Julia Rausing Trust Brings a Welcome Boost to the 2020’s Development Project

At Exeter Cathedral, we are immensely grateful to the Julia Rausing Trust for its extremely generous donation of £2 million towards our Development Project.

Now in its third year, the Development Project is bringing transformational changes to make our incredible building accessible and welcoming to all.

We have built the spectacular new Friends’ Cloister Gallery, which connects our Cathedral with its historic Chapter House and Pearson buildings, as well as housing new accessible WCs, a café and a shop. We are also developing a new exhibition space to display our internationally significant Library and Archive collections, as well as upgrading heating, lighting and sound in the east end of the Cathedral. Running alongside these visitor improvements, we are delivering a vibrant new programme of activities and events – all designed to help us reach, engage and serve the whole community of Devon and beyond.

Our Development Project is ambitious: the building improvements cover about half of the Cathedral’s total footprint. Since starting the project, further work has become necessary and the cost of materials has risen. So this award from the Julia Rausing Trust brings a huge boost. It means that we can continue to build on a strong start to our Development Project Appeal. It allows us to keep to our original vision of quality craftsmanship and lasting benefits, and to make the necessary adjustment to our new £13 million fundraising target.

As we continue to make progress towards completing the current phase of the project this year, the generosity of the Julia Rausing Trust means we can move forward with confidence to plan the next phase of improvements, for all of our visitors.