Leper Chapel
A Romanesque chapel of about 1125 on Newmarket Road, once part of a leper hospital and tied to the Stourbridge Fair.
The Leper Chapel, also dedicated to St Mary Magdalene, stands off Newmarket Road near the Barnwell Junction railway crossing on the east side of the city. It dates from about 1125. It is listed Grade I.
A hospital chapel and a fair
The chapel belonged to a leper hospital sited beyond the edge of the medieval town on the road towards Bury St Edmunds. Little of the first fabric survives beyond sections of the east wall; most of the rest was rebuilt in the 13th century, though many Romanesque features remain. In 1199 King John gave permission for a three-day fair to raise money for the lepers. From 1211 it was held around Holy Cross Day, 14 September, on Stourbridge Common, which runs behind the chapel down to the river. The fair grew until it was reckoned the largest of Europe's medieval fairs, and the priest's post became one of the best-paid in the English church. The hospital had stopped admitting new lepers by 1279.
After the Middle Ages
Legislation of 1546 closed the chapel and put its property in the hands of the Crown. For long afterwards it stored fair stalls, and in the 18th century it served as a pub during the fair. No services were held after 1751, and an advertisement of 1783 offered it for sale as a storage shed. It was bought and restored in 1816, passed to the University, and in 1951 was given to the Cambridge Preservation Society.
Today
Cambridge Past, Present and Future maintains the chapel, which is again used for worship within the Christ the Redeemer parish. The Friends of the Leper Chapel, formed in 1999, promote its use for education, culture and services. Local theatre company In Situ performs Shakespeare here, and the Stourbridge Fair has been revived and is held at the chapel each year. Visits are arranged through Cambridge Past, Present and Future, so check with them before turning up.