This is the picture postcard view of Cambridge. For the most part, this is what visitors expect to see when they come to Cambridge. This website is here to help you to see beyond the picture postcard images, and see the things you would otherwise not notice or miss.
If you have nice (unfiltered) photos, or features for the site, please get in touch. I'm happy to credit your photo if you would like to contribute.
Guide Map
The River Cam
The river Cam gives Cambridge its name and curls around Cambridge to the West and to the North. It is a busy river with punting on the backs and upstream towards Grantchester, separated from rowing, houseboats and holiday craft below Jesus Lock.
In the area called "The Backs", it passes by King's College Chapel, the most famous picture postcard view of Cambridge. Downstream it passes under the A14 and winds towards Ely and beyond. By Midsummer Common, it is lined along the North side by boathouses for the many University and Town rowing clubs, with keen rowers out on the river at all times of day and in the worst weather too.
Some punts can transfer between the backs and the stretch out by Grantchester Meadows, by means of " the rollers". A punt is generally, very heavy, being made of solid hardwood and it takes several people to manhandle one up and over the rollers opposite the Doubletree Hotel. An easier transition is getting a punt back down, but there's a trick to it, make sure someone is in the punt (and not at the front or it will become a submarine) and make sure they have a pole with them to punt back to shore to pick up the ones who heaved it over the rollers. Safer though to just have enough muscle to lower it carefully down the rollers to the waters edge and probably better if you want to get your deposit back.
Upstream, beyond Grantchester, the Cam plays host to Kingfishers and Otters. There are even Kingfishers nesting downstream within the city.
The Cycling City?
Cambridge used to have the reputation (along with Oxford and York) as a cycling city. Sadly in 2026 that's not really the case.
With some of the most dangerous roads in the country, Cambridgeshire is no longer a pleasant and safe place to cycle.
You may find fewer craters on the moon than you find on the roads and cycle lanes of Cambridgeshire, not just shallow puddles, but deep holes in the road that will damage bike wheels and throw an unwary rider off their bike, possibly into the path of a vehicle.
It is no longer pleasant to cycle for recreation as the rider has to scan the road constantly for dangerous surface damage.
In addition, there are road users of all types, drivers and cyclists, who are dangerous in their use of the roads with no consideration for others and little care about the potential life-changing consequences of their actions.
And finally, something that has troubled Cambridge for decades is cycle theft. I would not recommend buying a new bike as even with the most secure D-locks, it is a potential target for the scumbags who thieve.
Public art
Sculpture
Cambridge is rich. Well the colleges and businesses are and so Cambridge is also rich in the sculptures it has to offer. Check out the Cambridge Sculpture Trails.
The sculpture pictured is very well hidden. How is this a full height figure?
Also, check out The Barnwell Sentence andPlayful seating for midsummer lawn pictured here.
Sculpture/Mural?
I'm not sure if this is a mural or a sculpture? It's a glass artwork representing the river Cam and its bridges. By Issam Kourbaj and Richard Bray. Located on the corner of Hertford Street and Chesterton Road (See map)
Murals
These marvelous murals are found in the underpasses at the junction of East Road and Newmarket Road.
These murals are at the end of King Street:
Cows
This should possibly should be in the Time of Year section, but these decorated cows, (possibly inspired by the Red Poll cows on Midsummer Common in Summer) made a colourful trail when they appeared on the streets, parks and in shopping centres of Cambridge (and on Midsummer Common).
Look up!
You can miss much of "Hidden Cambridge" if you never look up! From the chimneys along Downing Street, once an indication of wealth, to a lighthouse like lantern feature or cupola on the back of a building on Park Street.
I challenge you to look up and find the components of the decorations in the header of this web site in Cambridge.
This cupola, best viewed from Clarendon Street, is to the rear of an old house at 22 Parkside which now belongs to Emmanuel College.
Amanda Goode, the Emmanuel College Archivist, kindly gave me this information: "I am afraid I cannot tell you a great deal about 22 Parkside, as the College only acquired it fairly recently and we do not have the original architect's drawings, etc. It is a listed building and the listing entry describes the lantern tower as 'Wooden cupola at rear', without giving any further details. The earliest deed relating to the property in the College Archives is dated 1913, when it was known as 'Inveruglas House', and sold by William B Redfearn to Dr John Charles William Graham. The deed states that the property had been erected by the vendor on land acquired in 1873."
If anyone has a photo of the inside of this feature, I'd love to see it!
