Cambridge Points of Interest

THE UNIVERSITY BOTANIC GARDEN

The Botanic Garden was founded in 1846 by John Stevens Henslow, Professor of Botany, best remembered for inspiring his pupil Charles Darwin with a love of natural history.

Situated 3 minutes from the Hotel, and well worth a visit

PARKER’S PIECE

Situated 5 minutes from the Hotel past the St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church and provides many acres of park where cricket, hockey and summer fairs are common.

THE CAMBRIDGE CORN EXCHANGE

The Cambridge Corn Exchange offers a whole host of entertainment. For all show times and booking information please contact the box office on Tel: 0044 (0)1223 357851 or via the Website

CITY CYCLE HIRE

If you are visiting Cambridge for the day, why not take a leisurely cycle ride around this historic city. City Cycle Hire of 61 Newham Road, Cambridge, CB3 9EY would like to offer you the unique opportunity of taking a guided tour of the city. They will take you along the quietest cycle routes and tell you about the places of interest in the area. The programme is ideal for the experienced cyclist and beginner alike. The cycle tours run from April to September and take approximately 2 1/2 hours at a minimal charge which includes bike hire. For more information and to book please call

Telephone: 0044 (0)1223 365629. Or visit: http://www.citycyclehire.com

PUNTING

This is a must for all who come to Cambridge and for all who are not afraid of water. A guided river tour of Cambridge in chauffeur driven Punts (Cambridge’s answer to Venice’s Gondolas) or for the more adventurous the hire of ones own Punt is available.

CITY SIGHTSEEING OFFICIAL TOUR

The City Sightseeing Tour of Cambridge are fun filled open top buses where one can hop on and hop off between any of the 15 stops throughout the City of Cambridge.
It has a commentary of 7 languages including: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Japanese including a children’s commentary.

Please visit http://www.citysightseeing-cambridge.com/timetable.html / Telephone: 0044 (0)1223 433250

CAMBRIDGE PARKSIDE POOLS

If you are looking for excellent swimming facilities, look no further than Cambridge Parkside Pool on Gonville Place, a short stroll from The Lensfield Hotel. With its main pool, this is divided into lanes for general swimming. A shallow pool suitable for children and learners and a diving pool for divers. There is also a toddler pool, this is an exciting pool for the under eights, featuring water slopes, bubbles and fountains. The Parkside Pool also offers it famous flumes, The green Zoom flume and the Blue Lagoon flume rides are normally available on weekends and after 4pm. For those seeking to get away from modern living, the health suite is also on hand within the Cambridge Parkside Pool. This offers the use of the sauna cabin, steam room, sanatarium and spa bath. There are also treatments available from: Aromatherapy, Physiotherapy, Reflexology, Reiki and Indian Head Massage.

https://www.cambridge.gov.uk/parkside-pools

KELSEY KERRIDGE SPORTS CENTRE

Located a mere 5 minutes walk from the Hotel you will find The Kelsey Kerridge Sport Centre for a complete range of excellent sporting facilities.

Telephone:0044 (0)1223 462226

CASTLE MOUND CM

Situated next to Shire Hall and shows some of the original city walls.

THE SCOTT POLAR RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Situated at the top of Lensfield Road, a mere 4 minutes walk away. The Institute was founded in 1920 in memory of the late Captain R.F. Scott and his companions who perished while returning from the South Pole. The institute includes a museum which displays maps, journals, paintings, photographs artefacts and other materials illustrating polar exploration and related activities.

FITZWILLIAM MUSEUM

The Fitzwilliam Museum is the art museum of the University of Cambridge. It was founded in 1816 by the bequest of the VIIth Viscount Fitzwilliam of Merrion and contains magnificent collections of works of art and antiquities of national importance.

Situated 5 minutes from the Hotel.

CAMBRIDGE & COUNTRY FOLK MUSEUM

The collections are displayed in the former White Horse Inn, a timber-framed building located in the most ancient part of Cambridge, just a few minutes walk from the centre of the City.

1 – WESTMINSTER COLLEGE

Westminster was settled in Cambridge in 1899 and is an affiliated institution of the University of Cambridge. Westminster College is a training college of the United Reformed Church.

2 – MAGDALENE COLLEGE

The College of St Mary Magdalene is located in the centre of Cambridge beside the bridge on the River Cam, from which the city takes its name. The College has its origins in the year 1428 when King Henry VI approved the establishment of a hostel on the site for Benedictine monks coming from their abbey monasteries in the Fenland to study Canon Law at the University.

