Plan My Visit

St Edmundsbury Cathedral is open to visitors 7 days a week. You can visit us during the following times:

10.00 am to 5.30 pm Monday to Friday
10.00 am to 4.00 pm on Saturdays (and Bank Holidays)
12.30 pm to 3.00 pm on Sundays

Entry to the Cathedral is free, with donations very much appreciated.

If you’d like details on our services, please click here.

For accessibility information, click here.

For details on opening times for The Cathedral Shop and Pilgrims’ Kitchen please visit each page.

Guided Tours

Regular Guided Tours run from April to end October. You can join us Monday to Saturday at 11.00 am. For more information please visit our Cathedral Tour page. On other days and times, there may be a guide ‘roving’, who is able to answer your queries and to tell you more about the Cathedral.

If you would like a personal tour, please contact the Visitor Experience Manager. Or, if you are a tour operator, we can organise group tours for any time or day. Please contact us on the email above.

Tower Tours

Experience the Cathedral from on high! A Tower Tour is an 85 minute tour that includes a great history of the Millennium Project, which saw the building of the Tower and vault (completed in 2010). Find out more here.

Visiting Groups

We’re able offer group visits but they must be pre-booked. If you are interested in bringing a group, do email our Visitor Experience Manager.

If you’re a school group wishing to visit, please check out our schools page here.

Visiting with Children

Check out our Children & Families page where you can download activities ahead of your visit.

Ancient Library

These are exclusive tours. For full details visit our Ancient Library page.

These tours must be pre-booked by email. Please allow one week’s notice for booking.

Getting Here

Visiting by car:

There is no visitor parking on site, but Angel Hill car park is directly opposite the Cathedral and Bury St Edmunds has plenty of other parking provisions. You can find out more here.

Visiting by train:

Bury St Edmunds railway station is about a 15 minute walk from the Cathedral. You can find out more and plan your journey here.

Visiting by bike:

The Cathedral is part of the Cathedrals Cycle Route. Find out more here.

Do make use of our cycle parking. We have bike racks and a bike shed located on the north side of the cathedral near the Cathedral Office (Abbey House, IP33 1LS). Our friendly staff at Pilgrims’ Kitchen will be happy to replenish your water bottle and our homemade cakes make a perfect reward for your exercise!

LEGO at St Edmundsbury Cathedral

Join us on our LEGO Pilgrimage! Help us recreate history brick by brick as St Edmundsbury Cathedral; Suffolk’s Cathedral and the mother church of the Diocese, is recreated entirely of LEGO® bricks.

By donating £1 per LEGO® brick you’ll be helping us reach our ambitious target to raise £200,000 (200,000 pieces of LEGO®). Donate here.

If you are really passionate about LEGO and would like to get more hands on, we are seeking volunteers to oversee the build too. Please get in touch by dropping an email to visits@stedscathedral.org

The Lego Cathedral is located in the South West corner of St Edmundsbury Cathedral.

Historical timeline of the Cathedral

1020 – Foundation of the Benedictine Abbey
1065 – 97 – Abbot Baldwin builds St Denys’ Church – Abbot Anselm replaces St Denys’ with a church dedicated to St James
1400s – New chancel built
1503 – 51 – New nave built, designed by John Wastell, Master Mason and resident of Bury St Edmunds
1711 – Medieval chancel replaced
1860 – 70 – New chancel built, work of Sir Gilbert Scott. Pitched roof added to the Nave
1914 – Creation of the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich (previously West Suffolk was in the Diocese of Ely and East Suffolk in the Diocese of Norwich) – St James’ Church becomes a Cathedral
1943 – Stephen Dykes Bower appointed as Architect for the Cathedral
1959 – 61 – West Porch and cloisters added
1963 – 70 – New Quire, a Lady Chapel, St Edmund’s Chapel and the crossing added

1988 – Stephen Dykes Bower retires – Alan Rome succeeds as Cathedral Architect
1988 – 90 – Cathedral Centre and Song School built
1994 – Stephen Dykes Bower dies and leaves £2 million to a Trust for the completion of the Cathedral
1997 – Millennium Commission grants £5.15 million for the completion of the Cathedral to the design of Hugh Mathew
1998 – Appeal launched to raise the remaining funds for the Project
1999 – Work starts on the North Transept
2005 – Millennium Tower completed
2008 – East Cloisters opened
2009 – Consecration of the Chapel of the Transfiguration, Crypt and Cloisters
2010 – Completion of vaulted ceiling under the Tower