Cambridge Information

Online Payment | Currency Converter

- - - Cambridge Information - - -

On the whole, CAMBRIDGE is a much quieter and more secluded place than Oxford, though for the visitor what really sets it apart from its scholarly rival is "the Backs" - the green swathe of land that straddles the languid River Cam, providing exquisite views over the backs of the old colleges. At the front, the handsome facades of these same colleges dominate the layout of the town centre, lining up along the main streets. Most of the older colleges date back to the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries and are designed to a similar plan with the main gate leading through to a series of "courts", typically a carefully manicured slab of lawn surrounded on all four sides by college residences or offices. Many of the buildings are extraordinarily beautiful, but the most famous is King's College , whose magnificent King's College Chapel is one of the great statements of late Gothic architecture. There are thirty-one university colleges in total, each an independent, self-governing body, proud of its achievements and attracting - for the most part at least - a close loyalty from its students, amongst whom privately educated boys remain hopelessly over-represented despite decades of perfectly adequate state education.

Tradition has it that Cambridge was founded in the late 1220s by scholastic refugees from Oxford, who fled the town after one of their number was lynched by hostile townsfolk - though the first proper college wasn't founded until 1271. Rivalry has existed between the two institutions ever since - epitomized by the annual Boat Race on the River Thames - while internal tensions between "town and gown" have inevitably plagued a place where the university has long tended to control local life.

During the nineteenth century, the university finally lost its ancient privileges over the town, which was expanding rapidly thanks to the arrival of the railway. The university expanded too, with the number of students increasing dramatically following the broadening of the curriculum to include new subjects such as natural science and history. More recently, change has been much slower in coming to the university, particularly when it comes to equality of the sexes . The first two women's colleges were founded in the 1870s, but it was only in 1947 that women were actually awarded degrees and one or two colleges held out against accepting women students until the 1980s. In the meantime, the city and university had been acquiring a reputation as a high-tech centre of excellence, what locals refer to half-seriously as "Silicon Fen". Cambridge has always been in the vanguard of scientific research - its alumni have garnered no less than ninety Nobel prizes - and it has now become a major international player in the lucrative electronic communications industry.

Cambridge is an extremely compact place, and you can walk round the centre, visiting the most interesting colleges, in an afternoon. A more thorough exploration, covering more of the colleges, a visit to the fine art of the Fitzwilliam Museum and a leisurely afternoon on a punt , will however take at least a couple of days - maybe more. If possible you should avoid coming in high summer, when the students are replaced by hordes of sightseers and posses of foreign-language students, though you can still miss the crowds by getting up early - the tourists only start to appear in numbers from around 10.30am. Faced with such crowds, the more popular colleges have restricted their opening times and several have introduced admission charges. Bear in mind, too, that during the exam period (late April to early June), most colleges close their doors to the public at least some of the time.

The City

Cambridge's main shopping street is Bridge Street, which becomes Sidney Street, St Andrew's Street and finally Regent Street; the other main thoroughfare is the procession of St John's Street, Trinity Street, King's Parade and Trumpington Street. The university developed on the land west of this latter route along the banks of the Cam, and now forms a continuous half-mile parade of colleges from Magdalene to Peterhouse, with sundry others scattered about the periphery. The Fitzwilliam Museum , with easily the city's finest art collection, is just along Trumpington Street south of Peterhouse. The account below starts with King's College , whose chapel is the university's most celebrated attraction, and covers the rest of the town in a broadly clockwise direction.

- - - Eating and Drinking - - -

Even at Cambridge, students are not the world's greatest customers for restaurateurs, so although the downtown takeaway and café scene is fine, decent restaurants are a little thin on the ground. On any kind of budget, the myriad Italian places - courtesy of Cambridge's large Italian population - will stand you in good stead; otherwise, choose carefully, particularly in the more touristy areas, where quality isn't always all it should be. Happily, Cambridge abounds in excellent pubs , and our list rounds up some of the best traditional student and local drinking haunts.

