During my trip to Cambridge I visited three museums in one afternoon. It was hard to narrow down which ones to visit but in the end I picked ones based on general proximity to each other. It also helped that they were all free. The first one I visited was the Whipple Museum named for Robert Whipple who gifted his collection of scientific instruments to Cambridge University in 1944.
I stumbled across St Edward’s Church while going on an early walk around the city; as best I could tell the church wasn’t actually open to go inside at the time. The church is named for Edward the Martyr a 10th century king of England and half-brother of his successor, Aethelred the Unready. Supposedly Edward, who became king in 975 when he was just 13 was murdered by his step-mother in favour of Aethelread and as such became a martyr.
The Corpus Clock is one of Cambridge’s most famous sites. Designed by John C. Taylor and inaugurated by Stephen Hawking in 2008 it is a clock with no hands with three circles of dots to show the hour, minute and second. Unfortunately when I was there last March someone (I believe still unidentified) had attacked the clock with a hammer, for reasons unknown. Thankfully it’s protected by a screen so no damage was done to the actual clock but it did mean that I didn’t get to see it working, nor see the large grasshopper that sits atop it. It has now been restored and is working once again. You can see what it usually looks like and see it in motion here.
This rather unprepossessing house at 22 Fitzwilliam Street is where Charles Darwin lived from 16th December to March 1837, after he returned from his voyage on the Beagle. It was during this time that he started writing up his notes and organising his specimens.
I’d put the Botanic Gardens down on my weather dependent list and thankfully while there was a lot of heavy rain during my visit to Cambridge all of it occured in the evening long after I’d returned to my hotel. Thus I was able to spend several hours walking around the gardens without needing to worry about seeking shelter from the elements. The gardens contain over 8,000 plant species primarily as a teaching and research resource.
This war memorial can be found just outside the Botanic Gardens and is a rather well done figure of a marching soldier by Canadian sculptor Robert Tait McKenzie. He also designed the Scots American War Memorial in Princes Street, Edinburgh.
Long time readers will know that one of my favourite things to do is visit churches – not for any spiritual reason but architecturally and historically, and if it’s possible I take the opportunity to climb up into towers and onto roofs. Great St Mary’s is often recommended because its tower gives great views of the city, so I duly put it on my list of things I wanted to do.
To visit King’s College Chapel you must show your ticket at the Gate House and then walk around to the right and the entrance to the chapel. After you’ve finished in the Chapel though you are free to walk around some of the grounds. Note that the college buildings themselves are private but you can take photos outside and walk around the Back Lawn and down to the River Cam – basically the view you get from walking along the Backs as I had done previously, only this gives you a better close up of the exterior to the chapel.
I don’t often do audio tours when I’m travelling, I suppose because I always have a rough plan of what I want to see on any particular day and between that I enjoy wandering around the area following whatever route strikes my interest. On this occasion I had no real plan for the day I arrived in Cambridge and Booking.com was offering me a deal on this particular audio tour so after checking in at my hotel I headed out to explore the Cambridge Backs.
This interesting monument just outside the centre of Cambridge and not far from the Fitzwilliam Museum was named for Thomas Hobson a local entrepreneur who carried goods between London and Cambridge and he gave money towards this project, a man-made watercourse providing clean water to the city. He’s also where the expression Hobson’s choice comes from*.
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