UPDATE! At time of writing, I work for the University of Cambridge and showed this website to my colleague Professor Karen Ottowell - Acting Director of the Language Centre. I mentioned I would love to see the inside of the building and the cupola. Karen once lived in the exact same building while at Emmanuel and of course she has contacts throughout the University, one of whom is Dr Sarah Bendall - Development Director at Emmanuel College, who very kindly arranged for us to visit the property and take some photos.
As you can see below, from the 360° photo, the cupola has a small balcony outside.
The building also strangely has one very ornate chimney pot and a skylight which can be seen from inside and from outside (via the cupola).
Many thanks to Miss Amanda Goode, Professor Karen Ottowell and Dr Sarah Bendall for their help and permission in allowing me to feature this property and its cupola.
King Henry's Chair Leg
Walking by the gate to Trinity college, you could be forgiven for thinking King Henry VIII is holding a sceptre and an orb. Look closer.Story behind the chair leg.
Look down!
You can also miss much of "Hidden Cambridge" if you never look down! There's a new phenomenon on the streets of Cambridge Dinky Doors! Visit the website to purchase a map or download the app.
If you're wandering through Grand Arcade, check out the stone floor. You'll see fossils of ammonites and belemnites.
(See also History.)
Underground
Underground? In Cambridge? You're kidding.
Well no. You can only see this if you have permission as it is within Emmanuel College. If students and staff want to get from one side of Emmanuel Street to the other, they have the option of going underground!
Hidden by History
This section is mostly for sights that have disappeared since I first moved to Cambridge, some, like this general store, John Cook & Bros Ltd, were already like time capsules but now sadly gone, though the building remains at the corner of Prospect Street and Eden Street.
Others were Cambridge institutions, like H. Gee. on Mill Road. A one stop shop for anything electrical. A forerunner of Maplin & Tandy.
I was sad to see in 2025 Mackays DIY close to move to new premises. I will miss the quirky layout of departments and the fact I could walk there in 10 minutes! Mackay is now operating out of new premises on Nuffield Road.
No doubt it will inevitably become more offices or student accomodation, but I hope the developer will keep the "Ironworks" facade.
Fitzbillie's, a famous bakery, patissery and cafe, dating back to 1920, was nearly lost after a fire, but some hero stepped up to preserve this heritage! There is also now a second Fitzbillies on King's Parade.
The Pike and Eel pub, latterly known also as the Penny Ferry, was one of my favourite pubs in Cambridge, simply because of this view in summer. The pub itself was unremarkable and suffered from troubles from time to time. In the end, Greene King decided to close it and sell the land for development. Now the only people to enjoy this 180° view of Stourbridge Common are the new owners of the houses built on the plot of the old pub. Another pub, one of so many, lost forever.
Some artworks are temporary, take this optical illusion artwork on the floor of Lion Yard for example.
Covid 19
A section I'd rather didn't exist is a dark chapter in history when the pandemic of Covid 19 is taking so many lives and producing side effects that will last for years.
Cambridge is generally a bustling, tourist hotspot, and as I write, it is getting back to being just that once more.
In the early days of lockdown, I was reluctant to go into the city centre at all, but on this rainy day I capitalised on the low number of people due to the weather and had a great walk around. In addition, the wet streets and buildings gave me the kind of photographs that I don't normally have in my collection. You would not, for example normally be able to take a photograph of the Chronophage from a distance, as people are usually crowded around it. And Lower Park Street (mentioned more later), which I have tried to get an unobstructed photograph of without success for some time, still eludes me because of that single car!
Time of Year
This gable end of a house in Orchard Street is just a tangle of wood in winter time, but pass by at the right time in spring/summer and it is a waterfall of wysteria.
Summer
We know summer is on the way when the Redpoll calves come to graze Midsummer Common and delight the tourists.
Winter
Some sights are totally unexpected, for example this appearance of a hovercraft on Parkers Piece. My Son and I were fortunate to take a ride in it.
Time of Day
Aspects of Cambridge are hidden unless you're there at the right time of day.
Cambridge Early Morning
Reality Checkpoint, so named as it marks an imaginary border between "town and gown".
Cambridge Evening
Cambridge at Night
Vantage Points
On visiting a new place, it's often nice (if you have a head for heights), to take a look from a high vantage point.
Here are a few in Cambridge, first of all the free ones, then Great St. Mary's Church Towerwhere you have to pay for admission.
Castle Mound
Castle mound is the motte ofCambridge Castle, built after the Norman Conquest. From the top you have a good view over Cambridge and surrounding countryside. If you look to the North West, Huntingdon Road looks long and straight and you'd be right if you guessed that it was once a roman road. There are other roman roads in the area, notably at Wandlebury.
