Canterbury Cathedral left looking like ‘Peckham car park’ after graffiti exhibition
Worshippers have been left outraged after Britain’s oldest cathedral has been covered in graffiti-style art.
The Church of England has allowed artists to cover Canterbury Cathedral’s ancient stone walls with urban artwork.
US Vice-President JD Vance, right-wing activists and scores of worshippers have accused the Church of defiling the sacred space.
Cathedral Dean David Monteith accepted the installation would ‘divide opinion’ but insisted it ‘builds bridges between cultures, styles and genres’.
The Church commissioned poet Alex Vellis and curator Jacquiline Creswell to produce ‘Hear Us’ – a free exhibition set to run until January 18.
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Photos shared by the Cathedral show brightly coloured graffiti-style messages plastered on pillars and walls.
They pose questions to God, including ‘Are you there?’ and ‘God, what happens when we die?’.
The Cathedral said it had worked ‘marginalised’ communities ‘such as Punjabi, black and brown diaspora, neurodivergent, and LGBTQIA+ groups’ during the project.
One Cathedral visitor said it made the sacred site ‘look like an underground car park in Peckham’ while another said it was ‘sacrilegious’.
US Vice-President JD Vance, a practising Catholic, wrote on X that the exhibit had made a ‘beautiful historical building really ugly’.
Right-wing activists in the UK and abroad have also leapt on the controversy.
Drew Pavlou, a conservative activist from Australia, wrote on X: ‘They are literally scrawling graffiti on the walls of ancient cathedrals. Everything beautiful is just torn down and destroyed.’
However, some have backed the exhibition, and said the furious online reaction is ‘rage baiting’.
Others have highlighted that the exhibition is only temporary. One X user wrote: ‘It is interesting how my own reaction changed, once I understood that the “graffiti” was not permanent.’
Another said: ‘It is temporary. The building was not damaged in the making of this exhibition.’
David Monteith, Dean of Canterbury, said: ‘There is a rawness which is magnified by the graffiti style which is disruptive.’
He added: ‘There is also an authenticity in what is said because it is unfiltered and not tidied up or sanitised. Above all, this graffiti makes me wonder why I am not always able to be as candid, not least in my prayers.’
Founded in 597 AD by St Augustine in Kent, Canterbury Cathedral is one of the world’s oldest Christian structures and forms part of a World Heritage site.
The cathedral was rebuilt between 1070 and 1077, and again following a 1174 fire, including an expanded east end to serve pilgrims visiting the shrine of Thomas Becket – the archbishop who was murdered in the cathedral in 1170.
Earlier this month, Dame Sarah Mullally was named as the new Archbishop of Canterbury designate – the first woman to be chosen for the role.
The Church had been without someone in the top job for almost a year after Justin Welby resigned over a safeguarding scandal.
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