RFI: Cambridge (UK)--Highlights, low life?

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Cantabs, townies, rep your hood.

I'm in Cambridge this weekend for a wedding, first visit ever--got any favorite things? Bars, odd corners, unmissable cultural treasurehouses, places you've been ill all welcome.

― Stephen X (Stephen X), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 21:46 (twenty years ago)

this post is for all my soldiers in CB4

― n_RQ, Wednesday, 13 July 2005 21:56 (twenty years ago)

Word up the CB4.

Until a couple of weeks when we're moving, that is. Then it's word up the CB1.

Stephen, the Maypole is brilliant but quite expensive (~£3 a pint). Plus Cambridge Pipe + Tobacco is the place to be seen. Also, my flatmate suggests you should ogle the barmaid at the Eagle (young, brunette, glasses).

Beware town at the weekend however, as it's FULL OF TOURISTS

― tissp! (the impossible shortest specia), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 22:55 (twenty years ago)

eh? that place opposite the round church?

― N_RQ, Thursday, 14 July 2005 07:45 (twenty years ago)

I used to be a member of the CB4 crew. I was in constant danger of row-by shootings.

― Peter Stringbender (PJ Miller), Thursday, 14 July 2005 07:52 (twenty years ago)

http://www.laserdisken.dk/billeder/forsidealm/1054831919136829.jpg

― N_RQ, Thursday, 14 July 2005 07:55 (twenty years ago)

Syd Barrett: The Untold Story

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 14 July 2005 07:58 (twenty years ago)

CB4 reprazentin! (even though I now live way outta the city, I'm still CB4, yay me!)

The Maypole must be visited for their cocktails if nothing else. Ask for a nutty earnest! mmmmmm lubberly!

― PinXorchiXoR (Pinkpanther), Thursday, 14 July 2005 07:58 (twenty years ago)

i was down the eagle last weekend. cambridge looks so different without the big robert sayles building. i have never been to the maypole.

― N_RQ, Thursday, 14 July 2005 08:01 (twenty years ago)

Wot no Robert Sayles?

― Peter Stringbender (PJ Miller), Thursday, 14 July 2005 08:06 (twenty years ago)

ity's been temporarily relocated to burleigh st, but the whole edifice wot used to be heffers, pizza express, robert sayles geek/toy dept, has been destroyed, so you can see king's college chapel from emmanuel college &c. it changes the whole feel.

― N_RQ, Thursday, 14 July 2005 08:08 (twenty years ago)

the maypole was one of those things that seemed really good when i lived in cambridge but seems pretty rubbish whenever i go back. esp the cocktails, sadly.

i guess it's worth having a wander around some of the colleges - maybe trinity and kings? if you walk through the front gate confidently you can avoid paying (and if questioned just say that you're an alumnus).

― toby (tsg20), Thursday, 14 July 2005 08:15 (twenty years ago)

go to the millpond. it would be nicer if they got rid of all the vomiting 15-year-olds, but in saying that i'm killing off a key part of my youth.

― N_RQ, Thursday, 14 July 2005 08:20 (twenty years ago)

(x-post) Blimey.

To get back to the original question, King's College Chapel is a must, and the museum whose name has been erased from my memory has some nice stuff. If you like old calculators, then the science museum is the place to be. They have a Little Professor.

― Peter Stringbender (PJ Miller), Thursday, 14 July 2005 08:29 (twenty years ago)

the maypole was one of those things that seemed really good when i lived in cambridge but seems pretty rubbish whenever i go back. esp the cocktails, sadly.

Oh well that told me!

― PinXorchiXoR (Pinkpanther), Thursday, 14 July 2005 08:30 (twenty years ago)

eh? that place opposite the round church?

Yup. Go to the Maypole and get a Black Russian, which they will ask if you want "Irish style". This means with added curacao and Guiness. It's really baffling.

― tissp! (the impossible shortest specia), Thursday, 14 July 2005 08:42 (twenty years ago)

well, i'm sure it's just a matter of opinion! of of real life not living up to nostalgia. (x-post)

― toby (tsg20), Thursday, 14 July 2005 08:43 (twenty years ago)

ah, i meant opposite round church in other direction for 'Cambridge Pipe + Tobacco is the place to be seen.' is it!?!?! or is that a clever name for a new bar?

― N_RQ, Thursday, 14 July 2005 08:44 (twenty years ago)

ah, i meant opposite round church in other direction

Yeah, that's what I meant too sorry.

'Cambridge Pipe + Tobacco is the place to be seen.' is it!?!?!

Yeah, blatently.

or is that a clever name for a new bar?

It should be.

― tissp! (the impossible shortest specia), Thursday, 14 July 2005 08:47 (twenty years ago)

galloway and teh porter is definitely a hotspot.

― N_RQ, Thursday, 14 July 2005 08:49 (twenty years ago)

galloway and porter is the best thing in cambridge.

