Little St Marys lies adjacent to Peterhouse in Cambridge and until the C16 was the college chapel.  The church has endured a number of changes in its long history, before it was renovated and extended by Gilbert Scott in 1875 and 1890.   Extensions to the parish hall were also completed in 1990 by copying the original materials and traditional design.

Our design for the parish hall is contemporary in design, but respects the original form and relationship of the church to its churchyard.  The new building is apsidal in plan, partly to avoid obscuring views of the fine façade of Peterhouse.  The roof rises as a truncated cone with a glazed top allowing views back to the west wall of the church from within. 

The plan provides for a new hall capable of subdivision into separate meeting rooms, plus a kitchen, servery, offices and new disabled WC facilities.  Seating for eighty is provided for meetings, concerts and lectures.  A glazed connection allows views of C12 stonework in the walls of the church. 

The curved plan form is clad in horizontal oak boarding, which will weather to a close match to the Barnack rubble walls.   A new light well against the west wall of the church opens up the lower blocked bays of the west window with new etched glass texts below the Victorian ‘Jesse Tree’ stained glass above.

Contractor: York Construction Ltd, Cambridge

Quantity Surveyor: Sherriff Tiplady

Structural Engineer: CAR Ltd