John Lewis
The upper floors of the John Lewis store in Cambridge give a good view over the city, though not as spectacular as the views offered by Great St. Mary's Church Tower.
Grafton Centre
The upper car park level offers views over surrounding streets and the Midsummer Common and East Road areas.
From here you might see the cupola atop a much overlooked architectural treasure, currently home to Sports Direct on Fitzroy Street. Step inside and you'll find a magnificent atrium. If I were a millionaire I'd love to make it into a home!
Great St. Mary' s Church Tower
Aerial Views
A very pleasant way to see Cambridge is to take a flight, or a trial flying lesson.
Contact Cambridge Aero Club or Cambridge Flying Group. Don't hang around though, sadly, Marshall's are closing Cambridge Airport and it will be gone for ever. All that heritage, amenity, not to mention industry, gone from Cambridge. There was a time you could even take scheduled flights from Cambridge Airport. Saving all the funneling of air and road traffic into somewhere like Stansted or Heathrow. I'd have said it was a greener alternative.
Kings College Chapel
At the top of this page I featured Kings College Chapel, one of the most recognised landmarks of Cambridge. So in what way should it feature in "Hidden Cambridge"? Well luckily one of my colleagues ProfessorKaren Ottewell, has had access to parts of the Chapel that the general public don't get to see. She took some photos and has kindly allowed me to feature them here:
Barometer
Want to know the barometric pressure and forgot to bring your barometer? Fear not! You can find the barometer on Kings Parade, opposite the entrance to Kings College. Look at the shop doorways (I would name the shop but it changes hands/identity frequently). The shop used to be an apothecary and the barometer was put there for the benefit of the public. Look at the door frames.
The following information courtesy of Martin Bond, the author of "A Cambridge Diary" - a lovely collection of photographs which diarise life in Cambridge:
"Isaiah Deck (1792–1853) was a notable geologist and mineralogist, as well as a chemist and druggist. In 1815, he took over the family pharmacy business, relocating the Chemist's shop from nearby Market Hill to 9 King's Parade.Isaiah Deck was a versatile man: he not only traded as a Chemist but also advertised himself as a mineralogist who ‘furnishes every description of Geological specimens from the various localities of England and the Continent including fossils, volcanic rocks and minerals'. Upon Isaiah's death, his son Arthur Deck took over the business and became quite a prominent figure in the city, running his shop and advertising chemical preparations alongside equipment such as barometers, thermometers and ‘every instrument for meteorological observations'.Both Arthur and Isaiah were renowned for their pyrotechnical skills and their annual display of fireworks on New Year's Eve. A few minutes before midnight, a small procession would make the short journey from the shop to the gateway to King's College, located just opposite, where two rockets were set up in readiness to mark the outgoing and incoming years. One rocket was fired on the first stroke of twelve to bid farewell to the Old Year; the other, on the final stroke of the clock, to welcome in the New Year.In 1932, the family business was taken over by George Peck & Son. It continued trading as a Chemist's for a further eighty years and at some time before, or perhaps shortly after, Peck's arrival, a barometer was installed in the door jamb outside the shop. The mercurial instrument was supplied by the London firm of Negretti and Zambra which, at the height of the British Empire, led the world in the manufacture of precision mathematical, scientific and surveying instruments."
His photo is far better than mine and from it you can see "...107 Holborn...1 Hatton Gardens... & 59 Cornhill, LONDON" though I've not been able to trace the manufacturer from that.
The Darker Side of Cambridge
Perhaps what the tourist industry would prefer to be "Hidden Cambridge" - the Cambridge flipside.
There are discarded hyperdermic needles from drug addicts which pose a danger to anyone, toddlers especially if they pick them up or play in piles of leaves.
Discarded chewing gum leaves dark blotches on the pavements, pretty much everywhere. I can understand why Singapore made it illegal.
People fly tip (I don't know why) and people leave packaging from their picnic in the sunny weather when there are bins just metres away, they also carelessly burn rectangles into the grass in the open spaces with disposable barbecues. It's a blight. Perhaps one year the council should refuse to tidy up after people and then they would have nowhere to enjoy and sit in the sunshine except for on piles of litter?
It is also pretty standard to encounter unwelcome grafiti.
Homelessness is also commonplace in Cambridge with street begging and sleeping rough. The police recommend that if you want to help, give to the local shelter charitiesJimmy's andWintercomfort. Giving directly to the homeless may just fuel an addiction or make things worse for them.
