King’s College Chapel, Cambridge
King's College Chapel
Interesting facts
- The Rubens altarpiece was bought at Sotheby's in 1959 for a then world-record £275,000 by property developer Alfred Allnatt, who gave it to King's in 1961.
- In June 1974 a vandal scratched the letters IRA into the surface of the Rubens altarpiece, which then had to be restored.
- Fitting the Rubens beneath the east window meant lowering the sanctuary floor, and workers found lead coffins with brass plaques from the 15th to 18th centuries.
- Parliamentarian soldiers used the chapel for drill during the Civil War, and graffiti they scratched can still be seen near the altar.
- Henry VI set down the dimensions of his chapel and court in a document known as his Will and Intent, dated 12 March 1448.
- The interior runs about 289 feet long and only 40 feet wide, a proportion that makes the vault seem to soar even higher.
- In the great windows Old Testament scenes run along the upper lights, each matched by the New Testament episode it was thought to foreshadow below.
- During the Second World War most of the stained glass was taken out and stored for safety, and the chapel came through undamaged.
- The BBC has broadcast Nine Lessons and Carols from the chapel every Christmas Eve since 1928, missing only 1930; in wartime the college went unnamed for security.
- The treble who sings the opening solo of Once in Royal David's City is told he has been chosen only moments before the service begins.
Why it is worth it
King's College Chapel is the great Perpendicular Gothic church of Cambridge, a single tall vessel of glass and stone that took nearly seventy years and several reigns to build. Henry VI founded it in 1446, and building ran from 1448 with long pauses through the Wars of the Roses; the shell was finished only in 1515 under Henry VIII. The interior rises some 80 feet to the vault, and the long, unbroken space gives it a breathtaking sense of scale.
The vault is the reason many people come. Built between 1512 and 1515 by the master mason John Wastell, it is the largest fan vault in the world: stone cones open upward from each bay and meet across the ceiling in a continuous lacework, so light it seems to float above the windows. Those windows are the other great treasure. The side and east windows, completed by 1531, form one of the finest surviving series of Renaissance stained glass in England, the work of the Flemish glazier Barnard Flower and of Galyon Hone and his partners, who made sixteen of them between 1526 and 1531.
Dividing the building in two is the dark oak screen, made between 1532 and 1536, an early Renaissance work carved with the initials of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, probably a gift of the brief years of their marriage. Beyond it, above the altar, hangs Rubens's Adoration of the Magi, installed in 1968. The chapel is still a working place of worship and the home of the Choir of King's College, whose Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, first held on Christmas Eve 1918, is broadcast around the world each year. Hearing the choir at evensong, with the fan vault overhead, is the best way to understand the building.
Getting there
The chapel is in the heart of Cambridge, on King's Parade, about half a kilometre from the city centre. The nearest airport is London Stansted (STN), about 37 km away, with direct trains to Cambridge taking around half an hour.
Plan your visit
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Nearby places
- Ely Cathedral 23.8 km · cathedral
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From the encyclopaedia
King's College Chapel is the chapel of King's College in the University of Cambridge. It is considered one of the finest examples of Perpendicular Gothic architecture and features the world's largest fan vault. The Chapel was built in phases by a succession of kings of England from 1448 to 1515, a period which spanned the Wars of the Roses and three subsequent decades. The Chapel's large stained glass windows were completed by 1531, and its early Renaissance pulpitum was erected in 1532–36. The Chapel is an active place of worship, and home of the King's College Choir. It is a landmark and a commonly used symbol of the city of Cambridge.
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