Cafés and Restaurants

Brown's 23 Trumpington St. Breezy brasserie with a competent, fairly wide-ranging menu housed in a former hospital outpatients department (the rest of the hospital has become a Management Institute). The grand setting - all plants and fans - sets the meal off a treat. Inordinately popular, but no reservations - wait in line or at the bar. Moderate.

Clowns 54 King St. Italian-style cappuccino and cakes, sandwiches and snacks, plus newspapers to browse. Off the tourist route and not part of a chain - bonuses in anyone's books.

Copper Kettle 4 King's Parade. Generations of students have whiled away time in this resolutely old-fashioned café opposite King's College, sipping coffee, eating pastries and putting the world to rights.

Eraina Taverna 2 Free School Lane tel 01223/368786. Packed Greek taverna which satisfies the hungry hordes with huge platefuls of stews and grills, as well as pizzas, curries and a whole host of other menu madness. Try to avoid getting stuck in the basement, though at weekends (when you'll probably have to queue) you'll be lucky to get a seat anywhere. Inexpensive.

La Margherita 15 Magdalene St tel 01223/315232. Cheapish and cheerful Italian outfit offering pizzas and pastas as well as standard meat and fish dishes. Inexpensive to moderate.

Midsummer House Midsummer Common tel 01223/369299. Lovely riverside restaurant with conservatory, specializing in top-notch French-Mediterranean cuisine. Reservations essential. On the south side of the river, beside the foot bridge just to the east of Victoria Avenue. Expensive.

Nadia's Patisserie 11 St John's St. Good sandwich and cake takeaway in the centre, opposite St John's. One of several outlets - there's another at 20 King's Parade.

Pizza Express 7a Jesus Lane. Superior pizza chain outlet located in the grand, marbled hall of the former Pitt Club. Also, smart premises in an uninspiring modern block at 28 St Andrew's St. Inexpensive.

Rainbow Vegetarian Bistro 9a King's Parade tel 01223/321551. Vegetarian restaurant with main courses - ranging from couscous to lasagne and Indonesian gado-gado - all under £7. Good-value breakfasts, and organic wines served with meals. Great location, opposite King's College. Closed Sun. Inexpensive.

Twenty-Two 22 Chesterton Rd tel 01223/351880. Consistently the best restaurant in Cambridge, a candlelit town house in which the good-value, fixed-price menu (at around £25) touches all the modern bases. Closed Sun & Mon. Expensive.

Pubs and Bars

Anchor Silver St. Very popular riverside tourist haunt with views of the Backs, adjacent punt rental and an outdoor deck.

Blackwood's Cambridge Arts Theatre, 6 St Edward's Passage. The first-floor bar at the theatre makes a civilized meeting spot. Closed Sun.

Champion of the Thames 68 King St. Gratifyingly old-fashioned central pub with decent beer and a student/academic clientele.

Eagle Bene't St. An ancient inn with a cobbled courtyard where Crick and Watson sought inspiration in the 1950s, at the time of their discovery of DNA. It's been tarted up since and gets horribly crowded, but is still worth a pint of anyone's time.

Elm Tree 42 Orchard St. Cosy local with frequent live music, mainly jazz. Just to the north of Parker's Piece and full of furiously smoking refugees from the nearby Free Press . Well worth seeking out: to get there, follow Emmanuel Road north off Drummer Street, near the bus station, and take the third turning on the right - it's on the corner with Eden Street.

Fort St George Midsummer Common. Boisterous pub with a pleasant riverside location, overlooking the boathouses from the south side of the river, beside the foot bridge just to the east of Victoria Avenue.

Free Press 7 Prospect Row. Classic, superbly maintained backstreet local with an admirable no-smoking policy, good beer and fine food. It's located a few yards along the street from the Elm Tree - for directions.

