Visitors will now be able to explore the stories and histories of our cathedrals through new digital guides that can be accessed on a smartphone.
Cathedrals join digital revolution creating new ways to engage with their audiences.
Birmingham, Carlisle, Coventry, Liverpool Cathedral and York Minster have all teamed up with Bloomberg Connects – a free multilingual guide that includes audio, video and text content and can be accessed on-site, by scanning QR codes, or remotely from anywhere in the world.
Bloomberg Connects hosts guides for other major cultural institutions including the Museum of Modern Art, the National Portrait Gallery and other major arts and heritage destinations around the world.
Liverpool Cathedral was the first to join Bloomberg Connects and has just added a brand new Tower Experience audio tour to their guide, allowing visitors to discover the stories behind the Cathedral’s tower, bells, architecture and views as they make their way to the top.
‘It’s another step in making our visitor experience more engaging, accessible and immersive.When we launched on Bloomberg Connects, we became the first cathedral in the UK and Europe to join the platform. Since then we’ve continued to develop the guide, using audience insights and visitor behaviour to shape new content that genuinely enhances a visit. What started with just 7 audio stops has now grown to 68, covering everything from our architecture and stained glass to exhibitions, artworks, hidden stories and now our Tower Experience.
‘It’s been incredibly rewarding to see the guide evolve into something that helps thousands of visitors explore the Cathedral in a deeper, more meaningful way, while also making our interpretation more accessible to audiences from around the world,’
Coventry Cathedral marked the 64th anniversary of its consecration on May 25 by launching its new, free digital guide in partnership with Bloomberg Connects.
The launch signals a new chapter in the cathedral’s evolution as a major arts and heritage destination and forms part of a wider programme of investment and innovation.
Dr Andrew Hines, Coventry Cathedral’s newly appointed Head of Heritage and Interpretation, said
“We are living through a time of fragmentation in our communities. Heritage sites offer rare spaces of common ground—places where people can encounter each other’s stories and reflect on their own.
‘Recent studies show that engaging with arts and heritage can significantly benefit mental health and wellbeing, even contributing to longer, healthier lives.
‘Through this new digital guide—and new opportunities to explore in person—we’re opening Coventry Cathedral in new ways to the Midlands, the nation, and the world.
‘At a time when there is such pride and momentum across the city, this feels like the perfect moment to invite people to reconnect—with place, with history, and with one another.
‘This is about access, inclusion, and meaningful connection, at the heart of our mission of reconciliation,’ he added
Carlisle Cathedral is the latest cathedral to launch on Bloomberg Connects -just in time for summer – and its tour includes short pieces of audio from its choristers and some of its volunteers telling their stories of their cathedral.
Research commissioned by the Association of English Cathedrals in partnership with the Church Commissioners earlier this year from the religion and society think tank Theos, found that England’s 42 Anglican cathedrals were among the country’s most significant institutions, serving as places of worship as well as centres of civic life, community outreach, education, music and the arts.
The report drew on a nationally representative YouGov poll, a survey of more than 1,300 cathedral visitors, and qualitative fieldwork involving 146 interviewees across six representative cathedrals.
The survey found that 77 per cent of English adults had visited a cathedral in the last three years with 37 per cent visiting more than once in the last year – which if compared to the latest Government statistics, suggests cathedrals attract a comparable share of the public to museums and galleries, and more than those that attend live sporting events.
