Like a football match the interior of Salisbury cathedral is a game of two halves. There is the nave and w transept; and there is the choir, e transept, and e chapels. The former is lucid and numinous. The latter is darker and more architecturally complex. More mysterious.
But to talk of the interior as a whole. With the widespread use of Purbeck marble that the influence of Canterbury and Lincoln is obvious. But whereas Lincoln is rich and complex and experimental, Salisbury is austere and refined and cautious. Here, is something almost Cistercian. Here, the dado rails in the aisle are blank; the rib vaults are minimalist - no tiercerons, no ridge rib. At Lincoln ornament is profuse, and Salisbury it is not. There is, for instance, a very limited use of foliage capitals. There is, perhaps, a hierarchy of ornament. An element of reservation. Elegant restraint.
At first the interior seems incredibly uniform, but there are variations, particularly in the design of the piers: the choir, transepts and nave all have a different designs. I suppose the flaw in all this equipoise is the triforium, which is somewhat awkward from being squeezed into a space far too small for its intentions. I do wonder if the design owes something to Northern English precedent, e.g. the transepts of York Minster. The only real structural additions are the two sets of strainer arches: Decorated gothic in the e transept, and Perpendicular gothic, along with a complex vault, under the tower designed to strengthen the crossing piers. There was never an attempt to enlarge any windows, as one would expect to have happened.
The architectural fireworks as I have hinted are reserved for the e end and the Trinity Chapel which is constructed as a 'hall church' with nave and aisles of equal height, all supported on piers of incredible slimness.
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