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St Paul’s - Cambridge
We are open every day of the week, welcoming all, offering space, time and hospitality to our local community and beyond.
Time and space for Cambridge folk
Jenny Cavallo took this picture of the south-facing clock on St Paul’s in Cambridge when she first started work as general manager there – and its views over the roofs of the wide-open cityscape, bathed in sunshine underneath an endless blue sky, underline her description: ‘We are open every day of the week, welcoming all, offering space, time, and hospitality to our local community and beyond.’
St Paul’s is open 365 days a year, with as many as 2,000 people passing through its doors each week, for everything from worship on most days, to people learning yoga, martial arts, and the tango, to the Cambridge University Symphony Choir, which performs there every Thursday.
‘We are a place of worship,’ said Jenny, ‘but also a place of hospitality – we offer a concert hall, a wedding venue, a dance studio, and more.’
The grand interior, with its stunning nineteenth-century stained glass windows – including one by the noted Heaton, Butler and Bayne, whose work can be seen in Westminster Abbey, and cathedrals and churches around the world – also offers people time and space, to sit and enjoy a moment’s reflection.
‘We get quite a few tourists who want to come in and have a look round,’ said Jenny. ‘We also get local people coming in for a sit down and a cup of tea. Our associate priest is curate to the homeless, so we get quite a few vulnerable people coming in – I’ve just had a chap in, and we had some jacket potatoes left over, so I gave him a little meal and a cup of coffee.
‘I had to lean out of a window in the tower to take the picture, but it came out really well. I was absolutely thrilled to win, and I’m proposing that we spend the money on a defibrillator.’
