Mysterious Santa hats are found on the 160ft-high statues of historic Cambridge Chapel at St Johns College. ‘Rascal student’ using DRONE and ‘night climbers’ are just a few suspects following festive high jinks

  • It is thought that the culprit used a drone to scale the building in the act of prank.
  • They had placed the items in a nestled on St John’s College’s stone carvings.
  • Martin Bond, a photographer from London, first noticed the festive outfit Monday morning.
  • He said that they were placed there by someone who must have been able to climb the church walls.










An alleged “rascal student” hung Christmas caps on gargoyles and statues at Cambridge University from 163 feet above ground.

The culprit is thought to have used a drone or scaled the building and nestle the three items on the stone carvings at St John’s College chapel.

Martin Bond, a photographer from London, first noticed the festive outfit at 11:11 on Monday.

The porter informed him that the key to the church had not been given out and said they must have been placed there by someone.

The culprit is thought to have used a drone or scaled the building and nestle the three items on the stone carvings at St John's College chapel

It is believed that the culprit used a drone to scale the structure and then nestled the items onto the St John’s College chapel stone carvings.

The festive attire was first spotted by photographer Martin Bond at about 11am on Monday

Martin Bond was the first to spot this festive look at around 11 o’clock on Monday.

He said whoever placed them there must have climbed the walls of the colossal church because a porter told him no key had been signed out

He said whoever placed them there must have climbed the walls of the colossal church because a porter told him no key had been signed out

Because a porter had told him that no key was signed out, he said the person who placed them there must be able to climb the massive church’s walls.

The BBC interviewed him and he said that although some people think they were being placed there by a drone they did climb up.

I was told that the key was missing by a porter. The keys were not signed out so it wasn’t possible to place them inside.

He added: ‘A rascal student has placed a Santa hat on the heads of figures on St John’s College Chapel – so why is it my picture of the day? You might ask yourself: “How?”

These hats were discovered by Bond while he was taking daily photographs of Cambridge, which is something he’s done for the past ten year.

It was widely speculated that the daring prankster may have done it.

Mr Bond spotted the three hats during his daily photograph of Cambridge for his A Cambridge Diary series, which he has done for ten years

The three hats were spotted by Bond during Mr Bond’s daily photo of Cambridge, which he does for the A Cambridge Diary series for 10 years.

His find has led to widespread speculation on how the prankster could have managed it

Many speculate on the possible ways that this prankster managed to do it.

Because of its sheer height, some believe that they used a drone to lift the items.

Meanwhile others pointed the finger at the work of Cambridge’s ‘night climbers’ – a clandestine group that scales the city’s buildings under cover of darkness.

However, some students claimed that the hats were just a daring prank.

St John’s College Chapel was built in the 1860s to replace a smaller church which had been there since the 1200s.

Some believe they must have used a drone due to fly the items up due to the sheer height of the building

Because of its sheer height, many believe the drone was used to take the items up.

Meanwhile others pointed the finger at the work of Cambridge's 'night climbers' - a clandestine group that scales the city's buildings under cover of darkness

Some others also pointed out the work of Cambridge’s night climbers – a clandestine team that scales city buildings in darkness – while others criticized the group.

Sir George Gilbert Scott (a renowned Gothic architect) created it after completing a similar project at Exeter College.

The outside of the building has three tabernacles, which hold statues to famous alumni including Sir William Cecil, Archbishop of York and Thomas Wentworth.

This week’s prank has not been the first time that Cambridge’s tall buildings were used to make hats.

A climber scaled 80ft’s exterior wall to strap four Father Christmas hats onto the tops of King’s College Chapel’s chapel in November 2009.

In June 1958, an Austin 7 was installed on the Senate House’s roof.

Cambridge University has been contacted to comment.

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