Wagamama, katsu and meeting a Norman

We again find ourselves in a Wagamama. Not just any Wagamama. This time, in Peterborough, on the River Nene, on the western edge of the Fens, the East Midlands hills tantalisingly close.

Clearly this representative of the international restaurant chain is not Peterborough’s chief attraction, good though the katsu curry may be. Like nearby Ely, this Cambridgeshire cathedral city is known mainly for, well, its cathedral — which happens to be one of the finest examples of Norman architecture in the UK. But it is also praised for its extensive “Green Wheel” cycle network and expansive Nene Park. And much else besides.

Unlike Ely, Peterborough boasts a city centre where original medieval buildings meet 70s modernist architecture; it is also more multicultural, diverse, industrial and gritty. We get that sense parking our car in a street lined with Brutalist architecture. Even Wagamama is in the almost-oasis of the hallowed Cathedral Square.

This “New Town” has ancient roots. Witness the nearby Flag Fen with its Bronze Age archaeology and 3000-year-old wooden causeway. Peterborough’s own 7th-century birth as Medeshamstede monastery, rebuilt as a Benedictine abbey after the Vikings trashed it. The Victorian period would later bring the railway that made Peterborough’s name synonymous with brick-making.

As we walk up to Peterborough Cathedral’s West Front and its three majestic Gothic arches — unique in all of Europe — we are reminded of The Barchester Chronicles, the 1980s BBC adaption of Anthony Trollope’s series of novels set in the fictional county of Barsetshire. For the cathedral and its precincts were used as primary filming locations in this fine and very witty series starring Donald Pleasence, Nigel Hawthorne and a youthful Alan Rickman as the odious Mr. Slope.

Entering the cathedral, we note first the splendid 13th-century wooden nave ceiling — one of just four surviving in the world — and then signage for a forthcoming concert by a Pink Floyd tribute band. There is even a bar in the south transept being set up for the occasion. Given the eye-watering sums needed for the upkeep of such splendid works of architecture, such novel forms of fundraising are not to be derided.

More edifying from our perspective is the spectacular fan vaulting of King’s College Chapel architect John Wastell’s 16th-century expansion behind the high altar, and the tomb of Henry VIII’s first wife, Katherine of Aragon — upon which someone has left a basket of fruit as a tribute. Mary, Queen of Scots was also originally buried here but her remains were later moved to Westminster Abbey.

As we take our leave — next stop, Burghley House — we lament not having enough time for other experiences, in this case the the Nene Valley Railway, much used in Hollywood films; and the Peterborough Museum, which apparently features Napoleonic prisoner-of-war bone carvings alongside Jurassic fossils.

discoverpeterborough.co.uk