Tag Archives: St. John’s College Cambridge

Cambridge Dinner and Evensong

Another journal entry for our time in Cambridge in March of 2026. This one will be for the evenings of March 11th and a back track to the evening of March 10th.

After our train ride back from Ely we hailed a taxi to drive us back to our lodgings. We freshened up and relaxed for a while but soon determined we were hungry and set out to find the likely spot for dinner.

The Cambridge Chop House looked good and we managed to get seated without a reservation.

The views of King’s College were a nice added treat.

A lamb chop for me and short ribs for Greg.

We shared sticky toffee pudding for dessert. This was a top notch and very satisfying meal.

It slipped my journal posting radar about our Tuesday evening March 10th Evensong at St. John’s College. St. John’s College was closed to visitors the whole time we were in Cambridge but they did have Evensong that the public could enjoy. We were so happy to be able to attend it in the college chapel and get a little view into some of the architecture and history.

Evensong is a musical form of evening prayer, most familiar in the Anglican and Episcopal traditions. It’s typically held in cathedrals, collegiate chapels, and parish churches, often at the close of the day. Unlike many other church services, much of Evensong is sung by a choir, accompanied by an organ, with the congregation usually participating through silent reflection or by joining in a few responses and hymns. The primary purpose of Evensong is to offer thanks for the day that is past, to seek spiritual peace for the evening ahead, and to provide attendees with a space for contemplation through beautiful music and scripture. 

It has been a wonderful way for us to end a day of sightseeing in our travels to attend Evensong.

Where we were seated to enjoy Evensong I was able to see some of the floor tiles in the transept/crossing section of the chapel.

Moses and the burning bush.

Abel and his offering to God.

While waiting in the narthex of the chapel, I was thrilled to see the following tribute.

Greg and I have read about William Wilberforce and seen tributes to him in different parts of England. His book, Real Christianity, is a book I can recommend. I have the revised and updated version by Bob Beltz.

Wilborforce and Thomas Clarkson both members of St. John’s College were honored for their prominent role in passing of the Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade 1807.

1776 & 1779 William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson begin their studies at St John’s. Joining forces in 1787, they will spend the rest of their lives leading the campaign to abolish the slave trade and slavery.

“Britain’s abolition of its slave trade and then colonial slavery is the most dramatic example in human history of moral convictions overcoming national self-interest.” David Brian Davis

While we were in Oxford at Christ Church College in 2022 we saw a tribute to one of Wilberforce’s sons.

The plaque on the left reads Culham College, Founded by Bishop Samuel Wilberforce, to prepare school teachers to serve children within the Diocese of Oxford and well beyond its borders. 1852-1979

Samuel Wilberforce, FRS was an English bishop in the Church of England, and the third son of William Wilberforce. Known as “Soapy Sam”, Wilberforce was one of the greatest public speakers of his day. He is now best remembered for his opposition to Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution at a debate in 1860.

We also read an extensive plaque in his honor in the north transept of Westminster Abbey when we visited in 2003.

William Wilberforce is buried in the north transept of Westminster Abbey in London, England.
He was laid to rest on August 3, 1833, following a major state funeral. He is buried next to his close friend and former British Prime Minister, William Pitt.

Wilberforce was a member of parliament from Yorkshire. When we were visiting the Yorkminster in 2023 I spotted a plaque dedicated to him at the entrance to the gift shop.

You can read more about Wilberforce at the following link;

William Wilberforce

I’ll leave this post with a couple quotes from Real Christianity.

The Bible is one of God’s greatest gifts to humanity. It tells us of the greatest gift that men and women have longed for through-out the ages and of which the prophets spoke about for centuries. When Jesus finally came, His arrival was hailed by the angelic host with the exclamation, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests” (Luke 2:14). How can you measure the value of the good news of Christ? It is spoken of in the Bible as light in the darkness, freedom from slavery and life from death. Look at how much the Early Church valued the message. They received it with great joy and overflowing gratitude.

Surely all these things should help us come to terms with the inexpressible value of true faith. The greatest gift of God is often either rejected outright or treated as if it is of little worth. But if we really began to study the Bible, we would be impressed with the proper value of the gift.”

Cambridge – Tuesday March 10th

Our travel journal of our time in Cambridge continues here from March 2026.

It was nice to enjoy our French press coffee on this morning before we headed out for breakfast at The Copper Kettle on King’s Parade in Cambridge.

It was a lovely morning and I took some photos along the way to breakfast.

We would sign up for a tour of Trinity College later in the week.