- - - Entertainment - - -

The performing arts scene is at its best during term time, with numerous student drama productions, classical concerts and gigs culminating in the traditional orgy of excess following the exam season, though the more firmly town-based venues, such as the Corn Exchange, do put on events throughout the year. Apart from the places highlighted below, each college and several churches contribute to the performing arts scene too, with the King's College choir being, of course, the most famous attraction, though the choral scholars who perform at the chapels of St John's and Trinity are also exceptionally good. For all upcoming events, check the listings section of Adhoc's What's On ? ( ), a free weekly magazine that is widely available in downtown bookshops and newsagents as well as from the tourist office. For advance tickets for most events, pop into the Corn Exchange.

June and July are the busiest times in Cambridge's calendar of events . The fortnight of post-exam celebrations, which take place in the first two weeks of June - and are confusingly known as May Week - herald the ball and garden-party season, and include boat races, known as the "May Bumps", on the Cam by Midsummer Common. The vaguely hippified Midsummer Fair , descendant of the town's famous medieval Stourbridge Fair, discontinued in 1934, takes place in mid-June on Midsummer Common, with bands, theatre and much more besides - all for free. By contrast, you'll have to pay out around £50 for a tent pitch and entry into the three-day Cambridge Folk Festival , held annually at the end of July at Cherry Hinton, and attracting a wide variety of loosely folk-based acts.

Arts Picture House 38-39 St Andrew's St tel 01223/504444. Art house cinema with an excellent, wide-ranging programme.

Boat Race 170 East Rd tel 01223/508533. Lively pub venue for all kinds of music, with gigs every night.

Cambridge Arts Theatre 6 St Edward's Passage, off King's Parade tel 01223/503333. The city's main repertory theatre, founded by John Maynard Keynes, and launching pad of a thousand-and-one famous careers, from Derek Jacobi to Stephen Fry, offers a top-notch range of cutting-edge and classic productions.

Cambridge Corn Exchange Wheeler St tel 01223/357851. Revamped nineteenth-century trading hall, now the main city-centre venue for opera, ballet, musicals and comedy as well as regular rock and folk gigs.

Cambridge Modern Jazz Club at Sophbeck Sessions, 14 Tredgold Lane, Napier St tel 01223/722811. Attracts top-ranking artists from around the world. East of the city centre, near the Grafton Centre shopping mall, off Newmarket Road.

Junction Clifton Rd tel 01223/511511. Rock, Indie, jazz, reggae or soul gigs, plus occasional comedy acts and dance groups at this popular arts and entertainments venue.

- - - On The River - - -

Punting is the quintessential Cambridge activity, though it's a good deal harder than it looks. First-timers find themselves zigzagging across the water and "punt jams" are very common on the stretch of the Cam beside the Backs in summer. Punt rental is available at several points, including the boatyard at Mill Lane (beside the Silver Street bridge), at Magdalene Bridge, and at the Rat & Parrot pub on Jesus Green. It costs around £12 an hour (and most places charge a deposit), with up to six people in each punt. If you find it all too daunting you can always hire a chauffeur punt from any of the rental places; this works out at about a fiver a head. Cambridge is also famous for its rowing clubs , which are clustered along the north bank of the river across from Midsummer Common. For their convenience, this stretch of water is punt-free. The most important inter-college races are the May Bumps , which, confusingly, take place in June.

- - - Arrival Information and Getting Around - - -

The train station is a mile or so southeast of the city centre, off Hills Road. It's an easy but tedious twenty-minute walk into the centre, or take shuttle bus #3, which runs to downtown Emmanuel Road every ten minutes or so (less frequently on Sun). The bus station is centrally located on Drummer Street, right by Christ's Pieces - and Emmanuel Road. Stansted , London's third airport, with its striking terminal building designed by Norman Foster, is just thirty miles south of Cambridge on the M11; there are hourly trains from the airport to the city, and regular bus services too. Arriving by car , you'll find much of the city centre closed to traffic and on-street parking well-nigh impossible - for a day-trip, at least, the best option is a Park-and-Ride car park; they are signposted on all major approaches.

