Salisbury, where modern art meets ancient architecture

Last Updated on December 1, 2021

Take your time and enjoy this historic city with its contemporary vibe.

Lying 74 miles southwest of London, a two-hour drive or train ride, Salisbury is a modern thriving community inhabiting an attractive, mediaeval town first planned out back in 1227.  The original cathedral was located two miles to the north, in the now ancient ruin of Old Sarum.  Disagreements with the military-led Bishop Richard Poore to look down to the plain below, decide to relocate his cathedral there and build New Sarum for its artisans. Few could dispute that the bishop had chosen a beautiful spot and today this town continues to be not only an attractive place to live and visit but also a hive of creativity and artistic activity.

Shopping in Salisbury

Salisbury was created on a chequerboard, grid plan with its streets often named after the trades being plied there.  Today these streets continue to feature a very high proportion of independent businesses.   A walk through the town will be a slow but delightful one, as you stop to browse, rummage and inevitably purchase from an inspiring variety of retailers.

If you’re here on a Tuesday or Saturday, bring a big shopping bag as the centuries-old Charter Market brings a colourful collection of stalls full of tempting offers.  Many of the attractive buildings around the bustling market square now house excellent cafes offering great snacks and treats. At Henderson’s Artisan Bakery and Café enjoy one of their delicious buns and pastries (anyone for pain au rhubarb?) and sit back to watch life go by on the market square.

A stroll down Fisherton Street will bring you to Fisherton Mill, now a large arts emporium and I defy you to walk out of this Aladdin’s cave empty-handed.  With a wide range of gifts on show and the resident artists’ studios, with original works available, on the first floor, it’s a perfect place to find the perfect gift (if only for yourself).

Art, modern and established, is a key element of life in Salisbury as illustrated by the brand new Vanner Gallery which sits in the shade of the historic High Street Gate at the entrance to the Cathedral Close.  Opened in summer 2021, this contemporary gallery aims to showcase high-quality art created across all disciplines. Guest curators present a rolling programme of exhibitions featuring works for sale from local, regional, national and international artists and craftsmen using a range of materials and media. Come in, browse and chat.  Here, fine art is on offer to all.

Salisbury Cathedral

A visit to Salisbury must include time in the Cathedral.  With the highest spire in England (and the fourth highest in Europe), the Cathedral remains a powerful presence in the city.  Step through the iconic High Street Gate into the Cathedral Close and you enter a timeless world of calm.  The view is so familiar, the painter Constable and countless others, jigsaw makers amongst them, made it so. But Salisbury Cathedral in real life, with its elegant beauty, is one of those sights that make you stop and stare.   Built, unusually, in one style over an astonishing 38 years, at the time (and to this day) its creation was a tour de force.

Like all of England’s great churches, Salisbury holds many treasures.  Its cloisters are the largest in the country (some say the most beautiful), it has the oldest working clock in Europe, its chapter house, with its incredible mediaeval stone creation frieze, was at one time Cromwell’s stables.  Happily, this glorious building now houses one of the four extant copies of Magna Carta, (and the clearest to read), along with a helpful explanatory exhibition.

The Cathedral inspires 600 volunteers to give their time to support it, and so to truly understand its story, and to appreciate the creativity and ingenuity that it embodies, a guided tour comes highly recommended.  A fascinating range of demonstrations and tours are offered and the one hour “floor” tour will make sure you see all the Cathedral highlights.  But if height is what you’re after, then the Tower Tour is the one for you.

Cathedral Tower Tour

The Tower Tour is ninety minutes which will stay with you for years.  Yes, it’s a long way up! Up winding stone staircases which get narrower as you ascend and which eventually become steep wooden staircases.  Across narrow gangways and link walkways with vertiginous views down, down into the Cathedral nave.  Through oak frame roofing bearing evidence of fire damage and repair and past the bells which ring…loudly.  And finally, you’re outside breathing fresh air with the Cathedral’s resident peregrines (now nesting on the roof), and looking down onto the city far below, whilst above you the inspiring spire reaches up and up.

But the enduring emotion from the Tower Tour is how closely you feel the presence of the labourers and craftspeople who for eight hundred years have worked to keep this building whole.  Axe marks on beams are evidence of how the timber roof, all 3,000 tons of oak, was hewn from the trees; scrappy ballast used as filler show the hidden side of that perfect exterior; you’ll see carpenters’ instructions drawn on wood and left for apprentices to follow and initials etched into the wall bearing witness to a long dead mason’s work.

The enormous wooden wheel which was powered by walking men (in effect a giant hamster wheel) was used to bring masonry, timber and tools from the ground up through the building still stands at the ready, moveable at the touch of a finger.  At every stage there is evidence of repair and remedial work.  We’re following in Sir Christopher Wren’s footsteps, for he was here in 1668 climbing around these same rafters, checking their condition for his report on the Cathedral Fabric.

The Cathedral’s foundations are only four feet deep due to the high-water table and there was understandable concern that the spire was at risk.  Sir Christopher’s recommendation, that it be strengthened using internal iron bands, was carried out around 1670; we see these and the ingenious mediaeval supporting ironwork (which he praised), as we ascend. Today a team of expert roofers, glaziers, carpenters and stonemasons work continuously to replace and repair as so many have done before them.