3 – JESUS COLLEGE

The College was founded in 1496, and it originally consisted of buildings taken over from the nunnery of St Mary and St Radegund: namely the chapel, and the cloister attached to it; the nuns’ refectory, which became the college hall; and the former lodging of the prioress, which became the Master’s Lodge. This set of buildings remains the core of the college to this day, and this accounts for its distinctly peaceful and spacious character, which sets it apart from all the other Cambridge colleges.

4 – ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE

St John’s College was founded in 1511 by Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of King Henry VII. The second largest of the constituent Colleges of the University of Cambridge, it has about 120 Fellows, 530 undergraduates and 280 graduate students. The total current membership of the College, comprising in essence all those who have studied here, stands at around 12,000.

5 – SIDNEY SUSSEX COLLEGE

Sidney Sussex College, founded in 1596 by the Lady Frances Sidney, Countess of Sussex, is a College of the University of Cambridge. Located at the very centre of the City of Cambridge, the College is a small but diverse community including around 350 undergraduate students (studying for their first degree), 100 graduate students (undertaking Masters Degrees or a PhD), 40 teaching staff (called Fellows) and a number of other non-teaching staff.

6 – TRINITY COLLEGE

Trinity College was founded by Henry VIII in 1546 as part of the University of Cambridge. Since then Trinity has flourished and grown, and is now a home to around 600 undergraduates, 300 graduates, and over 160 Fellows.

7 – CHRIST’S COLLEGE

Christ’s is distinctive amongst the Cambridge Colleges. It offers strong tutorial support to its students as they pursue their academic work. While excellence in scholarship is especially prized at Christ’s, all members are encouraged to explore a wide range of outside interests, and innumerable extra-curricular activities flourish amongst the students: sport, music, drama and films, debating, and many, many more.

8 – CLARE COLLEGE

The College was founded in 1326 and was the first of the Oxford and Cambridge foundations to provide for a Master, Fellows and Scholars in a single community. It remains today a society of teachers and students brought together by a common interest in learning, teaching and research. The College has 95 Fellows, 180 graduate students and approximately 460 students following undergraduate or professional courses.

9 – KING’S COLLEGE

The College was founded by King Henry VI in 1441 and was originally intended as a college for pupils from Eton College, itself founded by Henry. Over the following centuries the college then gradually broadened its intake and is now widely regarded to be amongst the most progressive of the Cambridge colleges. As of 2003, approximately 68% of the British undergraduate intake were educated at comprehensive schools prior to further education.

10 – EMMANUEL COLLEGE

Emmanuel is in the heart of Cambridge, in a main shopping area, yet is off the tourist track and never feels crowded or pressured.
It is one of the larger colleges in Cambridge, a community of more than 600 people.
It’s impossible to get a real feel for the college without a proper visit but this section attempts to give a flavour of life here at Emmanuel: the environment, the people and the activity which makes it such an exciting place to be.

11 – QUEEN’S COLLEGE

First founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou and then, unusually, again in 1465 by Elizabeth Woodville, Queens’ is fiercely proud of its royal patronesses, including our most recent, Her Majesty The Queen. The history of the College, much like its architecture, is rich, complex and varied. The main College site sits astride the River Cam, the two halves joined across the river by the famous Mathematical Bridge – more correctly called The Wooden Bridge. This watery division can give visitors the impression of stepping across the bridge from the twentieth century to the fifteenth (or vice versa). Regardless of age of the buildings, the available space in College has been used to increase and improve facilities for the benefit of all members of the College. Even the famous medieval Old Hall is used for student concerts, parties, rehearsals and dinners.

12 – PEMBROKE COLLEGE

Pembroke has a long and distinguished history. Its poets and politicians, its mathematics and its music, have won the College a reputation for various distinction. Pembroke is also well known for relaxed but disciplined achievement, in academic life and beyond. Pembroke today is committed to building on those traditions of diversity in excellence.

13 – PETERHOUSE

Peterhouse is the oldest College in Cambridge: it was founded in 1284 by Hugo de Balsham, Bishop of Ely.
Peterhouse has approximately 250 undergraduates, 90 graduate students, and 45 fellows, making it the smallest College in the University of Cambridge, with the exception of a small number of Colleges where admission is restricted to graduates or mature students.