Looking out the window of the Copper Kettle.

I’ve never met a scone I didn’t like.

Greg went for the full English.

The Views from breakfast were lovely. This is the college and especially the chapel that would be part of our tour on this day.

This cafe was used in some of the filming for Grantchester. (Possibly as a tea-room?)

After breakfast we met up with our alumni tour guide and group for a 2 hour tour that would include King’s Chapel.

St Bene’t’s church on Bene’t’s street was one of our stops.

St Bene’t’s has been a place of Christian prayer and worship for nearly a thousand years. The exact date is in dispute; estimates vary between the tenth century and the reign of Edward the Confessor, but there are good grounds for placing it in the reign of King Canute about the year 1020. More history at this link.

St. Catharine’s College.

We continued on Silver Street to Queen’s college where the famous Mathematical Bridge spans the River Cam. I was chuckling here as I remembered the new quirky Ludwig murder series filmed in Cambridge. One of the episodes featured the bridge, the building on the left which is part of Queen’s college and a chapel. Have you watched the series. I highly recommend it.

The bridge was designed in 1748 by William Etheridge (1709–76), and was built in 1749 by James Essex the Younger (1722–84). It has subsequently been repaired in 1866 and rebuilt to the same design in 1905. More info here.

We continued on Silver Street to Queen Street on ‘the backs’ with some nice views of King’s College Chapel.

This is Trinity College Bridge.

St. John’s with the clock tower without an actual clock.

This bridge might be the Kitchen Bridge.

Working our way back to the King’s Parade to King’s College where our tour began and would end except for those of us who paid extra to go into King’s College to be able to visit King’s College Chapel.

The Chapel deserves a post of it’s own and that will come on another day.

Cambridge~ Monday March 9th

I’m working on finishing off my posts about our days in Cambridge. These posts are from Monday March 9th.

I’ve already posted about our early morning walk and seeing the famous clock here.

And I also posted about our lunch at The Eagle and all about it’s history here.

On this same day we visited the beautiful Wren Library.

From the Wren Library we continued on enjoying ‘the backs’. ‘The Backs’ is an area to the east of Queen’s Road in the city of Cambridge, England, where several colleges of the University of Cambridge back on to the River Cam with their grounds covering both banks of the river.

St. John’s College

1776 & 1779 William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson begin their studies at St John’s. Joining forces in 1787, they will spend the rest of their lives leading the campaign to abolish the slave trade and slavery

1787 William Wordsworth arrives as a 17-year-old Cumbrian undergraduate.  With his sympathy for the common man and love of nature, he becomes a central figure in shaping English Romanticism and perhaps our most famed alumnus

This is a photo of the back of the building where the Wren Library is housed.

Punting along the river Cam which is a major tourist draw. We did not choose to take a ride.

Signs like this were all along the sidewalk along Queen’s Road.

We made our way along the road for our destination for refreshment and along the way we saw many signs of the promise of Spring.

We were beat by the time we found the Pickerel Inn which is now a traditional public house established in 1608.

After our treat we walked back to our lodgings just a short .3 miles from the Pickerel.

The dish towels in our kitchenette had this saying on them.

The door signs made us chuckle, too.

We stayed in for this evening after it seemed we were walking all the day long.

We were looking forward to being able to make our own coffee in our room on Tuesday morning since we purchased a French Press and coffee while out and about this day.

The Wren Library

Cambridge is a town that affords you many great architectural treats. On our way to the Wren Library which is part of Trinity College we enjoyed many. This day was still Monday March 9th and our first full day in Cambridge.

There is a lot of history in this library and many important documents. If you are interested you can read more here.

A detailed description of the window can be found here.

A.A. Milne attended Trinity college and some original manuscripts from Winnie the Pooh are featured in the Wren Library. Some interesting reading here.

This was a beautiful day in Cambridge and we enjoyed some views at the back of Trinity and other colleges, too.

A view of the Wren from the Backs.

A view of St. John’s college.

They have a claim to fame of C.S. Lewis visiting here during his time in Cambridge.

They also claim to be the oldest pub.

We had our last meal of the day at the Mitre.

Love the signs of spring we are seeing…

So this was Monday and we had 4 more full days in Cambridge. It will take lots of posts to cover everything we have seen and experienced. Today, Thursday the 12th of March, was a very blustery day. The kind of wind that moved you along. We still had sunshine break through. Our weather here has been fabulous with no rain so far. Time will tell if we get rained upon. Thank you, friends, for following along with us.