Art in the Cathedral

The Christian Church has always used art to interpret and communicate its message. Salisbury Cathedral has taken this practice to a new level with its annual programme of modern art exhibited throughout the cathedral and its precincts.   These are magnificent events with work from visionary artists and fortunately, some works remain in situ afterwards.

One of Antony Gormley’s stainless steel humanoids, GRIP (Net) stands high up in an archway, a reminder to those below that we are never alone or unobserved; in the precincts a strong woman, Elisabeth Frink’s Walking Madonna strides purposefully into the future and the vast, aging iron construction by Conrad Shawcross, Formation 1 (The Dappled Light of the Sun), on its delicate tripod legs seems to float amongst the trees and period houses in the close.

In recent years Sarum Lights installations have been used to wonderful effect.  This year’s, shown during the final week of the UN Climate Summit (COP26) and created by artist Peter Walker and composer David Harper of Luxmuralis, was a stunning celebration of the wonders of Heaven and Earth. Fabulous colours and wonderful images moved through its spaces and across the Cathedral’s interior and exterior stonework, enlivening it, whilst the accompanying soundtrack further created the illusion of a breathing, living entity. It was a remarkable experience, a true coming together of ancient and modern skill and creativity.

Eat, drink, dance and sleep

After a day of artistic contemplation and worshipping at the altar of consumerism, you’ll be delighted to know that Salisbury is open for business in the evenings too, with restaurants, pubs, bars and a great programme of events at the local theatre and arts centre.  If it’s Friday night then it’s music night at the Salisbury Art Centre.  Come and meet the locals!

If you’re hungry head to the historic Haunch of Venison right by the Poultry Cross.  This black and white timber time capsule offers open fires, a genuine old-world charm and a hearty menu.  Try the house special, slow cooked New Forest venison & red wine casserole and I promise, you won’t need the bread and butter which accompanies it!  This is a game-eaters paradise.

You’ll find a wide range of accommodation available in the city centre including the family-owned Milford Hall Hotel & Spa which offers a great base from which to explore. This is a hotel which combines the old with the new to good effect.  The original Georgian manor house boasts rooms featuring four-poster beds, ornate fireplaces and freestanding baths whilst the modern extension offers comfortable, more functional rooms.

Public areas in the “old” house are tastefully furnished to a period style and the dining areas in the “new” wing are contemporary light and fresh.  Afternoon teas and a very tempting dining menu is on offer and breakfast is well-cooked and satisfying.  The team are welcoming and cheerful and with car parking AND a spa facility on site, Milford Hall has a lot to offer.

Out and about in Salisbury and Stonehenge

In fact, Salisbury has a lot to offer.  There are walking tours and cycle tours and excellent cafes aplenty. In the Cathedral Close alone you’ll find the National Trust’s Mompesson House, a fine 18^th century home; the Rifles Berkshire and Windsor military museum and the lovely Salisbury Museum which houses many treasures and inducts you into 500,000 years of Wiltshire history. And don’t leave the city without seeing the fabulous gem that is the mediaeval Doom Painting in St Thomas’s Church, still as breathtakingly disturbing as the day it was completed!

Salisbury is also a great location from which to explore the fantastic Wiltshire countryside.  Nearby is the historic site of Old Sarum and a short drive away is the fabulous Stourhead estate.  Its most famous neighbour is Stonehenge an ancient site which now benefits from a striking modern visitor centre.

If your experience of Stonehenge to date has been driving along the A303 or maybe shivering in the old car park, and maybe wondering what all the fuss was about, you are in for a revelation!  It appears that the old car park was bang in the middle of a fabulous sweep of big-sky landscape that has now been reconnected with the Stones, and with the plethora of barrow tombs dotted as far you can see.

The site finally makes sense and the best way to enjoy it is to follow the guided tour from the visitors’ centre (download the app) and stride out into the fields (if time or mobility is an issue, buses are on hand to ferry visitors to and from the Stone Circle).  It’s a lovely walk because this chalk landscape is glorious and there is a real sense of wonder and curiosity for the people who walked before us millennia ago.  When you finally approach the Stones, from the ceremonial Avenue, there is a sense of completeness and satisfaction.

Back at the visitor centre, we learn more about the people who inhabited this area.  The Neolithic village, with its thatched houses, is a great example of experimental archaeology, as is the copy of a roped and ready to travel standing stone on which you can test your muscle power.  The interpretation centre uses audio and visual tech to great effect and the more traditional glass cases host powerful exhibits (look on the face of a man from 5,500 years ago, forensically reconstructed based on his bones found near Stonehenge).  There’s a programme of temporary exhibitions to browse and items on loan from other expert international institutions. 

Like Salisbury, this is a place of astonishing achievements and fascinating stories.  They are both places to explore, to wonder at and to return to. In these ancient places, there’s always something new to experience.

Jenny was a guest of Salisbury City Council

For for information on visiting Salisbury check out ExperienceSalisbury.com

You can find details of Salisbury Cathedral Tours here salisburycathedral.org.uk

For the best information regarding visiting Stonehenge see the English Heritage website 

We also recommend The Lamb at Hindon, if you prefer staying in the country but want a base near to Salisbury