of his debut and showcase Jackson's knack for writing great songs with memorable melodies and thoughtful and often personal lyrics. The album starts out strong with Jackson blaring his harmonica on the rocking "On The Radio." The tracks "Don't Wanna Be Like That" and "Friday" continue in the same vein as does the excellent title track. "Kinda Kute" and "Get That Girl" are great catchy pop songs while "Amateur Hour" and "The Band Wore Blue Shirts" are more introspective tracks that also work very well. But while all these songs are great, the best tracks here are the relationship songs, the should have been hit single "It's Different For Girls" and the reggae of "Geraldine And John." The musicianship of the Joe Jackson Band is very solid, particularly bassist Graham Maby who truly shines on "Friday", "Geraldine And John", and "Amateur Hour." This is a great album that has aged very well. Highly recommended to not only fans of new wave but also fans who just like good pop music."
By John Alapick on January 1, 2005
Week 8|52
"For nothing that we are grew by itself in our heart and mind, and we merely seem to be a reflection, an answer, a collection of and to the world that is surrounding us, I wonder, now that I've crept out of this cave I'd found myself in; what is it with the negativity in people's words? What is it about the dismissive and evil thoughts that seemingly rush to be expressed and cannot be held back by any means? I cannot stand it any longer, even if I know that I used to be no better. These days it saddens me to see, or rather hear, how much pleasure everyone seems to find in valuing and judging other people's lives. Nothing comes out of it, thinking about it - maybe a nice and funny, whilst superficial, chat with someone silence feels distressing with, but besides this aspect which can be easily achieved otherwise, all of it is so painfully empty! Of course it is impossible to have a heart and understanding for everyone that we pass on our way, there will always be the one or two we cannot stand at all. Yet spreading this hate and dismissing won't make it any better, for worse, will put more negativity to others. And after all, we know so little about many we see so very often. It's not that we should begin to love each and everyone, but everyone should show a little more tolerance, acceptance and general interest in their own life. If people never do you wrong, why should you? Prove some self-respect and don't loose yourself in pathetic revenge. As for me, these last days I seem to be erasing all the negativity I feel about others from my life, or at least just try to. Just because someone has a head like a square doesn't mean that it gives me the right to laugh about it, and just because someone's nude photos sneaked onto the internet doesn't give me the right to care. After all, the thought of being hurt threatens me and pains too much to actively participate in hurting someone else."
(personal)
Picture and processing by me.
DO NOT USE WITHOUT MY AUTHORIZATION.
British postcard, no. 1034.
Keanu Reeves (1964) is a Canadian actor, producer, director and musician. Though Reeves often faced criticism for his deadpan delivery and perceived limited range as an actor, he nonetheless took on roles in a variety of genres, doing everything from introspective art-house fare to action-packed thrillers. His films include My Own Private Idaho (1991), the European drama Little Buddha (1993), Speed (1994), The Matrix (1999) and John Wick (2014).
Keanu Charles Reeves was born in 1964, in Beirut, Lebanon. His first name means ‘cool breeze over the mountains’ in Hawaiian. His father, Samuel Nowlin Reeves, Jr., was a geologist of Chinese-Hawaiian heritage, and his mother, Patricia Bond (née Taylor), was a British showgirl and later a costume designer for rock stars such as Alice Cooper. Reeves's mother was working in Beirut when she met his father. Upon his parents’ split in 1966, Keanu moved with his mother and younger sister Kim Reeves to Sydney, to New York and then to Toronto. As a child, he lived with various stepfathers, including stage and film director Paul Aaron. Keanu developed an ardor for hockey, though he would eventually turn to acting. At 15, he played Mercutio in a stage production of Romeo and Juliet at the Leah Posluns Theatre. Reeves dropped out of high school when he was 17. His film debut was the Canadian feature One Step Away (Robert Fortier, 1985). After a part in the teen movie Youngblood (Peter Markle, 1986), starring Rob Lowe, he obtained a green card through stepfather Paul Aaron and moved to Los Angeles. After a few minor roles, he gained attention for his performance in the dark drama River's Edge (Tim Hunter, 1986), which depicted how a murder affected a group of adolescents. Reeves landed a supporting role in the Oscar-nominated period drama Dangerous Liaisons (Stephen Frears, 1988), starring Glenn Close and John Malkovich. Reeves joined the casts of Ron Howard's comedy Parenthood (1989), and Lawrence Kasdan's I Love You to Death (1990). Unexpectedly successful was the wacky comedy Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (Stephen Herek, 1989) which followed two high school students (Reeves and Alex Winter) and their time-traveling high jinks. The success lead to a TV series and a sequel, Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (Pete Hewitt, 1991). From then on, audiences often confused Reeves's real-life persona with that of his doofy on-screen counterpart.
