In the centre of the Eastern Crypt, suspended between two slender Purbeck marble columns, is the Antony Gormley sculpture, “Transport“. The two metre long figure was constructed from antique iron nails recovered from the roof of the Southeast Transept during repairs. The core of the work is a delicate filter-like membrane outlining the space of a floating body. The membrane is pierced with nails passing through it from inside to outside and vice versa.

In a career spanning nearly 40 years Antony Gormley (b. 1950) has made sculpture that “explores the relation of the human body to space at large” – most famously The Angel of the North (1998). The sense of passage, which this floating sculpture conveys, tunes well with the constant movement of people through the Cathedral. Interestingly, without the air flow (during the Covid-19 lockdowns, for instance) the sculpture tends to align north-south, like a compass needle.

Gormley won the Turner Prize in 1994 and was awarded OBE in 1997

Looking back from the centre of the Eastern Crypt, you will notice two windows over the entrance. These windows look out from a room adjacent to the steps leading up to the Trinity Chapel immediately above our heads.

These are the windows of the Watching Chamber (now Wax Chamber) where in the few years following the murder at the end of December 1170, the two monks, Benedict and William observed pilgrims visiting the tomb of St Thomas in the small Chapel of St Augustine and St John the Baptist, which was in this place before being incorporated into William the Englishman’s enlarged and extended Eastern Crypt. In less than 10 years, Benedict and William recorded over 700 miracles attributed to St Thomas – several of which are depicted in the stained glass Miracle Windows that you will see later in the Trinity Chapel.

This room is now called the Wax Chamber – it was once used for storing candles – and is now the office of the Vesturer (Head Virger).

The Jesus Chapel forms the foundation for the Corona above it, and is the Eastern extremity of the Crypt, completed by William the Englishman in 1181. The M‘s stand for Mary and the I’s for Jesus, with each initial surmounted by a crown. The decorative style of the vault, or roof, of the Chapel dates from the late 1300s and the chapel was carefully restored and repainted in this style in 1981-82.

In the apse of the chapel, is a table in Italian walnut, which was formerly the High Altar of the Cathedral from 1880 until 1977. The altar cloth (1895) contains a shield, bearing the “arms of faith” (scutum fidei), often used on Cathedral pamphlets and documents.

The Chapel contains some fine examples of 13th century stained glass, though not all originating in Canterbury. At the top, there is an original border and a panel showing the Virgin and Child, with censing angels. The space below this pane contains figures of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jacob and Isaac, originally from Petham Church, to the south of Canterbury.

Almost the first thing visitors notice on entering the Eastern Crypt from the south aisle (in our case, looking back on leaving) is an outline of a hooded figure, in black, on the pillar. Nobody seems to know how it got here or what it is supposed to represent. There has been speculation that it may be an erased mural of Archbishop Thomas Becket, as it is adjacent to the site of the Becket tomb as it was between 1180 and 1220.

In 1538, Henry VIII decreed that the Becket Shrine, his remains, all images and references to St Thomas be eradicated, as if he had never lived. In the years following the Reformation and the dissolution of the monasteries on Henry’s orders, the Eastern Crypt was walled off and the public denied access for almost 300 years, between 1546 and 1838. “The vault called Becket’s Tomb” was assigned as a cellar for the personal use of the First Prebend (an administrative post) – Richard Thornden, Bishop of Dover. It was subsequently used as a coal cellar – and this curious piece of black “graffiti” may have originated during this time.