Welcome to Cambridge! As we know, this city is home to the world renowned Cambridge University. But there is much more to know about this charming city. Read on to learn more about this beautiful city and its cool history. There might be some fun facts you didn’t know about, who knows!
Today, the city is most commonly associated with the University. Of Cambridge’s population of 123,000, over 24,000 are students, meaning about 20% of the population of Cambridge is associated with the University. The University is a huge part of the city's culture, history and functionality. The University of Cambridge is the second oldest in the United Kingdom, and the fourth oldest surviving university in the world? It was originally founded in 1209 by a collection of scholars who fled Oxford University, following an argument with the townspeople. Whilst these two prestigious universities are strongly connected, they have also been in competition for 800 years…
The Oxford vs. Cambridge competition is one of the fiercest academic rivalries in the world! This rivalry comes into the public eye through the annual competition “The Boat Race.” This sees rowing crews from these two esteemed institutions race every spring. Initially the rivalry was heightened by the simple fact they were the only 2 universities in the U.K. for 200 years, until St. Andrews was formed in 1410. They were also the only 2 universities in England for almost 600 years, up until the University of Manchester was formed in 1824.
So, is there a winner? It’s tough to say, there are so many ways of comparing them. Both have incredibly famous alumni, some of Cambridge's top graduates include: Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Oliver Cromwell, Lord Byron, Stephen Hawking, Alan Turing, Prince Charles, Stephen Fry, David Attenborough, Sir Ian McKellen and many, many more! Now to be a Cambridge alumni normally means you’re going to be ok, right? Not if your name is Oliver Cromwell. He was Lord Protector of the Commonwealth following the English Civil War. When he died in 1658 he was buried in Westminster Abbey. However, in 1661 when Charles II restored the monarchy he enacted terrible revenge on Cromwell by digging up his body, posthumously executing him, and placing his head on a spike for over 25 years! Yikes! Eventually the skull fell down and passed through several hands over the course of 300 years. Finally it was donated to Cambridge University in 1960 and is buried in the grounds…somewhere!
If your allegiance leans towards Cambridge, you might like this fact: Cambridge University has the most Nobel Prize winners! A total of 89 individuals associated with Cambridge have won, in all 6 disciplines! Impressive! They also have the most wins in physics - 29 in total! Whereas Oxford only has a measly 58 wins. Terrible! Although, Oxford has more Prime Ministers. Honestly, the list of competitions is endless.
Cambridge has always been considered a place of academic research and innovation. Numerous scientific breakthroughs and discoveries have been made on campus, most famously DNA’s structure was discovered here. But, if we had to choose one invention that tops the lot? That’s easy - football!
The first official game of football with “modern day” rules was played on Parker’s Piece, a public park. The rules were called “the Cambridge Rules,” and used for the first time in 1848. They included regulations such as; banning carrying the ball; no kicking in the shins; and no “loitering” by the goal - essentially the modern day offside rule! These rules provided a basis for the rules created by the Football Association in 1863. Therefore, the students at Cambridge can be considered trend setters, they like to do things differently. This includes the architecture.
As you walk around the historic colleges you might notice all the courtyards of the buildings are not called courtyards, or “quads” like other universities. In Cambridge, they are “courts.” Why? No reason. And what are all of these amazing buildings? Well, most of them are libraries. There are over 100 libraries at Cambridge, including over 29 million books. Can you imagine how many books that is? Because we can’t.. Actually, the university receives a free copy of every book published in the UK. Some of the collection highlights include: original letters of Charles Darwin, an original notebook of Issac Newton, and the original manuscript of Winnie the Pooh!
Such an old institution includes some very old rules! However, many of these can be considered “out-dated.” For example, students have to “keep the term,” which means that they have to stay within a three mile radius of Great St. Mary’s Church for 59 nights each term. Although there is a reputation for weird rules, there is also a reputation for skirting the rules. If you enter Trinity’s College’s Great Gate you might notice a statue of King Henry VIII. The statue is holding a sceptre and an orb. Or is he? You will notice some students stole his sceptre and a thoughtful window cleaner de
cided to replace the missing sword with a chair leg. The group who stole his sceptre are known as the “Cambridge Night Climbers,” a daring group of rapscallions who enjoy climbing the facades of the buildings. Other notable pranks include hoisting an Austin Seven car to the top of Senate House in 2958 and in 2009 placing 25 Santa hats on various buildings, including the pinnacle of King’s College Chapel and the top of Pembroke’s Porter’s Lodge. They sure have fun in Cambridge, right?
In 1805, Lord Byron entered the halls of Cambridge and was distraught to realise he could not bring his beloved dog, Boatswain! He was a huge animal lover, keeping not just a dog, but also geese, horses, peacocks, a badger, a fox, a bear and many more! So upon realising Cambridge had no legislation banning bears, he brought along his pet bear! Clever guy! Still to this day, dogs are not allowed at many of the colleges, including Selwyn College. However, the Master of the College has a pet rescued basset hound named YoYo. To get around the rules, the college’s council decided that YoYo could qualify as a “very large cat.” It is not just students being a little sneaky.
As you walk through Cambridge today on a walking tour of Cambridge, a self-guided tour of Cambridge or even independently, some of the top attractions include: Great St. Mary’s Church, Round Church, The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge University botanical gardens and the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. One of the central streets is called King’s Parade, and at the end of the road you will find a rather peculiar attraction, the Corpus Clock. This isn't any clock, it regularly speeds up, slows down and even stops to represent the relativity of time. It tells the correct time to a hundredth of a second every fifth minute. It was unveiled in 2008 by Stephen Hawking.
Today, Cambridge has really built a reputation as the tech hub of Britain. It features over 3,000 tech and science businesses and an estimated 18% of the UK’s computer gaming industry is based here. This has led it gaining the name “Silicon Fen,” which derives from Silicon Valley and the “fenland” that surrounds the city.
We recommend taking a walk with our Cambridge Self Guided Walking Tour to learn and walk at your own pace. You can discover and download our tours HERE.