The city centre is small enough to walk round comfortably, so apart from getting to and from the train station, you shouldn't have to use the city's buses. On the other hand, cycling is an enjoyable way of getting around and has long been extremely popular with locals and students alike. Bike rental outlets are dotted all over town, including a couple of places handy for the train station. When and wherever you leave your bike, padlock it to something immovable - bike theft is commonplace.

Cambridge tourist office is conveniently situated in the ornate, domed former public library on Wheeler Street, off King's Parade (April-Oct Mon-Fri 10am-6pm, Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 11am-4pm; Nov-March Mon-Fri 10am-5.30pm, Sat 10am-5pm; tel 01223/322640, ). They issue city maps, have lots of leaflets on local attractions and sell an in-depth guide to the city (£4). They can also help with accommodation, which is a useful service especially in the summer when vacant rooms can be hard to find. The best source of information on eating out and entertainment is Adhoc's What's On? , a free monthly brochure available at the tourist office and larger bookshops.

The tourist office runs very popular walking tours of the centre (1-4 daily; 2hr; £7), which are expensive but include entrance to at least one college that normally charges for the privilege. Book well in advance in summer.

- - - College Admission Charges and Opening Times - - -

All of the more visited colleges now impose an admission charge , partly to control the number of tourists and partly to raise cash. It is, however, a creeping trend, so don't be surprised if other, lesser-known colleges follow suit. Opening times are fairly consistent throughout the year, though there are sporadic term-time variations especially at the weekend. It's also worth noting that during the exam season, which stretches from late April to early June, all the colleges have periods when they are closed to the public. Where no opening hours are given, you're usually free to tour the grounds at any time during the day. For more specific information, call the relevant college; phone numbers are given in the text.

- - - Exploring Cambridge - - -

Around Cambridge - The Imperial War Museum at Duxford

Eight miles south of Cambridge, and visible from the M11 - it's next to junction 10 - are the giant hangars of the Imperial War Museum (daily mid-March to mid-Oct 10am-6pm; mid-Oct to mid-March 10am-4pm; £7.70; ), based at Duxford airfield. Throughout World War II, East Anglia was a centre of operations for the RAF and the USAF, with the flat, unobstructed landscape dotted by dozens of airfields. Duxford itself was a Battle of Britain station, equipped with Spitfires, and there's a reconstructed Operations Room in one of the control towers. In total, Duxford holds over 150 historic aircraft, a wide-ranging collection of civil and military planes from the Sunderland flying boat to Concorde and the Vulcan B2 bombers, which were used for the first and last time in the Falklands; the Spitfires remain the most enduringly popular. Most of the planes are kept in full working order and are taken out for a spin several times a year at Duxford Air Shows , which attract thousands of visitors. There are usually three Air Shows a year and tickets cost from £12.50 to £15.50; advance bookings are strongly recommended (tel 01223/499353). For details of the free courtesy bus service linking Duxford with Cambridge, call 01223/835000.

Corpus Christi and Queens'

Opposite Emmanuel, Downing Street leads into Pembroke Street , at the west end of which, around the foot of King's Parade, are two more noteworthy town-centre colleges. On the east side of King's Parade is Corpus Christi College (tel 01223/338000), founded by two of the town's guilds in 1352. Ignore the first court and instead head north into Old Court , which dates from the foundation of the college and is where Christopher Marlowe wrote Tamburlane before graduating in 1587. The college library, on the south side, contains a priceless collection of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, while the north side is linked by a gallery to St Bene't's Church , which served as the college chapel, but is of much earlier Saxon origin. Inside, Thomas Hobson's Bible is exhibited in a glass case; Hobson was the owner of a Cambridge livery stable, where he would only allow customers to take the horse nearest the door - hence "Hobson's choice".

