Kevin McCloud's UK Superstructures

Salisbury Cathedral (1x2)

Air date: May 25, 2000

Logic says the spire of Salisbury Cathedral should have fallen down before it was even completed but it’s still there and, 700 years later, Kevin McCloud is going to climb - through 14th century scaffolding and over crumbling, eroded stone - to the very tip. A waterlogged site and just four feet of foundations don’t seem the ideal conditions for building a 404-foot spire - the tallest ever constructed at the time. Today, the enormous structure still stands on gravel and water; shored up by metalwork added as early as the 14th century. Kevin’s climb - the highest in the series - is made more difficult by crumbling stonework, eroded by acid rain.