Before the chapel you see today was built, this area of the south aisle served as a mortuary chapel, where the dead were laid out before being buried elsewhere. No one has ever been buried here, that’s why we call it an undercroft rather than a crypt. St Mary Magdalene’s Church was built after the 1852 Act of Parliament that banned burials inside churches.

The space has kept changing ever since. Christine Lilley, born on Clarendon Crescent in 1951, remembers attending Sunday School down here.

Today

The undercroft has changed its purpose more times than any other part of this building, and it is still doing so – it is in regular use today for some of our adult and young people classes, private parties and conferences, exhibitions and tours.

Use the slider in the images to compare before and after the conservation work.