Nearby Queens' College (daily 10am-4.30pm; £1.20; tel 01223/335511), accessed through the gate on Queen's Lane, just off Silver Street, is the most popular college with university applicants, and it's not difficult to see why. In the Old Court and the Cloister Court , Queens possesses two fairy-tale Tudor courtyards, with the first of the two the perfect illustration of the original collegiate ideal with kitchens, library, chapel, hall and rooms all set around a tiny green. Cloister Court is flanked by the Long Gallery of the President's Lodge, the last remaining half-timbered building in the university, and, in its southeast corner, by the tower where Erasmus is thought to have beavered away during his four years here, probably from 1510 to 1514. Be sure to pay a visit to the college Hall , off the screens passage between the two courts, which holds mantel tiles by William Morris, and portraits of Erasmus and one of the college's co-founders, Elizabeth Woodville, wife of Edward IV. Equally eye-catching is the wooden Mathematical Bridge over the Cam (visible for free from the Silver Street Bridge), a copy of the mid-eighteenth-century original which, it was claimed, would stay in place even if the nuts and bolts were removed.

Emmanuel College

A little further along St Andrew's Street from the Fellows' Garden is Emmanuel College (tel 01223/334200), whose stolid Neoclassical facade hides a neat and trim Front Court, where the college chapel was designed by Wren in a simple classical style, its wood-panelled nave set beneath a fancy stucco ceiling. The college was founded in 1584 to train a new generation of Protestant clergy following the Reformation. Emmanuel men were numbered among the Pilgrims who settled New England, which not only explains the derivation of the place name Cambridge in Massachusetts but also accounts for Harvard University - John Harvard , another alumnus, is remembered by a memorial window in the chapel.

Fitzwilliam Museum

Of all the museums in Cambridge, the Fitzwilliam Museum , on Trumpington Street (Tues-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 2.15-5pm; £3 donation suggested), stands head and shoulders above the rest. The building itself is a splendidly grandiloquent interpretation of Neoclassicism, built in the mid-nineteenth century to house the vast collection bequeathed by Viscount Fitzwilliam in 1816. Since then, the museum has been bequeathed a string of private collections, most of which are focused on a particular specialism. Consequently, the Fitzwilliam says much about the changing tastes of the British upper class. The Lower Galleries contain a wealth of antiquities including Egyptian sarcophagi and mummies, fifth-century BC black- and red-figure Greek vases, plus a bewildering display of European ceramics. Further on, there are sections dedicated to armour, glass and pewterware, medals, portrait miniatures and illuminated manuscripts, and - right at the far end - galleries devoted to Far Eastern applied arts and Korean ceramics.

The Upper Galleries concentrate on painting and sculpture with three of the first five rooms containing an eclectic assortment of mostly nineteenth- and early twentieth-century European paintings. Among many, there are works by Picasso, Matisse, Monet, Renoir, Delacroix, Cézanne and Degas. The other two rooms feature on British painting, with works by William Blake, Constable and Turner, Hogarth, Reynolds, Gainsborough and Stubbs. Moving on, the Italian section displays paintings by Fra Filippo Lippi and Simone Martini, Titian and Veronese, while Frans Hals and Ruisdael feature in the Flemish section. The post-1945 gallery is packed with a fascinating selection including pieces by the likes of Lucian Freud, David Hockney, Henry Moore, Ivon Hitchens, Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth.

From King's Parade to Clare College

King's Parade , originally the medieval High Street, is inevitably dominated by King's College and Chapel, but the higgledy-piggledy shops opposite are an attractive foil to William Wilkins's architectural screen. At the northern end of King's Parade is St Mary's the Great (daily 8am-6pm; free), the university's pet church, a sturdy Gothic structure dating from the fifteenth century. Its tower (Mon-Sat 9.30am-5.30pm, Sun 12.30-5.30pm; £1.85) offers a good overall view of the colleges and a bird's-eye view of Market Hill , east of the church, where food and bric-a-brac stalls are set out daily. Opposite the church stands Senate House , an exercise in Palladian classicism by James Gibbs, and the scene of graduation ceremonies on the last Saturday in June, when champagne corks fly around the rabbit-fur collars and black gowns. It's not usually open to the public, though you can wander around the quad if the gate is open.

