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Broad Street runs along the bottom of the hill in Ely, to the east of the cathedral precinct and a little way inland from the river. It's a nice street, with plenty of picturesque shabby houses and a reasonable fish and chip shop that's worth a visit if you happen to pass through at lunchtime.
It also contains Ely's second parish church, St Peter. It sits in a cramped site, with no churchyard and barely enough room for the church itself between the buildings on either side.
The initial impression I had was of surprising grandeur. This is a bit peculiar, because St Peter isn't a big church, nor an elaborate one. However, it is all built of yellowish stone, which is unusual even for Victorian churches like this, and it has a fine turret on the south-west corner, complete with little arched bell-openings and a pointy roof at the top. The architect (one J.P. St Aubyn, who built St Peter in 1890) clearly knew how to squeeze a little drama out of an unpromising set.
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After that first flush of interest, though, there's little more to say. As well as the aforementioned turret, there is a porch and a vestry on the south side, and the church is otherwise just a simple hall. The nave is of four bays, with three-light windows in a variety of vaguely Decorated styles. There is no clerestory, so the roof rises steeply and impressively above the nave walls.
Alas, we weren't able to get in: not only was the church itself locked, with no information about keyholders, but so was the porch. That's a shame, because the porch was quite enticing, with a lantern over the archway, benches on either side, and a little stoup next to the door.
I suppose they're afraid of the Youth of Today using it for nefarious drug- and teenage-pregnancy-related purposes - or perhaps hungry churchcrawlers eating their fish and chips out of the sun.
St Peter was locked, with no evidence of keyholders.