St Peter's Church
A small medieval church by Kettle's Yard, no longer a parish church and cared for by the Churches Conservation Trust.
St Peter's is on Castle Street, with Honey Hill on one side and Kettle's Yard on the other. It is Grade II* listed and no longer holds regular parish worship: the Church of England has declared it redundant, and it is now looked after by the Churches Conservation Trust. It is usually open, and occasionally stages art shows in partnership with Kettle's Yard.
Which St Peter's?
The church has been known as St Peter by the Castle, or "Beyond the Bridge", to tell it apart from the other St Peter in the city, St Peter-without-Trumpington Gate, which is now Little St Mary's. It sits across the old Roman road from St Giles' Church, and the two parishes were linked for several hundred years.
What you will see
What remains is the survivor of a church going back to the 12th century. It was rebuilt on a reduced scale in 1781, but it keeps a 13th-century south doorway and a 12th-century font decorated with mermen at the corners. The tower is of stone rubble and pebble, and the octagonal spire, with dormers, is 14th century and built of ashlar. By the early 20th century it was close to derelict, and restoration with concreted stone followed in the 1930s.
The weathervane carries the initials AP. They are said to be those of Andrew Perne, a 16th-century vice-chancellor of the university, and the joke ran that they stood for A Papist, A Protestant or A Puritan, depending on the way the wind blew.
Practical notes
Opening is described only as "usually open" in the sources used here, so look at the Churches Conservation Trust website before a special trip.
Nearby
Within a few minutes' walk