The northern continuation of King's Parade is Trinity Street, a short way along which, on the left, is the main entrance to Gonville and Caius College (tel 01223/332400), known simply as Caius (pronounced "keys"), after the co-founder John Keys, who latinized his name, as was then the custom with men of learning. The design of the college owes much to Keys, who placed a gate on three sides of two adjoining courts, each representing a different stage on the path to academic enlightenment: the Gate of Humility, through which the student entered the college, now stands in the Fellows' Garden; the Gate of Virtue, sporting the female figures of Fame and Wealth, marks the entrance to Caius Court; while the Gate of Honour, capped with sundials and decorated with classical motifs, leads to Senate House Passage and on to Senate House.

Senate House Passage continues west beyond the Gate of Honour to Trinity Lane and Trinity Hall (tel 01223/332500) - not to be confused with Trinity College - where the Elizabethan library retains several of its original chains, designed to prevent students from purloining the texts. A few metres to the south is the much more diverting Clare College (daily 10am-5pm; £2; tel 01223/333200). One of seven colleges founded, rather surprisingly, by women, its plain period-piece courtyards, completed in the early eighteenth century, lead to one of the most picturesque of all the bridges over the Cam, Clare Bridge . Beyond lies the Fellows' Garden, one of the loveliest college gardens open to the public (times as college). Back at the entrance to Clare, it's a few metres more to the North Gate of King's College, beside the chapel.

From The Round Church to Magdalene College

From St John's Street, it's a few seconds' walk to Bridge Street and the Round Church (daily: June-Sept 10am-5pm; Oct-May 1-4pm; free), built in the twelfth century on the model of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. It's a curious-looking structure, squat with an ill-considered late medieval extension to the rear, but the Norman pillars of the original church remain, overseen by sturdy arcading and a ring of finely carved faces. The church is also geared up for brass rubbing . It holds a varied selection of brasses and sells all the necessary tackle. Staff will help you get started. In addition, the church is the starting point for Christian heritage walks around the city (Feb-Nov Wed 11am, Sun 2.30pm; £3 recommended donation; tel 01223/311602).

Saving nearby Jesus College till later, it only takes a minute or two to stroll up from the Round Church to Magdalene Bridge , the site of the old Roman ford. Just beyond is Magdalene College (tel 01223/332100) - pronounced "maudlin" - which was founded as a hostel by the Benedictines and became a university college in 1542. Magdalene was the last of the colleges to admit women, finally succumbing in 1988. Here, the main focus of attention is the Pepys Building (Nov & mid-Jan to mid-March Mon-Sat 2.30-3.30pm; late April to Aug Mon-Sat 11.30am-12.30pm & 2.30-3.30pm; free), in the second of the college's ancient courtyards. Samuel Pepys, a Magdalene student, bequeathed his entire library to the college, where it has been displayed ever since in its original red-oak bookshelves - though his famous diary, which also now resides here, was only discovered in the nineteenth century.

Jesus College

Down Magdalene Street then Bridge Street, take the first left after the Round Church to reach Jesus College (tel 01223/339339), whose intimate cloisters are reminiscent of a monastic institution. This is not too surprising as the Bishop of Ely founded the college on the grounds of a suppressed Benedictine nunnery in 1496. The main red-brick gateway is approached via a distinctive walled walkway strewn with bicycles and known as "the Chimney". Beyond, much of the ground plan of the nunnery has been preserved, especially around Cloister Court , the prettiest of the college's courtyards, dripping with ivy and overflowing hanging baskets. Entered from the court, the college chapel occupies the former priory chancel and looks like a medieval parish church; it was imaginatively restored in the nineteenth century, using ceiling designs by William Morris and Pre-Raphaelite stained glass. The poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge was the college's most famously bad student, absconding in his first year to join the Light Dragoons, and returning only to be kicked out for a combination of bad debts and unconventional opinions.

