Which cathedral in England has the world’s largest fan-vaulted cloister?

Gloucester Cathedral has the world’s largest fan-vaulted cloister.

The cloister was built in the fourteenth century, chiefly under Abbot Thomas Horton and his successor Abbot John de Canynges. Its stone ceiling uses fan vaulting, a distinctive English Gothic technique in which curved ribs spread outward like fans. The cloister is widely regarded as the earliest surviving large-scale example of this form.

The cathedral began as a Benedictine abbey and became a cathedral in 1541 during the English Reformation. Its architecture includes important Norman and Gothic work, including a Romanesque nave and a celebrated Great East Window.

Gloucester’s cloisters are also famous for their appearance in the Harry Potter films, but the filming connection is separate from their architectural significance. The cathedral’s fan vault is often confused with the later, more extensive fan vaulting at King’s College Chapel in Cambridge.