King's College Chapel

The King’s College Chapel is a grand gothic style chapel with beautiful stained glass. It is the most prominent building when you enter Cambridge university grounds and it is opposite St Mary the Great church. It was reported that the stained glass were insured for $1billion pounds.

This is a breathtaking and iconic building. Our family are all musicians - my two children are choristers - so this is a particularly special place to visit. And the college knows how wonderful the place is, because they charge £36 for a family to visit. We don't mind paying this because we're contributing to the cost of maintaining such a unique building. But charging tourist prices does place something of an obligation on them to look after their visitors accordingly, and they weren't quite up to it. Mindful of their policy of not offering refunds if you miss your slot, we booked a later slot (2pm) in case we were delayed in travelling there. Ticketing is done through Eventbrite and the tickets said that they closed at 4pm, so we were surprised at being asked to prepare to leave at 2.45pm. I discussed this with their staff who were friendly and polite, but just said that Eventbrite were wrong, and that I should have checked their own website instead. Unfortunately this said that they closed at 3.30pm, which was also wrong. So don't let this put you off visiting an extraordinary and beautiful building. Just be aware that, like the other colleges, and despite the high ticket price, visitors are not their highest priority.

I had a terrible experience! We arrived at the gate few mins after the last slot to enter and visit and the lady at the entrance was very rude and aggressive saying that we have no tickets, that we have no way to have for that hour even though we had after about 10 minutes of explanations and showed the tickets, the lady at the entrance says that it is already late and that we can no longer enter. We explained that we drove 3 hours to visit and that directions were not clear whether which one is the main entranced. Explained we were to the other entrance and that's why we were late 5 mins. Kindly asked if we can go at least in the garden, stay 5 mins so we make our money worth but they didn't allow us to do so. It was pouring rain we were soaking wet and we said it will worth once we are in. No sympathy from them. It was a very unpleasant experience that has never happened to us before

Cambridge is one of one of my favorite towns with its cobbled roads and historical university. We had a long walk to get to Kings College Chapel because of the parking. We were in time for Evensong at King's College Chapel, the iconic feature of Cambridge, founded by Henry IV in 1441. After standing in line some time we were fortunate to have front row seats right at the top of the church near Peter Paul Reuben’s painting of the Adoration of the Magi. It was a privilege to be in such close proximity to this world-famous painting which the College only received in the early 1960’s. The music thrilled my soul, the pure voices of the choir boys and a full evensong liturgy, was so beautiful I felt that picture of Reubens was quite appropriate, worshiping the Christ Child. Check the times for Evensong and get in line early if you want a full experience at Evensong.

Ticketed entry meant limited numbers were admitted which does improve the experience. Free visitor leaflet was excellent. Staff were on hand to answer questions and they were helpful and informative. Chapel is impressive and well worth the visit. Wild flower meadow was stunning, and made a lovely walk down to the river.

I would have given the review 5 stars but for our experience in the exhibition area. Signs clearly showed the need for social distancing, and in two areas the need for only 1 'social bubble' at any time. These were being totally disregarded. It would have helped if there had been a member of staff on hand to monitor people entering this area.

I had visited the chapel many, many years ago as a teenager, at a time I wasn't able to appreciate its splendour. So I was eager to come back at last. What a masterpiece this is, hardly deserving the term "chapel" because of its sheer size!
I had booked a ticket for 9:45am and was greeted very warmly by the member of staff inside the chapel, who was very helpful with explanations and answers to my questions.
Probably in part due to the time of day, and possibly also because there are not yet so many tourists around in these post-pandemic times, I had the whole place totally to myself for the majority of my visit, which made me feel very privileged, as I was able to appreciate its beauty and the tranquility, completely uninterrupted.
The side chapels are extensive, with lots of additional written information provided, and they alone would be worth a visit.
Then, of course, there is the extensive gardens down to the bridge across the River Cam, which offers an excellent vantage point for pictures of the chapel.
Later that day I went to Evensong. As I was unable to find any information about the times etc., I had inquired with the staff and learnt that one has to queue up in front of the entrance around 5pm, and one has to be aware that the doors are closed at 5:20, so no admission after that.
There were rather a lot of people queuing up that evening, and I can see why, because it was an incredible experience, which I hope to repeat next time I'm in Cambridge!
Just wonderful!

This is currently the only part of any college open to the public. We booked our ticket beforehand on line including date and time. Arriving slightly the gentleman on the gate made no issue of this, he was the first of many helpful and friendly staff we encountered during our visit.
As you walk it armed with a leaflet, explaining the route to take and with a description and the history of each section you just can't help going Wow!. It's just stunning, so beautiful, the architecture is unbelievable. Given the horrific exploits of Henry VIII with regards to churches throughout his kingdom it's quite surprising how much he put into making this the place it is.
The wooden panelling hiding the organ is just so intricate and so well preserved.

Once we had finished the actual chapel it was nice to be able to look at the outside of the quadrangle of buildings making up the university and again a member of staff was more than willing to explain it all to us before wandering through the meadow and down to the river.
A really enjoyable experience and I would definitely go back if I was in Cambridge again!

We popped along to evensong on a cold, wet evening in January. There was a queue to get in so arrive around 30 minutes before it begins. King's College Chapel is just stunning. The service is fairly short, for the non-religious, and the choir is uplifting to hear. My only complaint would be that whilst you could hear the choir the spoken word was lost in the acoustics of the chapel.

You buy your entry ticket in a shop in Kings Parade, easy. You’ll never see such a magnificent roof anywhere else and all built before aluminium ladders! The Ruben’s Adoration of the Magi is wonderful. There is more to see than in years gone by. If you’re lucky the organist May be practising. Enquire about attending Evensong. During the war the stained glass windows were removed for safety despite the agreement that Cambridge and Heidelberg respect the other university.

This is the second-largest chapel in the world, behind the Sistine Chapel, and it's world-famous for its beauty and its astonishing choir. If you can book in a spot to hear evensong, you absolutely must, as you can't really get the incredible acoustics any other way. Do show up early, though, as the people who are at the back of the line have to sit farther from the choir in a less impressive section.