King's College

Henry VI founded King's College (tel 01223/331100) in 1441, but he was disappointed with his initial efforts, so four years later he cleared away half of medieval Cambridge to make room for a much grander foundation. His plans were ambitious, but the Wars of the Roses - and bouts of royal insanity - intervened and by the time of his death in 1471 very little had been finished. Indeed, work on Henry's Great Court hadn't even started and the site remained empty for three hundred years. The present complex - facing King's Parade from behind a long stone screen - is largely neo-Gothic, built in the 1820s to a design by William Wilkins. However, Henry's workmen did start on the college's finest building, the much celebrated King's College Chapel (term time Mon-Fri 9.30am-3.30pm, Sat 9.30am-3.15pm, Sun 1.15-2.15pm; rest of year Mon-Sat 9.30am-4.30pm, Sun 10am-5pm; £3.50), on the north side of today's Great Court. Committed to canvas by Turner and Canaletto, and eulogized in three sonnets by Wordsworth, it's now best known for its boys' choir , whose members process across the college grounds during term time in their antiquated garb to sing evensong (Tues-Sat at 5.30pm) and carols on Christmas Eve. Begun in 1446 and over sixty years in the making, the chapel is an extraordinary building. From the outside, it seems impossibly slender, its streamlined buttresses channelling up to a dainty balustrade and four spiky turrets, but the exterior was, in a sense at least, a happy accident - its design predicated by the carefully composed interior. Here, in the final flowering of the Gothic style, the mystery of the Christian faith was expressed by a long, uninterrupted nave flooded with kaleidoscopic patterns of light filtering in through copious stained-glass windows.

Like Oxford's New College, King's enjoyed an exclusive supply of students from one of the country's public schools - in this case, Eton - and until 1851 claimed the right to award its students degrees without taking any examinations. The first non-Etonians were only accepted in 1873. Times have changed since those days, and, if anything, King's is now one of the more progressive colleges, having been one of the first to admit women in 1972. Among its most famous alumni are E.M. Forster, who described his experiences in Maurice , film director Derek Jarman, poet Rupert Brooke and John Maynard Keynes, whose economic theories did much to improve the college's finances when he became the college bursar.

Sidney Sussex and Christ's College

Near Jesus, Malcolm Street cuts off Jesus Lane to reach King Street, from where it's a short stroll through to Sidney Sussex College (tel 01223/338800), whose sombre, mostly mock-Gothic facade glowers over Sidney Street. Oliver Cromwell studied here and, in 1960, his skull was brought to the college and buried in a secret location in the ante-chapel.

Just to the south of Sidney Sussex, on St Andrew's Street, you hit the hustle and bustle of the town's central shopping area, dominated by the Lion Yard shopping centre. This was one of the few town-planning mistakes in the centre of Cambridge, a brutally modern structure that rumbles along Petty Cury , formerly a cobbled curve of leaning half-timbered houses. Aesthetic relief is, however, close at hand, just opposite Lion Yard, in the turreted gateway of Christ's College (tel 01223/334900), which features the coat of arms of the founder, Lady Margaret Beaufort, who also founded St John's. Passing through First Court you come to the Fellows' Building, attributed to Inigo Jones, whose central arch gives access to the Fellows' Garden (Mon-Fri 10am-12pm; free). The poet John Milton is said either to have painted or composed beneath the garden's elderly mulberry tree, though there's no definite proof that he did either; Christ's other famous undergraduate was Charles Darwin, who showed little academic promise and spent most of his time hunting and shooting. If you continue walking through the college, you come to its modern adjunct, Denys Lasdun's concrete pyramidal accommodation block, dubbed "the typewriter".

