St Edward's Passage, known in the 18th century as Chain Lane, is a Y-shaped alleyway in
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
, England, between
King's Parade
King's Parade is a street in central Cambridge, England.King's College—and
Peas Hill
Peas Hill is a street in central Cambridge, England.Peas Hill , Cambridge City Council. I ...
Cambridge Arts Theatre
Cambridge Arts Theatre is a 666-seat theatre on Peas Hill and St Edward's Passage in central Cambridge, England. The theatre presents a varied mix of drama, dance, opera and pantomime. It attracts some of the highest-quality touring productions ...
; several cottages; G. David, an independent bookshop run from the same building since 1896; a few businesses; and student accommodation. It is a narrow, dark lane, with riven-stone paving, which opens out onto the much wider and sunnier King's Parade.
Excavations on the southern side in 1995 suggested that the lane had been established by the 13th century. It is marked on Richard Lyne's map of the city from 1574, the earliest known map of Cambridge, and on John Hammond's from 1592. According to Cambridge City Council, it "preserv sa sense of the cheek-by-jowl nature of the early town".
Buildings
St Edward King and Martyr
The entrance of St Edward King and Martyr, which dates to the early 13th century, is on St Edward's Passage, at the Peas Hill end. Its small churchyard lies between the two arms of the alley.
Calling itself the cradle of the
English Reformation
The English Reformation took place in 16th-century England when the Church of England broke away from the authority of the pope and the Catholic Church. These events were part of the wider European Protestant Reformation, a religious and poli ...
—a period of religious upheaval in the 16th century, when the English Church opposed the authority of the Roman Catholic Church—the church contains the original pulpit from which the Protestant reformers Robert Barnes (1495–1540),
Thomas Bilney
Thomas Bilney ( 149519 August 1531) was an English Christian martyr.
Early life
Thomas Bilney was born around 1495 in Norfolk, most likely in Norwich. Nothing is known of his parents except that they outlived him. He entered Trinity Hall, ...
(1495–1531) and
Hugh Latimer
Hugh Latimer ( – 16 October 1555) was a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, and Bishop of Worcester during the Reformation, and later Church of England chaplain to King Edward VI. In 1555 under the Catholic Queen Mary I he was burned at the s ...
(1487–1555) preached.Dickens, Geoffrey (1991). ''English Reformation'', Penn State Press, second edition, p.&nbs 91 During midnight mass in the church on 24 December 1525, Barnes, an Augustinian friar who became a
Lutheran
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...
, gave the first sermon in which a reformer accused the Catholic Church of heresy. Historian Alec Ryrie referred to it as "the first set-piece confrontation of the English Reformation". Barnes, Bilney and Latimer were eventually
burned at the stake
Death by burning (also known as immolation) is an execution and murder method involving combustion or exposure to extreme heat. It has a long history as a form of public capital punishment, and many societies have employed it as a punishment f ...
.
Other buildings
Most of the buildings are brick fronted, date from the late 18th and early 19th century, and have vertically hung
sash windows
A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double glazing) of glass.
History
T ...
. Several (nos. 3, 4, 8–10, 12–15, 15a and 16) are Grade II-
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
s.
The
Cambridge Arts Theatre
Cambridge Arts Theatre is a 666-seat theatre on Peas Hill and St Edward's Passage in central Cambridge, England. The theatre presents a varied mix of drama, dance, opera and pantomime. It attracts some of the highest-quality touring productions ...
and the Venue (a restaurant) are at no. 6, the Indigo Coffee House at no. 8, and the Haunted Bookshop at no. 9. The building at no. 10 has
Gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
detailing and was originally built for the Church of England's Young Men's Society; it now houses the Corpus Christi College Playroom (a theatre). The building at nos. 12–15, a lime-washed two-storey brick building dating to the late 18th and early 19th century, is used for student accommodation. G. David, established in 1896 by Gustave David (1860–1936) and known as David's bookshop, is at no. 16."David's bookshop, Cambridge" davidsbookshop.co.uk.Sims, Liam (20 November 2016) "Gustave David (1860–1936): the Cambridge bookseller" Cambridge University Library Special Collections. There is also a row of late 18th-century two-storey cottages.
Status, age and type
Gallery
Cambridge 1574 map.jpg, St Edward's Passage (below centre) on Richard Lyne's map of 1574
St Edward's Passage, Cambridge, looking toward King's College 1.JPG, Looking toward King's Parade; the King's College screen is visible.
St Edward's Passage, Cambridge, looking toward King's College 2.JPG, Looking toward King's Parade
Cambridge Arts Theatre, St Edward's Passage 2.JPG, Cambridge Arts Theatre, also in the direction of King's Parade
St Edward King & Martyr, St Edward's Passage, Cambridge.JPG, View in the opposite direction: St Edward King and Martyr churchyard
St Edward's Passage, Cambridge, church on the right.JPG, Looking toward David's bookshop; churchyard on the right
David's bookshop, St Edward's Passage, Cambridge.JPG, David's bookshop
Haunted Bookshop, St Edward's Passage, Cambridge.JPG, Haunted Bookshop
St Edward's Passage, Cambridge 1.JPG, Looking from King's Parade toward Peas Hill
St Edward King and Martyr, Cambridge (exterior).jpg, St Edward King and Martyr, Peas Hill aspect
See also
*
Grade II* listed buildings in Cambridge
There are 47 Grade II* listed buildings in Cambridge, England. In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a building or structure of special historical or architectural importance. These buildings are legally protected from demolition, as well a ...
*
Grade II* listed buildings in Cambridgeshire
The county of Cambridgeshire is divided into six districts. The districts of Cambridgeshire are Cambridge, South Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, Fenland East Cambridgeshire and Peterborough (unitary).
As there are 488 Grade II* listed bu ...
*
Marian persecutions
Protestants were executed in England under heresy laws during the reigns of Henry VIII (1509–1547) and Mary I (1553–1558). Radical Christians also were executed, though in much smaller numbers, during the reigns of Edward VI (1547–1553) ...
*
*Cargill Thompson, W. D. J. (1960). "The Sixteenth-Century Editions of ''A Supplication unto King Henry the Eighth'' by Robert Barnes", ''Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society '', 3(2), pp. 133–142.
*Glover, T. R. (2015)
937
Year 937 ( CMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Europe
* A Hungarian army invades Burgundy, and burns the city of Tournus. Then they go southward ...