Lost Cambridge

And a controversy on political education of young people from 1984 There’s an academic thesis waiting to be researched, written, and published about the growth and expansion of Cambridge’s language school sector in the post-war era. The same goes for the post-war private colleges. For anyone interested in such an undertaking, Dr James Day, a … More James Day of the Eurocentres Language School – and his campaign to get a new concert hall for Cambridge – 1970

The Guide to New Cambridge Architecture 1972 showcases a number of modern buildings now seen as obsolete some fifty years later – with proposals already in place for the replacement of some of them. How did they look at the time? It’s over half a century old – along with some of the featured buildings, … More New Cambridge council housing in the late 1960s – and cautionary publications from the 1970s on maintenance

I’ve started digitising them for the Association, on whose committee I am on. The annual of 1999 shines a light on the much-loathed Spinning House – the Vice Chancellor’s Private Prison This illustration from Ernest Clegg’s poster of Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely just after the Second World War (note the Tudor Crown of … More Cambridgeshire Association for Local History’s hidden secrets from their archive of annual reviews

Now why would they do that? Especially as Cambridge City Council are encouraging people to post their photos of the municipal fireworks displays onto social media! Cambridge in one respect is fortunate enough to be able to call on private sector sponsorship to cover the costs of the annual event – other towns are not … More Cambridge bans fireworks – October 1818

The Saffron Walden Press & News published an obituary on 06 May 1932, which I’ve transcribed from the British Newspaper Archive as follows: “The untimely death of Miss Enright, Principal of the Cambridgeshire Technical School [a predecessor institution of today’s Anglia Ruskin University on East Road, Cambridge – see earlier blogpost], who, we regret to … More Dorothy Enright’s achievements for technical education in Cambridge and District 1925-32

Another abandoned scheme that was published in the Cambridge Evening News of Monday 24 July 1989. And this one was promoted by the Cambridgeshire Conservatives. Have a look at the map below. Above – the proposals (which you can compare with a map of Cambridge on G-Maps) The headline of that edition’s Cambridge Evening News … More The Cambridge Light Rail and Road Strategy 1990-2001

Cambridge City Council took out a full page advert in the Cambridge Weekly News to report what a survey of residents showed. This was at a time when housing and transport were incorporated into the same plan, unlike today. Interestingly, the then Leader of Cambridge Liberal Democrats, David Howarth (now Professor in the Dept of … More Cambridge residents back light rail – Local Plan Consultation 1991

Cambridge City Council has a motion condemning Stagecoach for 20 Oct 2022. But haven’t we been here before? “Cambridge City Council deplores Stagecoach’s plan to withdraw 18 bus services across the county, noting the potential loss of independence and financial cost incurred by those who have relied on them, such as those students left without means of getting … More “Sack Stagecoach!” was the cry back in the late 1990s as councillors complained about bus services

Young people in/around Cambridge looking for an extended project to research and present on, have a browse through some old newspapers from a couple of generations ago – are your experiences with things like transport and accessible leisure facilities similar to today? And it wasn’t just on the buses either! (Above – 1983 from the … More Would Cambridge’s turbulent 1980s make for an interesting extended school/college project for teenagers?

Some of you may have seen the politicians debating congestion charging in the news recently – such as the MP for South Cambridgeshire coming out against the proposals from the Greater Cambridge Partnership. Yet recent local history tells us that every 15 years the concept comes back – the last two occasions being under Conservative-led … More A congestion charge for Cambridge? The County Council tried it in the early 1990s. And in 2007