Cambridge

King's College Chapel and front lawn, Cambridge

Cambridge is walkable, riverside, and quietly wonderful: eight centuries of colleges, bookshops, pubs older than most countries, and the sort of green that you only get in East Anglia. Our flats are within fifteen minutes of all of it on foot.

Where Cambridge sits

50 minutes from London King’s Cross by train, 30 minutes from Stansted Airport, an hour and a half from Heathrow. Small enough to walk end-to-end in twenty minutes. That is exactly the wrong idea, because Cambridge rewards staying.

The colleges

King's College Chapel from King's Parade, Cambridge

The University of Cambridge is a federation of 31 colleges, most of which open their grounds to visitors in the afternoons during term and most of the day out of term. King’s College and Trinity are the famous ones: King’s for its chapel, Trinity for the lawn that Newton walked. The smaller colleges (Corpus Christi, Pembroke, Queens’) are easier to wander and just as old.

Evensong at King’s College Chapel is free, daily during term, and one of the city’s quiet pleasures. Worth checking the chapel schedule ahead.

The river

The Mathematical Bridge over the River Cam at Queens' College, Cambridge

Punting is touristy and worth doing once. Early mornings are quietest: fewer punts, soft light, and a different city. You can hire your own boat or take a chauffeured tour from Scudamore’s or Cambridge Chauffeur Punts at Quayside or Mill Lane. Then walk the Backs in the late afternoon when the lawns turn gold.

Things to do in Cambridge

A starter list of the city’s better-known things to do, most of them free or close to it. Owners and locals have their own favourites and we will keep adding to this as we go.

Museums and galleries

The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
  • The Fitzwilliam Museum, the city’s grand free museum. Antiquities, paintings, ceramics. A serious collection in a serious building.
  • Kettle’s Yard: modernist art collection set inside the linked cottages of Jim and Helen Ede, plus a contemporary gallery. Free.
  • Museum of Zoology: the fin whale skeleton in the entrance is worth the visit on its own. Free.
  • Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences: the oldest geological museum in the world, dinosaurs and meteorites included. Free.
  • The Polar Museum: Scott of the Antarctic’s last expedition, told through his own letters and gear. Free.
  • The Museum of Cambridge: local social history in a former coaching inn. Small, quirky, charming.
  • The Whipple Museum, the history of science. Globes, microscopes, beautiful old instruments. Free.

Outdoors

The glasshouse range at the Cambridge University Botanic Garden
  • Cambridge University Botanic Garden: 40 acres ten minutes’ walk from the centre. The glasshouses are best in winter; the systematic beds are best in late summer. Small entry fee.
  • The Backs: the strip of college lawn and meadow behind King’s, Clare, Trinity. Free, always open. Best walked in the late afternoon.
  • Grantchester Meadows: a 45-minute walk along the Cam to the village of Grantchester, ending at the Orchard Tea Garden for scones. Rupert Brooke and the Bloomsbury set used to do the same.
  • Wandlebury Country Park: Iron Age hill fort and beech woods five miles south, cycle-able from the city.

Punting and the river

The Bridge of Sighs at St John's College, Cambridge, reflected in the Cam

Live music, theatre and choir

The Cambridge Arts Theatre, St Edward's Passage
  • ADC Theatre: the university’s student theatre; the cradle of Footlights. Cheap tickets, a real chance you’ll see someone famous before they’re famous.
  • Cambridge Arts Theatre, the city’s main mid-scale touring house. Drama, dance, comedy, the occasional opera.
  • Cambridge Corn Exchange: gigs and stand-up in a converted Victorian market hall.
  • King’s College Chapel Choir Evensong: daily during term, free, six o’clock-ish. The choir that records the Christmas Eve service every year.

Markets and shopping

Inside Heffers bookshop on Trinity Street, Cambridge
  • Market Square, open daily in the heart of town. Produce, secondhand books, hot food. Larger arts and crafts market on Sundays.
  • Heffers on Trinity Street: the city’s institutional bookshop. Three floors, very calm.
  • The Cambridge Satchel Co. on Bridge Street: the satchels were invented here in 2008.
  • Mill Road: the city’s most independent street: South Asian groceries, vintage, vinyl, half a dozen good kitchens. Worth an afternoon.

Eat and drink

Cambridge Market Square, viewed from above

Bakeries

  • Fitzbillies on Trumpington Street, for the Chelsea bun (still made to the original 1922 recipe).
  • Bread Source on King’s Parade: sourdough and proper morning buns.

Coffee

  • Hot Numbers in the Old Press: local roast, all-day brunch.
  • Espresso Library on East Road for cyclists and book-readers.

Pubs

  • The Eagle on Bene’t Street: where Crick announced “we have found the secret of life” in 1953. Still serves a proper pint.
  • The Pickerel Inn on Magdalene Street: the oldest pub in Cambridge, parts dating to the 16th century.
  • The Mill on Mill Lane: riverside, summer evenings, cider on the grass.

Restaurants

  • Kan Zaman on Mill Road: Lebanese and Middle Eastern, halal, mezze worth ordering for the table. Shisha terrace.
  • Restaurant 22 in Chesterton: tasting menu in a converted Victorian townhouse. The treat-yourself option.
  • Stem + Glory on Chesterton Road: plant-based with a strong local following, all-day.

Day trips

Ely Cathedral seen from the meadows, Cambridgeshire

Cambridge sits at the centre of more than its share of good day-trips:

  • Ely Cathedral: twenty minutes by train, the “Ship of the Fens” rising out of impossibly flat country.
  • IWM Duxford: forty minutes by car or bus from the city; the largest aviation museum in the UK, on a working WWII airfield.
  • Wicken Fen: half an hour by car or bus, proper East Anglian fen with boardwalks, wild ponies and a windmill.
  • Audley End House: Jacobean prodigy house and gardens, twenty minutes south by train.

Getting here

  • By train. Direct from London King’s Cross or Liverpool Street to Cambridge, ~50 minutes. Greater Anglia and Thameslink run the routes most often used.
  • From Stansted. About 30 minutes by train (Greater Anglia) or one of the regular CrossCountry services. Stansted Express goes to London if you’d rather route via the capital.
  • From Heathrow / Gatwick. Either coach (National Express direct) or train via London: both around 2 hours.
  • By car. M11 J11 (south, for the city centre) or J13 (north, for Histon). Note that central Cambridge is heavily restricted to cars during the day; flats with parking are flagged on each listing.

One small thing

Cambridge has a stubborn streak of rain. Bring a coat. The city centre rewards walking even when it’s grey, and the colleges look better with the stone wet.

A place to stay while you are here

We keep about a dozen short-stay flats around central Cambridge. Studios from £100 a night, larger places up to family-size houses.

Photo credits

All non-property photos on this site come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences; property photos are owner-supplied. Credits below.