King's College Chapel

About this place

Look up before anything else. The ceiling of King's College Chapel is the largest fan vault in the world, stone that springs from the piers like palm fronds and meets in the middle with not a single beam holding it, for nearly ninety metres. Henry VI laid the first stone in 1446 at twenty-four; the Wars of the Roses then stalled the work for decades, and the vault was only closed around 1515 under Henry VIII, with the stained glass taking years more. So one building holds three kings and two moods: pure late Gothic overhead, and a dark Tudor oak screen slicing the nave in half, carved with the initials of Henry and Anne Boleyn. The glass deserves the second look. Of the twenty-six enormous windows, all but the west one are sixteenth-century, and they survived, unusually, both the English Civil War and the Second World War, when they were taken down and hidden. Behind the altar hangs Rubens's 'Adoration of the Magi', a 1960s gift for which the chapel floor was actually lowered. Know one plain thing before you pay, though: the interior visit is shorter than the price suggests. You walk to the screen, pass through to the choir, stand before the painting, and are out in forty minutes into the college court and then the riverbank behind it. That last part is included in the ticket and is the bit to linger over, sitting on the grass above the punts. One ticket covers chapel and grounds at a timed slot: £17 for an adult on weekdays and £18 at weekends from the visitor centre opposite the gate, about £1.25 less if you book online before the Sunday night preceding your visit (no discount on July and August weekends). Children aged 5 to 17 pay about £14.50 and a family pass for two adults and up to three children is £60 on weekdays and £64 at weekends. In July and August the afternoon slots sell out, so book ahead; note that most of the first ten days of July are closed for graduation ceremonies, and Sundays are shut to visitors throughout university term. The full day (last entry 16:15) runs only in summer and around Easter; in winter and during term the last entry is 15:15. There are no public toilets on site, which matters with small children. Pushchairs manage easily in the grounds and through the main entrance, though some side chapels inside are reached by steps. There is another way in without a ticket: choral evensong at 17:30, Monday to Saturday in term, free and open to all. You hear one of the most famous choirs anywhere, the same choir whose Christmas Eve service has been broadcast to millions since the 1920s. But it is a service, not a visit: arrive half an hour early to queue, sit still for an hour, no photographs, no wandering. If you want to look, pay; if you want to listen, queue. Cambridge station is a 25-minute walk or a short bus ride; from London the train from King's Cross takes about 50 minutes. There is no parking at the college, so use the Grand Arcade multi-storey or a Park and Ride. For prayer, Cambridge Central Mosque on Mill Road is about half an hour on foot and is a remarkable timber building in its own right.