In the following years, Keanu Reeves tried to shake the Ted stigma. He developed an eclectic film roster that included high-budget action films like the surf thriller Point Break (Kathryn Bigelow, 1991) for which he won MTV's ‘Most Desirable Male’ award in 1992, but also lower-budget art-house films. My Own Private Idaho (1991), directed by Gus Van Sant and co-starring River Phoenix, chronicled the lives of two young hustlers living on the streets. In Francis Ford Coppola’s adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992), Reeves embodied the calm resolute lawyer Jonathan Harker who stumbles into the lair of Gary Oldman’s Count Dracula. In Europe, he played prince Siddharta who becomes the Buddha in Bernardo Bertolucci’s Italian-French-British drama Little Buddha (1993). His career reached a new high when he starred opposite Sandra Bullock in the hit action film Speed (Jan de Bont, 1994). It was followed by the romantic drama A Walk in the Clouds (Alfonso Arau, 1995) and the supernatural thriller Devil’s Advocate (Taylor Hackford, 1997), co-starring Al Pacino and Charlize Theron. At the close of the decade, Reeves starred in a Sci-fi film that would become a genre game changer, The Matrix (Andy and Lana Wachowski, 1999). Reeves played the prophetic figure Neo, slated to lead humanity to freedom from an all-consuming simulated world. Known for its innovative fight sequences, avant-garde special effects and gorgeous fashion, The Matrix was an international hit. Two sequels, The Matrix Reloaded (Andy and Lana Wachowski, 1999) and The Matrix Revolutions (Andy and Lana Wachowski, 1999) followed and The Matrix Reloaded was even a bigger financial blockbuster than its predecessor.
Now a major, bonafide box office star, Keanu Reeves continued to work in different genres and both in bid-budget as in small independent films. He played an abusive man in the supernatural thriller The Gift (Sam Raimi, 2000), starring Cate Blanchett, a smitten doctor in the romantic comedy Something’s Gotta Give (Nancy Meyers, 2003) opposite Diane Keaton, and a Brit demon hunter in American-German occult detective action film Constantine (Francis Lawrence, 2005). His appearance in the animated science fiction thriller A Scanner Darkly (Richard Linklater, 2006), based on the novel by Philip K. Dick, received favourable reviews, and The Lake House (Alejandro Agresti, 2006) , his romantic outing with Sandra Bullock, was a success at the box office. Reeves returned to Sci-fi as alien Klaatu in The Day the Earth Stood Still (Scott Derrickson, 2008), the remake of the 1951 classic. Then he played a supporting part in Rebecca Miller's The Private Life of Pippa Lee (2009), which starred Robin Wright and premiered at the 59th Berlin International Film Festival. Reeves co-founded a production company, Company Films. The company helped produce Henry's Crime (Malcolm Venville, 2010), in which Reeves also starred. The actor made his directorial debut with the Chinese-American Martial arts film Man of Tai Chi (2013), partly inspired by the life of Reeves' friend, stuntman Tiger Chen. Martial arts–based themes continued in Reeves's next feature, 47 Ronin (Carl Rinsch, 2013), about a real-life group of masterless samurai in 18th-century Japan who avenged the death of their lord. Variety magazine listed 47 Ronin as one of "Hollywood's biggest box office bombs of 2013". Reeves returned as a retired hitman in the neo-noir action thriller John Wick (Chad Stahelski, David Leitch, 2014). The film opened to positive reviews and performed well at the box office. A sequel, titled John Wick: Chapter Two, is currently in production and is scheduled to be released in 2017. This year, he could be seen in the psychological horror film The Neon Demon is (Nicolas Winding Refn, 2016) and the romantic horror-thriller Bad Batch (Ana Lily Amirpour, 2016). Reeves’ artistic aspirations are not limited to film. In the early 1990s, he co-founded the grunge band Dogstar, which released two albums. He later played bass for a band called Becky. Reeves is also a longtime motorcycle enthusiast. After