Norwich Churches Cambridge Colleges

Norwich has as many medieval parish churches as Cambridge does colleges - 31. But to me, there's only a few exceptional ones of both...

What's in the market place is memorable because it has pride of position; and the most famous churches of both cities can be seen from here.

Cambridge's St Mary's the Great isn't so great... quite modest in size and architecture, except for the tracery over the chancel.

It's the chapel behind that captures everyone's attention: crown shaped pinnacles for a royal college.
At nearly 300 feet long, King's has one of Britain's largest chapels and is by far the largest of Cambridge's central churches. Of course it is very beautiful - who could not be moved by the intricate fan vault, the gleaming stone, the great sheets of coloured glass? Alright - me. For at one level - King's College Chapel is simply a long box! And for the £5 one has to pay to get inside, you are presented with little to explore. Once the other side of the ornate organ bearing screen, the Chapel has given up all its secrets. There's few monuments, and the only treasure is the Reuben's painting at the altar. There are no side chapels or ambulatories (ie walkways); no aisles or transcepts. A cathedral would have all of these, and perhaps a cloister and a chapter house, and other monastic buildings. The open quad which can be viewed through the gate in King's Parade is all that the visitor sees of the college. There's no access to the hall or library, as with most Oxbridge colleges. No cathedral in Britain charges more to enter and all other Oxbridge colleges charge £2.50-3 in the tourist season (otherwise, they're free). The exception is Oxford's Christ Church but the entry fee includes the Tudor hall, a fan vaulted staircase and possibly the library, and a guided tour. Whereas Norwich's ecclesiastical jewel is one of the few cathedrals which don't enforce an entry fee. It's c160 feet longer than King's College Chapel, has a vault in the same league, it has a tall tower, and a close that can be enjoyed by all - and you can sit on the grass!

Norwich Churches

Most of these are from the Perpendicular period, the last of the mediaeval building phases.

The large church in the Market is St Peter Mancroft, the mother church of Norwich and one of 20 Greater Churches of England. It is also high gothic and a light airy space - and in one sense, also just a long box. There's a hint of a fan vault in the wooden ceiling. Being of stone rather than flint shows its importance, and there is flint embedded flushwork patterns and stone work tracery. But Norwich's largest parish church isn't necessarily its greatest. The Victorian additions to the top of this tower rob it of what it ought to be.

The city's tallest church is St Giles, although this is a plain tower and a plain though light interior with a pitched wooden roof. The best part is the fan vault in the porch - the only one in the city, although St Gregory's also has a porch vault which is very intricateas well as a large medieval wall painting. The second largest, St Andrew's, is plain without but has a pleasing interior with tracery above the nave arches. St Stephen's, St Peter Mancroft's neighbour, has more tracery on its arcades and a pitched hammerbeam roof. St Stephen's has an unusual tower on the side, a mix of stone and flint flushwork.

The tower of St John's in Ber Street beckons down the river and across the Riverside entertainment development, particularly when floodlight. But this large church, like many East Anglian ones, is whitewashed and simple inside.

Some of the most atmospheric churches in Norwich are the disused ones which are now inhabited by something else. Apart from a space of peace perhaps, there is little to visit for in and of themselves.

St Miles (or Michael Coslany) was a science centre, but the large hall church nave looked bare before the kids' interactive displays moved in. (A hall church is where the aisles and nave are of the same height). The beautiful flushwork is what singles this one out.

St Mary Coslany has an interesting wooden ceiling and a round Saxon tower.

St Helen's is part of the Great Hospital - a home for the elderly. The long church looks modest, but the complex within has a hammerbeamed refectory, cloisters, and a Georgian domed ceiling. The church has a lierne vault, and the splendid Eagle Ward. This room was the chancel of the church and has a lovely ceiling, decorated with guess which bird.

The most special for pilgrims is St Julian's. In itself, it is a modest church, and rebuilt after the last war. Its Romanesque tower is now shorn and one of its few medieval features comes from a neighbouring church, also bombed. This Norman arch leads to the reconstructed cell of Mother Julian, the 14th/15th C mystic whose book about her visions is a work of incredible insight. A nunnery is based next to the church and there is a bookshop.