St John's College

Next door toTrinity College, St John's College , on St John's St (daily 10am-5pm; £2; tel 01223/338600), sports a grandiloquent Tudor gatehouse, distinguished by the coat of arms of the founder, Lady Margaret Beaufort, the mother of Henry VII, held aloft by two spotted, mythical beasts. Beyond, three successive courts lead to the river, but there's an excess of dull reddish brickwork here - enough for Wordsworth, who lived above the kitchens on F staircase, to describe the place as "gloomy". The arcade on the far side of Third Court leads through to the Bridge of Sighs , a chunky, covered bridge built in 1831 but in most other respects very unlike its Venetian namesake. The bridge is closed to the public, and in any case is best viewed either from a punt or from the much older, more stylish Wren-designed bridge a few metres to the south. The Bridge of Sighs links the old college with the fanciful nineteenth-century New Court , a crenellated neo-Gothic extravaganza topped by a feast of pinnacles and a central cupola - and known as "the wedding cake".

Trinity College

Trinity College , on Trinity Street (daily 10am-5pm; £1; tel 01223/338400), is the largest of the Cambridge colleges and to ram home the point it also has the largest courtyard. It comes as little surprise then that its list of famous alumni is longer than any other college: literary greats, including Dryden, Byron, Tennyson and Vladimir Nabokov; the Cambridge spies Blunt, Burgess and Philby; two prime ministers, Balfour and Baldwin; William Thackeray, Isaac Newton, Lord Rutherford, Vaughan Williams, Pandit Nehru, Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein, not to mention a trio of (much less talented) royals, Edward VII, George VI and Prince Charles.

A statue of Henry VIII, who founded the college in 1546, sits in majesty over Trinity's Great Gate , his sceptre replaced with a chair leg by a student wit. Beyond lies the vast asymmetrical expanse of Great Court , which displays a fine range of Tudor buildings, the oldest of which is the fifteenth-century clock tower - the annual race against its midnight chimes is now common currency thanks to the film Chariots of Fire . The centrepiece of the court is the delicate fountain, in which, legend has it, Lord Byron used to bathe naked with his pet bear - the college forbade students from keeping dogs.

To get through to Nevile's Court - where Newton first calculated the speed of sound - you must pass through "the screens", a passage separating the Hall from the kitchens, a common feature of Oxbridge colleges. The west end of Nevile's Court is enclosed by the university's most famous building after King's College Chapel, the Wren Library (term time Mon-Fri noon-2pm, Sat 10.30am-12.30pm; rest of year Mon-Fri noon-2pm; free). Viewed from the outside, it's impossible to appreciate the scale of the interior thanks to Wren's clever device of concealing the internal floor level. In contrast to many modern libraries, natural light pours into the white stuccoed interior, which contrasts wonderfully with the dark lime-wood bookcases, also Wren-designed and housing numerous valuable manuscripts including Milton's Lycidas , Wittgenstein's journals and A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh.

University Botanic Gardens

Past the Fitzwilliam Museum, turn left along busy Lensfield Road for the Scott Polar Research Institute (Mon-Fri 2.30-4pm; free), founded in 1920 in memory of the explorer, Captain Scott, with displays from the expeditions of various polar adventurers, plus exhibitions on native cultures of the Arctic. There's more general interest near at hand in the shape of the University Botanic Gardens (daily 10am-6pm, 4pm in winter; glasshouses till 3.30pm; £2), whose entrance is on Bateman Street, about 500 yards to the south of Lensfield Road via Panton Street. Founded in 1760 and covering forty acres, the gardens are second only to Kew with glasshouses as well as bountiful outdoor displays. The outdoor beds are mostly arranged by natural order, but there is also a particularly unusual series of chronological beds, showing when different plants were introduced into Britain.

The above information are taken from Rough Guides
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Enjoy very special discount hotels rate for cheap London hotels. The great directory guide to Gatwick accommodation and more accommodations whether you need to find hotels in England or hotels in Scotland. A range of budget to luxury hotels to serve your travel England purpose.

Information on England; includes Birmingham, Heathrow, Manchester information and London city guide

Your useful information when you travel Thailand, We provide Thailand travel and accomodation service, just Click Here to find Thailand travel guides & discount rates for Thailand Hotels