ST. PETER-IN-THE-EAST (TEDDY HALL LIBRARY): QUIET WEEKDAY COMMUNION

From University College, continue west along the High Street for just a few steps.
Cross carefully to the opposite side and turn left into Queen’s Lane, a narrow, peaceful lane that feels centuries away from the traffic.
After a short walk, you’ll pass St. Edmund Hall (known as “Teddy Hall”) on your right — beside it stands the small stone church of St. Peter-in-the-East.
The church is no longer used for worship; it now serves as Teddy Hall’s library, but the exterior remains almost exactly as Lewis knew it.

Orientation cue: Look for the arched doorway and gravestones tucked close to the walls — the churchyard is one of the oldest in Oxford.

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“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.”

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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