asking designer Gard Hollinger to create a custom-built bike for him, the two went into business together with the formation of Arch Motorcycle Company LLC in 2011. Reported to be one of the more generous actors in Hollywood, Reeves helped care for his sister during her lengthy battle with leukemia, and has supported such organizations as Stand Up To Cancer and PETA. In January 2000, Reeves's girlfriend, Jennifer Syme, gave birth eight months into her pregnancy to Ava Archer Syme-Reeves, who was stillborn. The strain put on their relationship by their grief resulted in Reeves and Syme's breakup several weeks later. In 2001, Syme died after a car accident.
Sources: Biography.com, Wikipedia and IMDb.
Every image is a gentle negotiation between the seen and the unseen.
Black and white portraits and minimalist places dissolve into a calm, lucid silence—where light sculpts the hidden side of the soul and architecture reveals its poetic geometry.
Moments suspended between consciousness and dream, memory and presence, a journey in the language of introspective visual and photographic poetry.
In ogni immagine si consuma una silenziosa trattativa tra visibile e invisibile.
I ritratti in bianco e nero e i luoghi minimali si dissolvono in un silenzio lucido—dove la luce scolpisce il lato nascosto dell’anima e l’architettura rivela la sua geometria poetica.
Attimi sospesi tra conscio e sogno, memoria e presenza, un viaggio nel linguaggio dell’introspezione visiva e della poesia fotografica.
Wicked Sylvi Tank Top (army) 0L (lucky chair) Wicked Angie Studded Pant (army) 0L (lucky chair) Pure Poison Floria Sandals (pink) 0L (monthly midnight mania) Pose Ka-Tink Sadie5
As I sat drinking my, well earned, mid morning mug of tea I was aware of Igor standing with his gaze locked on our goat and her 2 new kids in a paddock on the far side of the garden.
I only noticed his reflection in the glass once I had the picture on the computer.
#82 Carnivore for 117 pictures in 2017
She is just plain gorgeous and there is no getting around that! This is again from my archives from my first shoot with her in the summer of 2012. You can see more of her many moods and expressions in my set "Alexis". Best in lightbox. Canon 5D Mark ii taken in Hopeland Gardens Aiken South Carolina.
There was a guy already about to take her picture, and when she was about to take off her glasses, he insisted she keep them on.
He might have had a point. Introspective Leeloo - we have created a new paradigm!
My series 'Don't Touch Your Face' came from a hunger to make portraits, but sequestered in my apartment during California's Safer At Home orders meant I would be the model. I made these photos to be a daily reminder to friends and family to be mindful of their actions, to show that we are all going through awkward changes in our routine, and hopefully bring a smile.
Same outfit, but from an older session. This Is not the usual sexy or crazy performance, but an introspective one.
Hope you still enjoy it and don't worry, normal service will be resumed soon xx
While in many ways the sifaka and lemurs in general differ from apes and monkeys, it is still abundantly clear that they are related to us primates. Their thoughtful expressions show a peaceful and introspective intelligence that is hard to miss.
St John the Baptist Catholic Cathedral of East Anglia, Earlham Road, Norwich
This great church sits just beyond the inner ring road, on the site of the former city gaol. Four lanes of traffic cut it off from Upper St Giles and the city centre, but as they drop sharply down Grapes Hill they accentuate the position, power and sheer bulk of this magnificent building as it rises above the west side of the city. The massive tower seems a fatherly companion to the thirty-odd surviving medieval towers in Norwich, and it may surprise you to learn that it was only completed in 1910. At that date, St John the Baptist was the largest post-Reformation church in England, for this building only became a Cathedral as recently as 1976. Many people consider it to be the finest Gothic Revival church in the country.
