Choir sings from top of 160ft Cambridge college tower to continue 120-year-old tradition

A Cambridge choir has sung from the top of a 163ft tower in an unusual tradition that was started in 1902 to settle a dispute over whether it would be heard from the ground.

The singers climbed the spiral staircase of St John’s College Chapel tower in Cambridge to mark Ascension Day on Thursday 18 May.

Ascension Day celebrates the Christian belief in the ascension of Jesus into heaven, 40 days after his resurrection at Easter.

The tradition began after a conversation between the then director of music Cyril Rootham and a fellow at the college, Sir Joseph Larmor, who insisted a choir singing from the tower would not be heard on the ground.

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