It's more interesting to list what the churches are now - for about 2/3 are no longer used for worship. Impressively, Norwich's superlative amount of medieval parish churches have nearly all got uses. For a not huge city, this is all the more so. There's a probation office, and there was a night shelter and a drop in centre. Four churches are used by other Christian groups, one as a kind of youth centre. Arts feature strongly - a puppet theatre, two exhibition centres, two artist's studios and two for performing arts. One was a Scouts/Guides shop, now a dance centre for children. Other uses, past and present: gym, martial arts centre, a museum of medieval art, antiques centre, Christian bookshop and café, and a publishing related business, a textile centre, and one is privately owned.

In keeping to my 31 city centre parish churches, I have excluded two buildings within the walls which must be mentioned. St Andrew's and Blackfriars Halls claims to be the largest and most complex Dominican friary in the country. The 15th C great nave feels more like that of a castle or civic hall, and has long performed the role of the latter. Blackfriars Hall is the separated chancel, with a lovely Decorated window. The great church would have looked better with the octagonal tower that fell. Norwich School of Art (now called NUCA) inhabits the rest of the monastic buildings and students can drink under a mediaeval truss roof. The public can browse crafts and antiques in the cloisters, attend concerts in the halls, and eat in the brick vaulted undercroft.

Both Norwich's cathedrals are impressive; St Johns being one of the best Victorian churches and Britain's finest Catholic cathedral. The Anglican one is an article itself.

Norwich also has remarkable non conformist chapels, especially in Colegate.

Cambridge Colleges

Of the 31, about 16 are older colleges - ie pre Victorian. The best colleges are near each other. But being based on monastic foundations, these colleges are very similar. Except for classical Downing with its beautiful modern pastiche library, the courtyards and Tudor hall characterise them all. Even where the hall has been updated (eg Emmanuel), the mullioned and bay windows have been left in place and only the interior has been given a more classical face. The red panelling and white plaster ceiling of Sidney Sussex works well within the Tudor style shell. Magdalene's hall is pleasing, with its double stair case from the balcony, its green, gold edges panelling and tapestry above the high table. This college also contains the late 17th C Pepys Library and a timber building. Old Schools has a traceried gatehouse and two classical facades, one of which contains the great Georgian space that is Senate House.

The best colleges, in my view:

I've already said that you don't get to see much of King's other than the chapel. The neo Tudor dining hall has a wooden ceiling with pendants. As King's was not completed by the Tudors, one has to wonder how much like Eton College this one would have been since it shared its royal founder.

Queens' and St John's could be amalgamated architecturally because of their similarity: their gates, courts and their Tudor Long Gallery. Queens' glories are the timbered president's lodge (containing the above) and its wooden mathematical bridge.

Christ's and St John's Gates are very similar and both bear the same coat of arms due to sharing their founder. St John's has more to see beyond the gate. The mellow red brick of Cambridge is something that Oxford Colleges don't have. St John's has three courts of this brick, the last culminating in the wavy Dutch gabled top of the library and its oriel window, overlooking the adjoined Bridge of Sighs.

Trinity - perhaps a contender for the best overall college? It has five gatehouses, the main one being the largest of all the colleges. It has tracery over its double openings and a ribbed and bossed vault above its larger entrance. There is work from the Tudor era and the baroque of Wren here, including his library and contemporary style chapel furnishings. The dining hall is easily the best - one of the last hammerbeam roofs built in England (before they became fashionable again with the Victorians).

Jesus College is set apart from the others and its gate is down a path, so that it could be missed. Although roughly contemporary with the other college's gates, its style is different from the near cube with the turrets that basically forms the other Tudor ones. Jesus wasn't the first college to be founded but it contains some of the oldest buildings. The 13th Century cloisters of the hospital which it succeeded are still visible. The chapel dates from this era, and after King's, is the best in my view. It has a patterned ceiling and a lantern tower over the crossing.

What Cambridge lacks is strong vertical landmarks. Apart from St John's College chapel with its Pershore abbey copy tower and the also 19th C Gothis Printing press on Trumpington St, there's little that really sticks ups above roof level. Cambridge's churches have small towers and King's had to chose between a tower and the vault of its chapel. The only soaring spire is that of the Catholic Church. Thus only the Ox of Oxbridge's claim dreaming spires - although they are actually quite small and not very plentiful. Whereas Norwich's skyline is very much about its churches. It is a spire that is central Norwich's tallest and loveliest building. Norwich has a ridge overlooking its Eastern prospect and subtle hills within its walls, whereas there is no hill to view flat Cambridge from.