St Paul's Church
A Grade II listed church of 1841 by Ambrose Poynter, remembered for the tongue-lashing it received from the Cambridge Camden Society.
St Paul's sits where St Paul's Road meets Hills Road, roughly 0.8 miles south-east of the city centre. The parish belongs to the Church of England's Diocese of Ely, and the building has Grade II listing.
A church that was criticised
The nave and west tower date from 1841, designed by Ambrose Poynter and paid for by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners at a cost of £5,766. In November 1841 the Cambridge Camden Society tore into the design in the first issue of its journal, The Ecclesiologist, objecting to the lack of a chancel, the use of brick instead of stone and its plain, late sixteenth or early seventeenth-century style. That attack gives St Paul's a place in the story of the Gothic Revival. Historic England's listing says that the church possesses visual interest in its own right, and Augustus Pugin reprinted the original review as a warning to architects.
Later additions
The chancel and vestry came in 1864, and Temple Moore designed the transepts in 1893. Reordering made the interior multi-use in 1996, and meeting rooms and a porch were added in 2012-13. The east window, showing the Conversion of St Paul, is by Alfred Wilkinson and dates from 1960. The first vicar, from 1842 to 1847, was Charles Perry, who went on to become Melbourne's first Anglican bishop. The parsonage behind the church, designed by George Gilbert Scott in 1853-54, is now the Cambridge Muslim College.
Visiting
The church's website lists community activity including meals, a food club, and art exhibitions, and hires out the building as an event space. Check the site before visiting, as this is a working parish church.
Nearby
Within a few minutes' walk