These days, the Catholic Church has the largest number of practising members of any of the Christian Churches in England. It's been that way for several years, and with the recent influx into the country of hundreds of thousands of East Europeans, it is unlikely to change in the near future. It is salutary to remember, then, that it is less than two hundred years since the practice of the Catholic Faith in this country was decriminalised.
The Catholic Church had been expelled from England at the time of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, and consequently thousands of Catholics suffered grim punishments for their adherence to the faith of their forefathers. Many of the government reformers of the 1540s had wanted to go further, and to establish a fully protestant Church in England without any traditional hierarchy; but the early death of Edward VI, the similarly short reign of Mary, and the Anglican Settlement of the Elizabethan years, ensured that protestantism in England would retain the administrative structures of the banished Catholic Church, and some of the outward aspects of its worship. Mind you, it would be a rocky ride for the Anglicans over the next century or so.
Catholicism became increasing irrelevant and marginalised during the long, penal years. In retrospect, this was a good thing. After the furious martyrdoms of the Elizabethan period, the English Catholic community settled into an introspective retreat from public view. During the 17th Century, it would on occasion be forced unwillingly into the glare of controversy by 'Popish plots', real or imagined, but by the 18th century it had become a rare and exotic flower, occasionally encountered, but significant more for its strangeness than for its influence. By the start of the 19th century, there were perhaps less than a thousand Catholics in all East Anglia.
During these times, England was treated as a missionary territory by the Catholic Church. In the early years, the Faith was largely maintained and ministered by Jesuits, but by the 18th century there were Vicars Apostolic appointed by the Vatican to carry out the work of Bishops in designated Districts. East Anglia was in the vast Midland District. The work of these proto-Bishops was quite illegal, and they would be arrested if they were caught. Catholics relied for the sacraments on the itinerant Priests maintained by certain large country houses. Catholics in London had access to the chapels of foreign embassies, which welcomed the indigenous Faithful to Mass. It was not permissible for Catholics in England to build their own churches, and there was no right of assembly. However, there were already mission chapels in most towns, which were tolerated as long as the local Catholic community kept a low profile. There was one in Norwich in a room in the St Swithin's district, off of St Benedict's Street, run by Jesuits. It was followed soon after by a purpose-built chapel in Maddermarket Street, dedicated to St John the Baptist.
In 1780, a Reform Act began the process of decriminalisation; in response, an anti-Catholic pogrom in London, the Gordon Riots, resulted in hundreds of deaths. There was widespread public revulsion against this event, resulting in an increased sympathy for the Catholic community. A few years later, the fear of the French Revolution caused further support for the Catholic minority in England, and this contributed to more reform in the 1820s and 1830s. At last, it was possible for Catholic churches to be built, and for Catholic communities to be formed.
During the 1820s, the first proper Catholic church in Norwich since the Reformation was built. The Holy Apostles Chapel, a grand classical building in Willow Lane, survives as the headquarters of a firm of solicitors. It was ministered by Jesuits. It would be true to say that the Catholic Church in England had become very visible, very quickly, in these early decades of the 19th century. This led to further difficulties, because for the first time in centuries the possible influence of the Church led to a reaction. Would newly-liberated Catholics be loyal to the Crown? Would a Catholic Church which was given its head threaten the legitimacy of the Church of England?
A group of Anglican dons at Oxford University issued a series of tracts in an attempt to assert the primacy of the Church of England as a National Church. The teachings of the Oxford Movement, as it was known, spread like wildfire through the Church of England, turning it upside down, and reinventing it in terms of its medieval past. Anglican parish church buildings became sacramental and liturgical spaces once more, no more the preaching houses they had become under the influence of protestantism.