14 – DOWNING COLLEGE

The college was founded in 1800 under the will of Sir George Downing, 3rd Baronet with the wealth left by his grandfather, Sir George Downing, 1st Baronet, who served both Cromwell and Charles II and built No. 10 Downing Street (a door formerly from Number 10 is in use in the college). He died in 1749, and as he had no direct issue (he was legally separated from his wife), the family fortune was left to his cousin, Sir Jacob Downing, if he died without heir, to three cousins in succession. If they all died without issue, the estates were to be used to found a college at Cambridge called Downing.

15 – GONVILLE & CAIUS COLLEGE

Commonly referred to as Caius (pronounced Keys), Gonville and Caius College is at the centre of University life in Cambridge. It is situated in the very centre of town – moments away from the market square, a few minutes’ walk from the University Library and ideally placed for all the University faculties.

16 – NEWNHAM COLLEGE

Newnham College was founded in 1871 to promote academic excellence for women, and this is still its goal. With some 620 students and academic staff, Newnham is a thriving intellectual community in its own right and a superb springboard for all that Cambridge University has to offer.

17 – ST. CATHERINE’S COLLEGE

St Catharine’s College was founded in 1473 and is situated in the centre of Cambridge. It was largely rebuilt in the 17th century with work on the Main Court beginning in 1673; the Chapel was completed in 1704.
The College comprises the Master, Professor David Ingram, 58 Fellows and Research Fellows, some 150 graduate students, and about 410 undergraduates.
The College’s central position in Cambridge brings University departments, public transport, shops and many of Cambridge’s historic buildings within convenient walking distance.

18 – SELWYN COLLEGE

The College opened in time for the beginning of the academic year in 1882, when 28 undergraduates were admitted. The teaching staff comprised the Master, the Tutor and one non-resident lecturer. Today the College is the home to around 360 undergraduate and 130 postgraduate students, drawn from universities all over the world. The Master and more than 60 Fellows. Former students from Selwyn College have become prominent in many walks of life, including the actor Hugh Laurie, barrister and television presenter Clive Anderson, the Rt Hon John Gummer MP, and writer Robert Harris (author of ‘Enigma’ and ‘Fatherland’).
The College has a committed and friendly body of non-academic staff numbering around 110.

19 – CORPUS CHRISTI

Corpus Christi College is one of the ancient colleges of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1352 by the Guilds of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary to train priests in theology and canon law, and to provide prayers for the souls of guildsmen departed, it bears the distinction of being the only College in Oxford and Cambridge founded by their citizens. The College recently celebrated 650 years of commitment to teaching and research, carried out on the site of its original foundation in the heart of mediaeval Cambridge.

20 – GIRTON COLLEGE

Established in 1869 as the first residential College for women, Girton occupies spacious grounds about two and a half miles northwest of the centre of Cambridge next to the village of Girton. It became mixed in 1977 with the arrival of the first male Fellows and male undergraduates have been admitted since 1979. The equal balance between the numbers of men and women amongst both the Fellowship and the students is matched by no other College. The College has thus been built on the long tradition of women’s academic success and achievement to become a diverse and friendly mixed community in which students can study in a genuinely egalitarian environment.

21 – CHURCHILL COLLEGE

Churchill College is the national and Commonwealth memorial to Sir Winston Spencer Churchill (1874-1965), best known for his courageous leadership as British Prime Minister during World War II. He was a formidable political thinker, soldier, historian, bricklayer, painter and orator, and he won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1953.

22 – FITZWILLIAM COLLEGE

Fitzwilliam College is one of the more modern colleges within the University of Cambridge, situated away from the busy town centre at the top of Castle Hill. It is a fairly large community, but a very friendly one, with around 450 undergraduates and 150 graduate students, and over 60 Fellows.

23 – ROBINSON COLLEGE

Robinson College is one of the colleges making up the University of Cambridge.
It was founded as the direct result of an offer of £18 million by the British philanthropist David Robinson to establish a new Cambridge college in his name: this is still one of the largest donations ever accepted by the university. The first undergraduate students (20 of them) were admitted in 1979, but significant numbers only began arriving the next year. The college was formally opened by the Queen in May 1981.

24 – WOLFSON COLLEGE

Wolfson is the most cosmopolitan college in Cambridge and among the liveliest and most agreeable. It was founded in 1965 by the University in order to provide more places for graduate students and more fellowships for the growing number of university lecturers and research workers. Originally it was called ‘University College’, but in 1972, following a generous benefaction from the Wolfson Foundation which contributed to the cost of the main buildings of the college, the name was changed to ‘Wolfson College’.