LIFE IN CAMBRIDGE

"I only know that you may lie 

Day-long and watch the Cambridge sky,

And, flower-lulled in sleepy grass

Hear the cool lapse of hours pass 

Until the centuries blend and blur 

In Grantchester..."

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From The Old Vicarage

by Rupert Brooke, 1912

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An idyllic view of Cambridgeshire perhaps but Rupert Brooke is who we think of when visiting “The Orchard” tea rooms in Grantchester on a Sunday afternoon. There you can partake of floury scones, jam and clotted cream and believe you have stepped back in time to nearly a century ago.

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But what is life in Cambridge really like? The answer I believe is that whatever you hope to find in Cambridge is there, if you seek it out. Cambridge is very much a city of contrasts. It is a cosmopolitan town which gives the city centre a great vivacity and interest. There is a permanent market next to the Guildhall with wonderful fruits and vegetables. But it is also the home to artists selling everything from vibrant modern art to watercolour drawings of the university colleges.

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There are two large cinema complexes showing all that Hollywood produces but we are also grateful for the Arts Picturehouse where adaptations of Ian McEwan novels and subtitled Mexican films can also have their day.

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Just around the corner from the market-place is the splendid Arts Theatre where the University “Footlights” perform alongside opera, local drama groups and Alan Ayckbourn. Perhaps a little less well known though, is the Playroom next door in St Edward’s Passage. Here “alternative” drama is played to great effect in a room without a stage.

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A short walk down St Edward’s Passage brings you to King’s College and Chapel established by Henry VI in 1441. The well known Gothic chapel is the home of the Christmas Eve “Nine Lessons and Carols” broadcast across the world but it also houses the magnificent Rubens painting “The Adoration of the Magi” above the altar.

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If you like art the Fitzwilliam Museum is just a short walk away in Trumpington Street with its vast collection of paintings, drawings, silver and ceramics. But there is also Kettles Yard Gallery up on Castle Hill to enjoy. This was the home and private art collection of the one time curator of the Tate Gallery, Jim Ede.

Cambridge is also renowned for its scientific associations. Charles Darwin studied in Cambridge and Isaac Newton was an undergraduate at Trinity College. In the 1950’s, DNA was discovered at the University’s Cavendish Laboratory and announced in a pub that still exists today, “The Eagle” in Bene’t Street. And Stephen Hawking wrote “A Brief History of Time” here. The city abounds with scientific resources and museums such as The Scott Polar Institute and the Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology.

If you enjoy books you are in for a treat. There are many bookshops in Cambridge including the well-known “Haunted Bookshop” in St Edward’s Passage. Or you might like to view the Pepys Library at Magdalene College which has 3,000 books from Pepys’ collection, left to the college at which he had been a student in the 17th century.

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Cambridge has every other type of shop available too, including two shopping centres - the Grafton Centre and Lion Yard. It also benefits from a new Arcade with an enormous site for the John Lewis Partnership. All of these are interspersed with delightful coffee shops such as Starbucks, Café Nero and the unique “Aunties” in St Mary’s Passage basking in the shadow of Great St Mary’s Church.

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To end your day there is nothing better than punting on the Cam. You can hire a punt yourself or enjoy a chauffeur punting for you. But after two hours you will arrive where we began, at Grantchester, with plenty of pubs and tea rooms to revive you. And what better place to ask:

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"...yet

Stands the Church clock at ten to three

and is there honey still for tea?"

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Written by Clare Waterhouse