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Published: January 18th 2015
After our crepes and coffee we walked across the road, nay we snaked and weaved our way between hoards of college students walking, riding their bikes and taking selfies. Heading for Kings College we took our lives in our own hands.
Entrance to the front is completely barred unless you are a student, It was a long walk for us plebs and non students around to the tradesmens entrance at the back of the building. Entrance fee is £5.50 for over 65's and £9 for under 65's. I wish all of Europe would make a rule as to what an OAP is. Sometimes it is over 65, other times it is over 60 and occaisionally in France mostly it is not at all. Why cannot everyone abide by the same rule I wonder? Wouldnt it be nice to know what you are going to pay before you go in.
What can I say about Kings College? I know most about it through watching Carols from Kings when I was a child. Services every Christmas of nine carols and nine lessons . It always looked a highly stunning building and the reality matched my childhood dreams. The college can be
Kings College
From Kings Parade seen from the roadside and is predicably built of the same mellow stone as the rest of its neighbours.. Formally it was named The Kings College of Our Lady and St Nicholas in Cambridge. Rather a mouthful. It sits beside the River Cam and faces out on to Kings Parade where we had just sat in the cafe eating our crepes.
King's was founded in 1441 by Henry VI soon after he founded its sister college in Eton. However, the King's plans for the college were disrupted by the Wars of the Roses (the battle for the throne of England between the house of York and the House of Lancaster). Scarcity of money resulted in a slowdown to the progress of the college. Things came to a halt until Henry VII took an interest in the college . Building began in 1446 and the college was finally completed during the reign of Henry VIII in 1544.
It is built in our favourite building style English Gothic and has the worlds largest fan vaulted ceiling. Some consider the stained glass windows and the wooden chancel to be the finest from that era. Wow Wow and more Wow. Every word
Kings College
One of the huge stained glass windows is correct. It is a stunning building and worthy of every accolade thrown at it. As you enter the chapel you realise just how long the chapel is as it goes on and on . And how high the ceilings are. Every inch of the walls are decorated to within an inch of their lives . The walls are pale stone and carved with heralidic features . The most distinctive are the arms of Margaret Beaufort a lady that we as Welsh feel very proud of.
Her generosity had been seen in small parish churches in Mold and Northop and here she had excelled herself. She was the mother of King Henry VII and the paternal grandmother of Henry VIII. Matriach of the House of Tudor making the Royal family of England actually Welsh. Even Mary Queen of Scots came from the same line . And Elizabeth the first her great grandchild spoke Welsh. A little known fact. Her devices consisted of a welsh dragon harking back to her welsh lineage, a greyhound another of her heraldic devices, the tudor roses some showing signs of the red paint and the fleur de lys harking back to when England ruled
Kings College
Fan vaulted ceiling part of France. Each available space was covered with these mythical and real animals .
The stained glass had escaped the ravages of the English Civil War and were truly amazing with the pale weak winter sunlight showing through the colours. We clicked and clicked away with my new camera hoping that the pictures would come out perfectly. We were having some problems with backlighting and the camera kept clicking away. Not once but three or four times as it tried to capture the best picture possible.
Half way up the chapel was a dark oak screen dividing the nave from the chancel. Endowed by Henry VIII it was covered with the most intricate carvings including many of his initials H R denoting Henry Rex the King. It was started when he married Ann Boleyn and completed when she was executed a few years later.
In the chancel was the rather plain altarpiece over which was placed the painting of the Adoration of the Magi by Rubens. A fairly recent addition to the chapel.
The side chapels were filled with artifacts from the chapel and exhibitions showing how the fan vault was constructed. A fascinating insight
into just how fantastically gifted the stonemasons were. It is hard to imagine how they produced such beautiful works of art with limited tools but produce them they did. We have been following the building of the castle of Guedelon in France and hope to visit this year when we go to France. There we will perhaps get the idea of how the medieval produced such wonderful buildings.
Our next stop was to be the Fitzwilliam Museum in the town which had good reviews and was free. As we seemed to be spending money as if it were going out of fashion it was going to be nice first of all to walk, people watch and building watch before we went into something for nothing. We like free.
Along our way we saw other colleges each built beautifully in the Gothic style, each with a fleeting glimpse of the Cam through the courtyards. We walked a little along the river and were amazed that there were punters on the Cam despite the bittingly cold weather.
The Fitzwilliam is built in a completely different style from the colleges . The High Victorian opulence of this gallery provides a
striking contrast to the other buildings in the city. We seemed to be haemoraging money so this was going to be a bonus as it was free entry like many of the British museums. The building was top lit and looked stunning inside. Where to start? Three floors housing a huge collection of paintings . statues and artifacts from around the world . It was a huge museum for such a city the size of Cambridge.
We climbed to the top starting with the art works in Room 1. The plan was to go from room to room - until we had done every room. We saw British paintings from the 16th century to the Pre- Raphaelites and right up to Stanley Spencer. Dutch masters including flower paintings from the 17th century. Religious art from France, Italy and Holland. One of our favourites - or perhaps I should say two of our favourites were paintings either side of the doorways right at the top. A view of Venice drawn from the same viewpoint. One a Canaletto the more famous and the second the same view drawn and painted a few years later by Berlotto. We were familiar with Canaletto
but had no idea about who Berlotto was but we spent ages walking from one painting to the other comparing the view - yes it was the same, comparing the painting of the brickwork, the water , the people . Some parts we preferred in the Canaletto but others were better in Berlotto . We were mesmerised but in the end had to admit defeat . Which one was the best? Who knows they both had merits.
Afterwards we walked down to the ground floor to look at the Roman remains and statues, at the armoury and art and goods from the Near East. Our favourite had to be the Egyptian rooms full of highly decorated sarcophagi and mummies and the goods taken in to the afterlife by the Egyptians.
It was at this point we felt we needed a late lunch which we ate in the Hittit Turkish cafe before we caught the number 1 bus back to Cherry Hinton and the campsite . Yet again we smiled as we put our bus passes on the machine and it winked green at us.. Another £8 saved - coffees and a cake tomorrow then.
Cambridge is a
nice place but tomorrow it is the bus again on the way to Ely and another horrible history - Hereward the Wake and the Fens .
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taracloud
Tara Cloud
Fan vaults!
Oooh, I love Cambridge, its carved stone colleges and that most amazing chapel. Since it was so expensive to enter, I stayed a whole afternoon, drinking in those most wondrous carvings. The Fitzwilliam Museum also sounds like a delight! Oh, lucky you to be cruising your fabulous isle and visiting the splendid Ely cathedral. I look forward to your blog.