ST PETER’S IN THE EAST, QUEEN’S LANE

After passing under the bridge on the left outside the main gate of New College, we come to the corner where New College Lane merges into Queen’s Lane. Along here, after the lane has made an abrupt turn to the right, we find the church of St Peter in the East.

The north and east walls of the church are thirteenth-century work, and the north chapel is reported to have been built by St Edmund Rich.[1] If this is true, it is probable that it was in this very building that he taught and sang office with his students, amongst whom St Richard of Chichester[2] held an honoured place. The chapel certainly served St Edmund Hall for a time.

The chancel of the church, the crypt and the south wall date from the twelfth century. The west end of the south side, west of the porch; the north side up to the first chapel, and the tower are fourteenth ­century. The porch belongs to the fifteenth century. The small chapel with the room now used as a vestry is sixteenth-century. There was an anchorite near the church in the middle ages. (From Goulder, Pilgrimage Pamphlets: Oxford & Cambridge, 1963)

St Peter’s Church has been secularized, and now serves as a library for St Edmund’s Hall. For more on its history, see here.

[1] Archbishop of Canterbury 1234-1240.
[2] Bishop of Chichester 1244-1253.