Great St. Mary's Church Review

A wonderful building not just in its construction and beautiful architectural features but for its spiritual significance within the lives of the City and University of Cambridge.

It is a beautiful church with a lot of history. The attention is friendly and climbing the tower you can get very nice views of King's College and Cambridge. In addition, its location is very good and easy to find !! Recommendable!!

Lovely church in centre of Cambridge, also the University church. Well worth a visit for a quiet moment in a busy day. Also has a gift shop.

A very nice church in the centre of Cambridge. Didn't get a chance to look around as we were at a carol concert but seemed a very nice small place to visit.

Fantastic historic church, first home of the University of Cambridge, with 5 choirs, a welcoming congregation, a gift shop and a tower from which you can see all the way to Ely. Worth a visit!

Great location to visit. Good food options available around Church.

Beautiful church wonderful walk up the tower to an amazing view

Beautiful view from the tower for 5 GBP per person.

Beautiful place for aerial views of Cambridge, I really recommend visiting at sunset for pretty pictures :)

A beautiful, old church. Entrance with winding stairs, crowned with beautiful views, the city is simply beautiful worth of shooting

A beautiful church. However, taking photographs isn't allowed inside the church.

Beautiful historic church in the centre of Cambridge

From the tower it is possible to admire the panorama of the city. You go up through a steep spiral staircase, where there are only four points where you can stop and wait for the intersection with people coming from More

Wonderful little gem inside the heart of Cambridge. Some Religious history, a little Cromwell. Costs nothing to go in. Worth a wander in.

Beautiful beautiful church. Has such a calming effect.... the Sunday evening Evansong Choir was so lovely. Loved being there.

It s a beautiful church and got a awesome view of Cambridge from its rooftop. To get the view one has to buy a ticket to enter rooftop, it s around 5 pounds for a ticket.

It s a very narrow passage to reach the rooftop but it s worth the money during evenings it will be awesome to watch the sunset from rooftop.

Fantastic stone church with the opportunity to go up the tower: A very narrow spiral staircase with occasional traffic chaos. But the view at the top is worth everything!

Ascend the tower to see all Cambridge and King's College!

Beautiful church and definitely worth going up to the tower to see the wonderful views. It's 150 steps but worth it!

Always recommended in tourist guides as a starting point for round trips, and it is. Those who have climbed the 123 steep steps have a great overview of the City of Cambridge. The 4 entry fee is not too much.
But a visit to the church is also worthwhile. It is well restored.

The church is beautiful with lovely stained glass windows. It has two piped organs. It is a welcoming church and it's worth a visit.
There are 5 beautiful sculptures outside the church.

Nice church. Great views from the tower - let photos speak

Great place to visit whilst in Cambridge. Plus it's free entry. You will be allowed to explore the ground floor and be given a free map of the church to look for points of interest. The staff are very friendly, not to mention the gift shop is quite inexpensive. You can pick yourself up some nice postcards for only 40p, much cheaper than in some of the tourist/gift shops dotted around Cambridge. It's also very near the market and some of the major colleges, so it's a very handy place just to have a call in and see.

I must add, although I have not experienced it yet, there is viewpoint at the top of the church that you must pay to see. It has been noted as "the best view to see all of Cambridge".

Worth the climb to the top of the tower. Best view of Cambridge!

The climb of the church tower nearly finished me off....it took 3 hours for me to recover, then some!

The climb up the tower was very exciting but the church itself was quite boring

Known as The University Church, I believe it was of great influence at the beginning of the Reformation, when the Bible was brought alive among the students of Cambridge and Oxford by means of the newly translated Greek New Testament. This More

A must visit if you are in Cambridge. You can take some beautiful Photos of the city from above and see some Points of Interest, You do need to be fairly Fit as the spiral stairs to the top are quite steep and incredibly narrow. You do go past the Bells of the Church on the way up wich are very interesting to see too. Althought the tower doesn't seem that high from ground level - it certaibnly feels high once you are at the top and getting to the top seems a long way too.

I went to the Drakensberg boys choir and I thoroughly enjoyed the show.

I guess if you're in Cambridge you might as well go up the tower. Church itself has few surprises.

Nice church with nice view of Kings College. You can easily start a tour of Cambridge. Is centrally located in Cambridge and is a good meeting point for groups.

Nice place to see Cambridge from another perspective. Biggest downside is the lack of organization for going up and down the tower that can make it a tedious process when busy.

A place of peace and contemplation right in the centre of a Cambridge - take a seat and have a think. I will be back to have a better look round and climb the tower

A magnificent church with a spectacular building with history and character.

If you want one of the best views of Cambridge, then you've got to climb the tower! You can see directly over Kings and the market square, and it's something you can spend hours looking down on. The staircase is very narrow though, so if you're not so sure on your feet, it may be one to avoid! Sure it's a bit pricey, but if you've gone all the way to Cambridge to see the sights, then it's money well spent.

Well worth the climb. Fantastic views of Cambridge and useful information booklet provided

Beautiful, manages to feel peaceful even with lots of people around.

The great thing is that you can see most of the city from the top of the church

In addition to being a parish church in the Diocese of Ely, it is the university church of the University of Cambridge. As such, it has a minor role in university legislation: for example, university officers must live within 20 miles of Great St Mary's and three university students. The church also houses the "University Sermons" and houses the university organ and the university clock. The last ring the "Cambridge Quarters", which were then used by the clock tower of the Houses of Parliament ("Big Ben").

Decent view from the top, you can take some nice pictures, but make sure you re fine with climbing narrow spiral stairs, they are a bit of a challenge.
You can see some of the colleges, and the Cambridge market from the top.

The view is nice, although there are some huge trees that block the view to some of the colleges.
All in all, I would recommend it, especially if the weather is nice (which in Cambridge is always a gamble), maybe a good idea is to go at sunset time.

Unusual style of English church with upper galleries in the side aisles

Great views, lovely staff. Stairs are narrow to get to the top so if someone is going up and you're going down, is can be hard.

The spiral staircase is steep and narrow, but the views from the top of the tower are well worth the effort.

Best aerial views of Cambridge after climbing 120 odd steps.

It was a really Great place to visit! The history was well documented, the church and its interior as well as its surroundings were so well kept. A must to visit.

magnificent historic temple with beautiful stained glass windows and the opportunity to enter the observation tower and see the wonderful panorama of Cambridge.

400 year old first edition of the King James Bible on display. Awesome tower to climb.