Religion was a popular thing in the middle years of the 19th century. At the time of the 1851 Census of Religious Worship, perhaps one in three of all English people attended an Anglican church service on a Sunday. Many others were drawn to the non-conformist chapels, especially in East Anglia.
The Catholic Church barely registers on the radar of the 1851 census, especially in East Anglia. Yet, in a little over 150 years, it would become the largest Church in England in terms of attendance. How did this happen?
One of the major rites of passage for the newly-legal Catholic Church happened the same year as the census. This was the re-establishment of the Church hierarchy in England and Wales. For the first time, there would be a college of Bishops, led by the Archbishop of Westminster, each Bishop having his own diocese. These Catholic dioceses, of course, would overlay those of the Church of England. Because there were far fewer Catholics, the Catholic dioceses were much larger - Norwich was in the vast Diocese of Northampton. The sees of Catholic dioceses were chosen carefully by the hierarchy; no city which already had an Anglican cathedral would be given a Catholic one, so as not to stir up anti-Catholic feeling. The new Cathedrals were in places of significance to Church history: Southwark and Westminster, Leeds and Middlesbrough, Salford and Clifton.
The dioceses were carved up into Catholic parishes, again overlaying the Anglican ones, and again much bigger than their pre-Reformation counterparts. Whereas 16th century Norwich had perhaps 36 Catholic parishes, there was now just one.
By 1870, the Holy Apostles Parish had a community of 1,200 Catholics, and a further town centre church followed in Fisher Lane. Yet Norwich was a staunchly protestant town, looking askance on the ritualist movement within the Church of England, and barely tolerating the increasing Catholic presence within its midst.
It was the industrialisation of England which had led to the emergence in the 19th century of a large, urban, mainly poor, Catholic population. This sat ill-at-ease with the Country House-led Catholicism of previous generations, but it was often the philanthropy of the landed Catholics which enabled the Catholic Church in urban areas to thrive. In the 1870s, Our Lady and the English Martyrs, a vast Catholic church, was opened in Cambridge. It had been erected thanks to the fortunes of Mrs Lynne-Stephens of Lynford in Norfolk, and was one of the largest churches built in England in the 19th century. It was clear that if, as seemed likely, the Diocese of Northampton was one day split into two smaller dioceses, the Cambridge church would be ideal as the Cathedral of the new eastern diocese. Cambridge, after all, had no Anglican cathedral, while Norwich did. A similarly large church was begun in Ipswich, although it was never completed. All over England, the Catholic communites were becoming more confident, even triumphalist. Larger and larger churches were being erected. And yet, the mood seemed not to have affected Norwich, with its two little Catholic chapels.
However, this hedging of bets for the future was complicated by one unusual, but ultimately significant, fact. The leading Catholic family of England then, as now, were the Dukes of Norfolk. The Duke of the day had been very generous with his money towards the building of the Cathedral at Southwark, and was responsible for the building of two great churches at Arundel and Sheffield, two places where the family had great influence. Norwich was a third.
In 1877, Henry Fitzalan Howard, the 15th Duke of Norfolk, married Lady Flora Hastings, and he decided to commemorate the event in stone. In 1892 he would write a letter to the Mayor of Norwich, remembering the occasion. "When, shortly after my most happy marriage, I wished to build a church as a thank-offering to God, many places were suggested to me. Bearing in mind the title that I hold, I decided to build this church in Norwich, the chief city of Norfolk." A site had been purchased in Coslany, but before any clearance began, the 1827 city gaol came onto the market. This was also bought, and in 1881 the buildings on it were demolished. The Duke selected as architect for the new building George Gilbert Scott Junior, a convert to Catholicism. It would be dedicated to St John the Baptist, in memory of the chapel in Maddermarket Street. The style was to be Early English Gothic. The size would be immense. There seems to have been no competition. The foundation stone was laid on the 17th July 1884.
