Medieval leper chapel faces £250k repair bill

The chapel dates to about 1125 and was part of an isolation hospital for lepers

At least £250,000 is needed to repair a 12th Century chapel's roof and address structural cracks and damp problems, a survey said.

The Grade I-listed Leper Chapel, just off Abbey Road in Cambridge, is the city's second oldest building and is owned by the charity Cambridge Past, Present and Future.

Chief executive James Littlewood said it was much harder to raise funds for a building that lacked visitor facilities such as toilets, meaning its use by community groups was limited.

"We want to make sure it's a real community building, but at the moment it is not in a good state and we don't have a solution to the funding of the repairs," he said.

King John granted the Leper Hospital a charter for a three-day market in 1211, to help fund its costs, and Stourbridge Fair remained hugely popular until the mid 18th Century

The charity has been aware of the building's structural problems since a survey in 2018.

Its attempts to address the issues had to be shelved after another of its buildings, Bourn Windmill, needed to be saved from imminent collapse. The 500-year-old structure was reopened after a three-year restoration last year.

Mr Littlewood said a new survey on the chapel has confirmed the building probably needed a new roof - its tiles are held on by wooden pegs which have rotted away.

"It needs a significant amount of investment and conservation work - a quarter of a million pounds at least," he said.

"We don't yet know if there is damage to the roof timbers, but we also have structural cracking on the western wall, which was designed by Gilbert Scott."

Sir George Gilbert Scott was a prolific Victorian architect, most famous for his designs for the Albert Memorial and St Pancras Hotel, both in London.

After the fair's decline, the chapel changed hands several times and was restored in the 19th Century, including work by the Gothic revival architect Sir George Gilbert Scott

The 900-year-old building was originally the chapel of an isolation hospital caring for people with leprosy.

At various points in its history, it has been a place of worship, a bar and a warehouse, but it probably owes its survival to Stourbridge Fair, according to Mr Littlewood.

King John issued the fair's charter in 1211 and it grew steadily until the 18th Century, when the Robinson Crusoe author Daniel Defoe described it as "not only the greatest in the whole nation, but in the world”.

The fair declined in popularity but was revived two decades ago and will be held on 7 September this year.

Mr Littlewood said: "The fair and the chapel are completely linked and the chapel is the thing that tells that fascinating story."

The chapel was used to store the fair's stalls in the 18th Century, was also used as its bar, before being advertised for sale as a storage shed