The Transepts are Norman, and characteristic Norman mouldings are universal. A Perpendicular screen in each separates the transept from a sort of eastern aisle, divided by pillars into chapels. In the North Transept the two chapels of St. John and St. James have been thrown into one—now the Morning Chapel. Some old Saxon coffin lids are preserved here.
The chapels of St. Oswald, St. Benedict, and St. Kyneburga and St. Kyneswitha still remain in the South Transept. West of the South Transept we come to the old Chapter-House (very small), now a music room. It is late Norman, but it has a Perpendicular doorway.
At the north-east corner of the close we come to the Deanery Gateway, leading to the Deanery. It is a fine specimen of Late Perpendicular, and was erected by Abbot Kirton (Kirkton), whose rebus (a church on a tun) appears over the side-door. It has a Tudor arch, with the arms of the See in spandrels, and is also ornamented with the Tudor rose and portcullis and the Prince of Wales’s feathers. We gain here a very good view of the north side of the Cathedral.
The north side is very fine. The arcading on the side of the tower is identical with that on the west front. Next we must notice the big windows of the western transept, early and fine specimens of cusped and traceried windows. The jambs are very peculiar because one side is Norman with square capitals, and the other side Early English. The arch of the window reaches as high as those of the triforium. Above is a round-headed window, and the gable, surmounted by a cross and bordered with the wavy ornament, contains a rose-window. Pinnacles, resembling those on the west front, adorn the sides of this west transept. The nave rises in five stages: a tier of small lights separates the triforium from the aisle.
The Dean’s Door on this side of the nave is Norman. The three shafts on either side, with their cushion capitals, carry round arches with characteristic and different mouldings. There are ten windows, very broad, of five lights each, under depressed arches. They were inserted in the Thirteenth Century. The parapet at the top is Early English.
The north transept has seven stages of windows (Perpendicular), and blind arcades and a battlemented gable, flanked by octagonal turrets.
Here we gain a view of the lantern tower, rebuilt in 1884. Then we come to the choir, and lastly to the New Building. The Decorated windows of the apse are particularly fine.
“The east end of Peterborough is rather peculiar. There remains the old Norman apse with Decorated windows inserted, and this is surrounded by what is called the New Building, though it is 400 years old, formed by extending the walls of the choir and building a square end to the Cathedral. This was erected by Abbot Kirton. His work possesses the best features of Perpendicular style. It is richly ornamented and when we examine his work we cannot say that the glories of Gothic achievement had quite departed. We see the twelve buttresses, each terminated with a seated figure, usually said to be one of the Apostles.”—(P. H. D.)
Turning round the east end we come to the ruins of the Infirmary, erected about 1260. Some fine arcading is still to be seen. Afterwards we come to the Slype, once vaulted, but now open to the sky, which formerly connected the Refectory with the Chapter-House, on the east side of the Cloister. Only the south and west walls of the Cloister Court remain. This is always called Laurel Court, though the origin is unknown.
The south side of the Cathedral is more beautiful than the north, from which it differs by having two doorways into the nave from the cloisters, and a very fine south-west spire, early Fourteenth Century work. A beautiful view of this spire and the bell-tower is obtained from Laurel Court.