Funding boost for Peterborough Cathedral

As part of the Government’s Culture Recovery Fund scheme, the Cathedral has been given £184,000.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport scheme is designed to allow venues recover from the COVID pandemic.

The Dean of Peterborough, the Very Revd Chris Dalliston, welcomed the funding after a difficult couple of years.

He said: “This grant is an enormous help to us at a vulnerable time financially.

“It’s wonderful to see worshippers, school groups and visitors returning to the Cathedral, and to be preparing for our summer programme in the hope of more buoyant levels of footfall.

“Yet all this is against a backdrop of two years of the pandemic, with the consequent loss of income, rising costs and very depleted reserves.

“The Culture Recovery Fund’s support will enable us to navigate these difficult times in better shape and we are so grateful for that.”

This year will be a busy year for the Cathedral, with a display of animatronic dinosaurs arriving from The Natural History Museum in the summer for the T.rex: The Killer Question exhibition. The event had been due to be held in 2020, but was postponed due to the COVID pandemic.

There will also be a series of outdoor events and performances taking place.

The Cathedral was not the only Peterborough venue to benefit from the Culture Recovery Fund, with The Key Theatre receiving £399,000, which will safeguard its future.