Open every day
of the year
Daily prayer service
at noon
St Margaret's Chapel
and the Magdalene Almshouses
- the Magdalene Chapel -
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How to find the Chapel Walk along Magdalene Street The Chapel is on the right
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St Margaret's Chapel is a rather special, atmospheric little chapel on Magdalene Street in Glastonbury. Once part of a former medieval complex outside the Abbey, it served initially as a hospital and later as almshouses for the poor.
It is thought that the original chapel was funded by St Margaret of Scotland. She was renowned for sponsoring the building of chapels up and down the country in the 1070s and 1080s, shortly after the Norman invasion of England.
The chapel complex includes what started around 1264 as the St Mary Magdalene Hospital. The current chapel was built in 1444. Later, after the closure of the Abbey by Henry VIII's men in 1539, the hospital was rebuilt into almshouses for the poor and aged.
It is nowadays used and revered by Christians, Sufis, meditators and followers of the Magdalene. The Chapel and its garden have a peaceful atmosphere of sanctity – a refuge from the madding world.
St Margaret's Chapel and Almshouses