Building Pembroke chapel

Pembroke men and women tend to be proud of the fact that the College chapel was designed by Sir Christopher Wren. Yet how much is actually known about it? There is no documentary evidence that Wren designed the chapel. Why does the monumental volume, Parentalia, that commemorates the Wren family, omit Pembroke chapel from the list of his buildings? These questions have not previously been addressed. The chapel's building history has never been investigated.

Building Pembroke chapel aims to rectify this situation. The chapel proves to be a building of remarkable interest. It comes at the start of Wrens career as an architect, built when he was still Professor of Astronomy at Oxford. However, evidence has come to light that he was not first in the field in designing the chapel: that honour belongs to Edward Pearce. Wren took over from him in providing the overall design of the building but Pearce stayed on to play an important role in shaping the interior, both as designer and craftsman. They were to work together after the Great Fire on the City churches and St Paul's Cathedral: an important association now shown to have begun at Pembroke.

The book traces the building history of the chapel in detail and provides a full description of the building as it now is. The wood carvings of the interior, with their startling grotesques (noticed by few visitors) are only one feature to be described here for the first time.

xii + 143 pp, with 84 illustrations in black & white and colour. Hardback.

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"a massive piece of research ... The book will, of course, become the definitive history of the chapel:' (Michael Davies)

" ... a superb work of scholarship. It will greatly extend our knowledge of Wrens early architectural career and illuminate the beginnings of a new era in church architecture and interior decoration, in the first few years of the Restoration:' (Gordon Higgott)