Interior view

At the beginning of the 14th century, the monks of Ely decided to renew their church in the new Gothic style. They started it in 1321 with the Lady Chapel to the north of the choir. In 1322 the crossing tower collapsed and took the crossing piers and the adjacent bays with it. During the reconstruction, the new crossing was extended into an octagon. Light now streams in through large windows, illuminating the central area of the church where the monks' choirstalls stood. The vault above these windows are spectacular. The huge surface, with a diameter of 22 m, stretches over an ingenious wooden construction, to build which the royal carpenter William Hurley was specially brought from London. Tierceron ribs stretch up from the corners of the crossing and support an octagonal lantern tower that has wide windows and is angled at 45°. The wooden vault, behind which the buttressing is concealed, was painted to look like stone.

The photo shows the lantern viewed from the octagon with the nave ceiling in the background in Ely Cathedral.

View the ground plan of Ely Cathedral.