― toby (tsg20), Thursday, 14 July 2005 08:53 (twenty years ago)

Gallow & Porter vs Cambridge Pipe & Tobacco FITE

― tissp! (the impossible shortest specia), Thursday, 14 July 2005 08:54 (twenty years ago)

Cambridge hataz! *rollseyes*

― PinXorchiXoR (Pinkpanther), Thursday, 14 July 2005 08:55 (twenty years ago)

toby is wrong. cambridge is much nicer than london, which i've started spelling s-h-i-t-h-o-l-e. ok, the bars are crap, but they're crap, and equally expensive, here. cambridge's cinema is better than almost all of london's cinemas, and its film festival is better than london or edinburgh. plus you can walk everywhere.

and if you *do* need to go to london, it's only 45 minutes away. it takes about as long for me to get to the british library from where i live in london as it would from cambridge.

― N_RQ, Thursday, 14 July 2005 08:58 (twenty years ago)

Nicely said!

― PinXorchiXoR (Pinkpanther), Thursday, 14 July 2005 09:02 (twenty years ago)

N_RQ is right. But I think perhaps Ely is nicer still.

I'm not keen on bars, and I only went to the Cambridge cinema once because it is so expensive (although less than London, I expect).

It was Peeping Tom, if anyone cares.

― Peter Stringbender (PJ Miller), Thursday, 14 July 2005 09:04 (twenty years ago)

Cambridge night-life is pretty lacking though. I'm trying to start a night, but if you're not playing the same as the Kambar, you can forget about it...

― tissp! (the impossible shortest specia), Thursday, 14 July 2005 09:04 (twenty years ago)

cambridge's cinema is better than almost all of london's cinemas

you're talking about the arts cinema, not the warners, i presume? either way you are clearly on crack.

cambridge is kinda nice in the summer, but not really any nicer than being in a prak in london.

i was about to start addressing the issue of bars etc, but i've realised that even engaging in london vs cambridge is pretty dumb, really.

galloway and porter is great, though. i don't know of anything like it anywhere else.

― toby (tsg20), Thursday, 14 July 2005 09:04 (twenty years ago)

Arts Picturehouse is the skillest. Purely for the time I spent 9 hours in there one saturday. Yes, most of it was at the bar.

― tissp! (the impossible shortest specia), Thursday, 14 July 2005 09:06 (twenty years ago)

subuerban london kinos are fairly cheap, i guess, but you/i/one always, or almost always, has to pay for transport, and in cambridge -- this is what really struck me last weekend -- everyone cycles. it's like amsterdam. this used to be bread and butter to me, in oxford too, but in london i've used my bike about twice in a whole year. being able to get about independently of mechanized, hot, crowded, uncomfortable and pricey transport is something to be treasured.

yeah arts picturehouse. maybe places like cine lumiere compare, but lord save me from the ica/nft/barbican. i guess the everyman is comparable, but more up itself.

― N_RQ, Thursday, 14 July 2005 09:09 (twenty years ago)

cambridge nightlife/bars/whatevs are bad, tho, but, uh, it don't worry me. i don't see the point of a city if it's practically impossible to move around freely, is all.

― N_RQ, Thursday, 14 July 2005 09:13 (twenty years ago)

You CB4ors are a fierce lot; I'll pack my kevlar when I hit these spots.

Should I bother popping into a museum at all, or are they mostly sad faded displays, cracked lino etc.? Although actually that's sounding not bad.

― Stephen X (Stephen X), Thursday, 14 July 2005 12:27 (twenty years ago)

The Fitzwilliam Museum is lovely. I really like it there, if you have time it's definitely worth it. http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/

― PinXorchiXoR (Pinkpanther), Thursday, 14 July 2005 12:34 (twenty years ago)

kettle's yard. the house, rather than the museum. just an amazing fkn house. fairly central (halfway up castle hill, nr maudlin).

― N_RQ, Thursday, 14 July 2005 12:38 (twenty years ago)

my flatmate and i might go to cambridge tomorrow as part of our bunk off work programme. southend is also in the running. obviously, we're deranged from the heat.

― lauren (laurenp), Thursday, 14 July 2005 12:41 (twenty years ago)

go to cambridge! watch the dziga vertov films! i know even know where southend is.

― N_RQ, Thursday, 14 July 2005 12:42 (twenty years ago)

i dreang3ed too.

― N_RQ, Thursday, 14 July 2005 12:42 (twenty years ago)

Whenever I go to Cambridge I like to walk to the Orchard in Grantchester, chill, and walk back.

― The Mad Puffin (The Mad Puffin), Thursday, 14 July 2005 12:42 (twenty years ago)

Cheers all; I'm headed to the airport. I'll let you know how it goes, and the state of the local drunk tank.

― Stephen X (Stephen X), Thursday, 14 July 2005 16:51 (twenty years ago)

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