Even some residential areas of Cambridge can look like a shanty town.
Museums
There are many fine museums in Cambridge, many with free entry. If you visit Cambridge on a rainy day and don't want to brave the weather, try one of these hidden gems. Here are just some of my favourites:
The Museum of Zoology
The Museum of Zoology, housed in the newly refurbished and renamed David Attenborough building, is a place of curiosity when you go beyond the iconic whale skeleton in the foyer.
The Sedgwick
The Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciencessounds a bit dry, but trust me, it's a great place to meet dinosaurs and many other exhibits.
It's also here, in the courtyard, that you'll find the Antony Gormley statue mentioned in thesculpture section!
The Fitzwilliam
The Fitzwilliam Museum, in it's grand building, houses treasures of art, sculpture, antiquity and rare exhibitions.
The Cambridge Museum of Technology
The Cambridge Museum of Technology was an old sh** pumping station that rid Cambridge of its effluent in days gone by. Now with a lottery grant, the whole site has been refurbished and you may even be lucky enough to visit on a day when the steam engines are running.
The Centre for Computing History
The Centre for Computing History is a little outside the city centre, but well worth a visit. It is itself a little hidden in an industrial estate.
The Museum of Cambridge
The Museum of Cambridge I have mentioned in the sections about the Histon Giant and Elizabeth Woodcock.
The Chronophage
This is the amazing "Chronophage" or Corpus Christi Clock. You could easily walk by and miss it if there are a few people in front of it.
DNA and Cambridge
Cambridge is famous for DNA discovery and centres of excellence for DNA research. Watson, Crick and Franklin are probably the most famous scientists in this field for their work though there are many more.
DNA features in sculptures, cycle path markings etc. in Cambridge.
The Leper Chapel
A leper chapel? In Cambridge? Well yes, on Newmarket Road, next to the Chisholm Trail, you'll find this bijoux, pretty building belying it's history
Lloyds Bank
This building puts me in mind of Gringot's from the Harry Potter Stories and looks grand from the outside, but I'd urge you to venture in to see the beautiful, rich glazed tiles adorning the walls and columns. Easily missed if you walk by.
Lower Park Street
As well as Orchard Street (mentioned before), Lower Park Street, close by Jesus Green, is a highly photogenic street of University properties which seem to be charming clones of one another with identical door colours. Hard to photograph without the wheely bins sadly! (See also the section on Covid 19).
Working Gas Lights
Would you believe we have some preserved, working gaslights in Cambridge? Check the map for locations.
There are many more at nearby Millington Road. They are all marked on the map near the top of the page.
"Hobson's Conduit
Hobson's Conduit is a water course (Named after Thomas Hobson), to supply clean drinking water to the centre of Cambridge, from Springs including the chalk springs at Nine Wells in the Shelfords area. (Now just a stone's throw from Cambridge South Station).
Before entering Cambridge, it is an open brook. In Cambridge it can be see as open gullys by the side of Trumpington Street (Good luck if you park carelessly and drop a wheel in there!). Elsewhere it is covered but identified by decorative iron covers.
The original drinking fountain in Market Square has been moved to the corner of Trumpington Road and Lensfield Road (See map).
Just Beyond
You don't have to travel far to find delights and mysteries beyond Cambridge, from the island of Ely to the giant of Histon.
The Strange Tale of Elizabeth Woodcock
As I was cycling along the guided busway, I noticed a stone like a plinth or a memorial in a field. There had to be a story behind this or surely the farmer would simply move it to allow easier access with farm machinery?
Well there is a story behind it. Elizabeth Woodcock was a market trader in Cambridge, who lived in Histon and travelled to and from the market on horseback. On one occasion in February 1799, she headed out of Cambridge but stopped off for "refreshment" at one or two of the inns on the way. After setting out again on her journey and reaching the area now marked by the stone, feeling slightly the worse for drink, she fell from her horse into a bush and was incapacitated. It started to snow and she was not noticed for around 8 days when a passer by saw her waving a red handkerchief from her position in a bush under the snow. She was rescued, but the experience did nothing good for her health and she took to her bed. She died later, not, they say from the experience of being in the open against the elements, but from the kindness of visitors, bringing gifts of alcohol!
It turns out, the stone I saw is not the original. The original can be seen in the Museum of Cambridge.
The Histon Giant, Moses Carter
On a warm day in Histon, you may find yourself in the beer garden of The Boot and wonder why there is a large stone there.
This website tells the story behind the Histon Giant - Moses Carter. The giant's hat and boots can be seen in the Museum of Cambridge
