Lost Cambridge

Why compare these three? Cambridge is often compared with Oxford, and Brighton is not only where I used to live but also the only UK seaside resort with a direct rail link from Cambridge. One that was opened twenty years after I might have found it useful instead of having to interchange on the Victoria … More Comparing Oxford, Cambridge, and Brighton’s post war development planning in the motor car age

Some publications by Cambridge City Council that I’ve scanned for you to see. But first, a big Thank you to those of you who have contributed towards the expense of purchasing these old documents from various sources (mainly ‘electronic-bay’, Abe-books’, and G-David in Cambridge) which I’ve spent much of the past few weeks scanning and … More Central Cambridge’s townscape in the 1970s

Another discovery by Mike Petty MBE from his series of digitised articles and images from the Cambridge Daily News in 1935 – have a look here. Above – Not just a pool but a “Swimming Stadium” – Cambridge Daily News 15 April 1935. The text below it (out of shot) reads: “The above design prepared … More The plan for a new indoor swimming pool at Parkside in 1935.

From the British Newspaper Archive, the death of Charles Henry Cooper in 1866 led to may tributes, including this one from Professor John Mayor of St John’s College, who was a Professor of Latin at Cambridge University. The Town Clerk, Coroner, Local Historian and Antiquarian amongst other things, I describe Charles Henry Cooper as the … More Charles Henry Cooper – the Father of Modern Cambridge

I was today years old when I discovered Cambridge once had a centre for unemployed and unwaged people similar to the one that I heard about in Brighton when I lived there in the early 2000s. I’d been asking on-and-off about this for years. Turns out we did have one – it was called the … More The Andrew Murden Centre for Unemployed and Unwaged Citizens

It took a few years and lots of meetings before St Matthew’s Piece could be opened and designated a public park by Cambridge Borough Council. The report also raises some contemporary questions about the construction of, and later the selling off of the old Howard Mallett Centre built on the green. The brass band concerned … More Army brass band opens St Matthew’s Piece, Petersfield, Cambridge, 1898.

The emerging local plan for Greater Cambridge (City and South Cambridgeshire) provided an impetus to explore previous local housing and transport plans. After nearly two years away from the camcorder, I started producing some vlogposts again – until an unexpected heart attack brought that to an abrupt end. Fortunately for me, the staff at Addenbrooke’s … More What Lost Cambridge rediscovered in 2021 – a review and summary

People familiar with Eglantyne Jebb may well know that she was arrested, prosecuted, and fined for handing out protest leaflets on starving children in Austria six months after the Armistice. It even gets a mention on the Save the Children international webpage. For those of you who have not read Eglantyne’s biography, see Clare Mulley … More Eglantyne Jebb prosecuted for handing out protest leaflets without permission from the military censor. May 1919.

An inevitably censored/self-censored article in the Cambridge Independent Press on 01 Jan 1915 hints at some of the struggles the Borough of Cambridge faced. Put simply, local government did not have the infrastructure to respond to the demands suddenly placed upon it. The voluntary response from the town, while worthy, could never cover everything equally, … More The Soldiers’ Christmas – Winter 1914