A few weeks ago when we went to the Fish gig (post) we spent a little bit of time in Cambridge beforehand. The original plan had been to go to the Fitzwilliam Museum, but it’s shut on Mondays so we decided to visit King’s College Chapel – first time we’d been, which seems faintly ludicrous given we actually lived in Cambridge for a while!
I didn’t have my big camera with me (coz we were going to a gig) but we did have the Lumix so got a decent number of pics 🙂 J took some of them – like the one above obviously – but I don’t think we can remember who had the camera when. This post is mostly going to be pictures – click through to flickr for bigger versions (and the whole set, not all are in this post).
The chapel was started by Henry VI – for all his failures as a King (and his mental illness) he was a deeply pious man, and his plan for the chapel was a monument to the glory of God. In his time it only got as far as the foundations & a few feet of wall. The chapel was finished off by Henry VII & Henry VIII, and is far more a monument to the glory of the Tudors than God 😉
It’s not just Tudor though, there have been additions since. I did think some of the more modern bits & pieces looked a little incongruous though – like the lights at the side near the altar. And I thought the altar looked a little sparse after the over-the-top decoration of the rest of the chapel.
(That sign is modified to say “no flash photography” I wasn’t being a dreadful person & taking photos where I wasn’t allowed, despite how it looks!)
Outside we got to walk around a little of the grounds of the college – firmly kept away from the insides of the rest though. It’s a lovely setting – sightly unbelievable that this is right in the middle of Cambridge, the views across the river look like there’s nothing else around.
So finally seen more than just the college bar at King’s! 🙂