Leaving Univ. through the Porter’s Lodge, cross over the High Street, walk back towards Magdalen for a short way and you will come to Queen’s Lane. Turn left down Queen’s Lane and, as you pass St. Edmund Hall (‘Teddy Hall’) on your right, notice the church of St. Peter’s-in-the-East. Now converted into the Teddy Hall Library, this church was attended often by Lewis (on Wednesdays) for Holy Communion.

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Dating back to the 12th century, St. Peter-in-the-East is one of Oxford’s oldest churches, built over an early Saxon crypt that still survives below ground.

During C.S. Lewis’s years at Magdalen, this was his chosen place for quiet midweek Communion — a simple, reverent service far from the grandeur of college chapels.

Lewis valued routine and sincerity in worship. His attendance here reflected a deeply private faith: not demonstrative, but disciplined.

Friends recalled that he preferred to slip in quietly, kneeling in the same small pew each week.

When the church closed for services in the 1960s, it was converted into St. Edmund Hall’s library, preserving its peaceful atmosphere amid the whisper of pages rather than prayers.

Visitors today can still admire the Romanesque doorway, the leaning gravestones, and the hush of a place where faith and scholarship once shared the same roof.

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