Guildford's restored Georgian Holy Trinity Church served as pro-cathedral, but was considered too small to become the cathedral.

[3] The foundation stone was laid by Cosmo Lang, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1936,[4] but work was suspended in 1939 due to the Second World War.

[3] In 1947, Viscount Bennett, former prime minister of Canada, bought the land surrounding Stag Hill, as a memorial to Canadian soldiers who were billeted in the area during the Second World War.

[3] The Cathedral Committee, and its formidable secretary, Miss Eleanora Iredale, launched the 'Buy-a Brick' campaign in 1952.

Where to put the cathedral for the new diocese of Guildford was a vexing question until Richard, Lord Onslow donated 6 acres (2.4 ha) atop Stag Hill — so named because the Kings of England used to hunt there.

"[4] The Pevsner Architectural Guides describe the building as "sweet-tempered, undramatic Curvilinear Gothic", and the interior as "noble and subtle".

He aimed to create a broad and uninterrupted nave space by the use of narrow "passage aisles", which as at Albi, removed the need for flying butresses.

Unlike the French original, the aisles do not quite reach up to the nave roof, resulting in a small clerestory with little windows.

Inside, the cathedral appears to be filled with light, with pale Somerset limestone pillars and white Italian marble floors.

Unusually, Maufe's contract included complete control over the internal fittings and colour scheme of the cathedral.

It contains a figure of the Madonna and Child, carved in lignum vitae by Douglas Stephen, the then manager of Barclays Bank, Chelsea.

[9] However it includes works by Moira Forsyth, William Wilson, James Powell and Sons, Ninian Comper and Lawrence Lee.

It is a reconstruction of an organ dating from c. 1866, previously in the Rosse Street Baptist Church in Shipley, West Yorkshire.

Katherine Dienes-Williams became the first female Organist and Master of the Choristers in an English Anglican Cathedral in January 2008.

[16] It consists of boy choristers, who sing at Sunday services and Choral Evensong on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and are educated at the RGS Preparatory School.

The largest bell is the tenor which weighs 30 cwt and 43 lbs (1,543.5 kg), and is tuned to the key of D. A team of about 25 volunteer bellringers practice on Tuesdays.