Construction proceeded smoothly until 1892, when it was discovered that there was no planning permission for the full length of the building. This was the occasion for the Duke's letter mentioned in the previous paragraph, throwing himself somewhat on the mercy of the Corporation. "After considerable hesitation", he wrote, "I venture to address you on the subject of the church I am building in Norwich. As you are aware, difficulties have arisen... and I fear that there is danger not only of the city and myself being driven to great expense in litigation, but of its appearing as if I was acting in a hostile spirit towards the Corporation of Norwich in my attempt to add one more to the beauties of their beautiful city. It is this last consideration which chiefly induces me to trouble you with this letter."
The Duke went on to observe that "I have now built half the church, and I do not think any member of the corporation will suggest that it is a building of which Norwich has any cause to be ashamed... Norwich has got half my church. If it does not want the other half, perhaps I had better build it in some place which will appreciate it more. To me, of course, the result will be a disappointment."
This combination of charm and bluff seemed to do the trick, and by 1894 the nave had been completed, and services were moved from the two smaller churches in the parish into St John the Baptist. Scott died in 1897, and the work was finished by his brother, John Oldrich Scott. And so, on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8th 1910, the great church was opened with a Blessing and High Pontifical Mass celebrated by the Bishop of Northampton, Dr Keating. Within the lifetime of people who had known the end of the penal years, the greatest Catholic church in England was complete.
The church is a magnificent, cruciform structure, 275 feet long. The chancel roof rises to a height of 80 feet, the top of the crossing a further 80 feet above that. Although the harmony and confidence of the Early English style here is perfection, the glory of the cathedral is perhaps not in its stonework at all, but in the extensive scheme of glass by Powell & Son. The style is entirely in keeping, entirely traditional. The overwhelming colour is blue, and on a bright day it can be like standing inside of a vast jewel.
You enter the building through the north porch. On a bright day, it can take a moment to accustom the eyes to the dim light within, although, because of the glass, this church could never be described as gloomy. The great arcades lead the eye down the long bays to the light of the crossing, and the sanctuary beyond. The walls climb high to the triforium and clerestory. As in all large churches, the nave would be greatly improved if it were cleared of the 19th century benches and these were replaced with modern chairs. But these are not too intrusive, not least because the aisles are clear and punctuated by devotional statues, a pleasing route to walk around the church. Incidentally, it is not unusual to find yourself alone in this vast space. Even today, Norwich has a much smaller Catholic population than either Cambridge or Ipswich, and you can wander here as if you owned the place in a way which would never be possible in Cambridge's Our Lady and the English Martyrs. This is true even since the completion of the brilliant narthex complex to the north, with its very fine café.
Beyond the crossing, smaller chapels let eastwards off of the transepts, including the Walsingham Chapel and the chapel of Christian Unity. The Second Spring of the Catholic Church in England has flourished into a vigorous Summer, and today the Catholic population of East Anglia continues to grow rapidly. In 1961, an Auxiliary Bishop was appointed to the Diocese of Northampton, with special responsibility for East Anglia. Fifteen years later, on the 13th of March 1976, the Diocese of Northampton was split in two, and the three eastern counties of Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk formed the new Diocese of East Anglia. There was never any question that the Cathedral would be here in Norwich. Since the sensitivities of the 19th century, the Church of England had created a number of Cathedrals in cities already served by Catholic Cathedrals, most significantly Birmingham and Liverpool, but in deference to the spirit of those times this Church is always known as the Cathedral of East Anglia, or St John's Cathedral, without any reference to the name of the city.
A friend observed to me recently that you could see everything there was to see in St John the Baptist in an hour, while it would take a week for the Anglican Cathedral to give up all its treasures. This is certainly true, and while I would observe that the Anglican Cathedral was itself a Catholic Cathedral once, I would also say that it is a good thing. For, as Bill Wilson observes in the revised edition of Pevsner, this "amazing church... is of course an end and not a beginning". He goes on to describe the style as "self-effacing historicism... with nothing of the new freedom and licence of Sedding or Caroe, i.e. the Arts & Crafts". And amen to that, for here we have the best example in England of a great Gothic Revival church, a perfection of the late Victorian imagination in stone. As with its Anglican counterpart, it is certainly a great national treasure.