Summary:
The creation of Cambridge’s first police station, given there’s a chance Cambridge could be without a proper police station for the first time in 180 years.
The Police and Crime Commissioner for Cambridgeshire & Peterborough has published a consultation with the view to moving Cambridge’s police station at Parkside to a site outside of the city boundaries by the old landfill site at Milton – a place I grew up knowing as ‘the tip’. Read and respond to the consultation here. If you have further concerns, write to your MP and councillors via https://www.writetothem.com/
If you want to know how we got county-wide police and crime commissioners standing under party political labels, see my separate blogpost here – though be aware, that one is a very politically partisan post.
The Municipal Corporations Act 1835
It was this piece of legislation that brought in a requirement for local councils to form local paid police forces. Due to the debts the borough of Cambridge had built up, they had to dispose of some property it owned in order to pay off those debts and to fund the construction of a new police station. These from the British Newspaper Archive.
Alderman Charles Humphrey would become Mayor of Cambridge in 1837.
In May 1836, the first adverts informing the public of the new police station (or ‘Police Station-House’) was published in the Cambridge Chronicle.
Looking at the address, Miller’s Lane is what we know as Emmanuel Road today.
Mayor of Cambridge Charles Humfrey – who owned the property that the new police station-house was based in, got into a dispute about payments for improvements. This appears to have been something of a catalyst for the borough council to look for new premises.
Above – details of the dispute from a town council meeting
Calls for a new police station on St Andrew’s Street – site of the Spinning House
This started off as a dispute between councillors and university authorities over the purposes of the Spinning House Site, bequeathed by Thomas Hobson of Hobson’s Choice fame.
It was a long-running sore between town and gown. In 1840 proposals were put forward to convert the site into a hospital, but these fell through. It was in 1838 that we also saw the first tenders for uniforms for the new police force.
And thus by the end of the year, Cambridge had its own uniformed police force.
The new police station was sketched and republished in 1901 in the Cambridge Graphic, shortly before the redevelopment. 
The buildings from left to right: The pub (Pleasure!), the police station (law and order), the Spinning House (Morality), and the non-conformist chapel (Religion). This is from the Cambridgeshire Collection.
After the Spinning House was finally demolished, it was replaced by the police station buildings in the early 1900s.
The above images are from the Mayor’s Scrapbooks in the Cambridgeshire Collection. The building is still there today – having since been converted into offices used by Cambridge City Council, and now shortly to be converted into a boutique hotel and a cafe/tea room. It comes before the planning committee on 17 June 2019 – you can see the meeting papers here. The planning case is for Hobson House, 42-44 St Andrew’s Street. Click on the drawing pack to see their proposals. At the moment the building is a hidden masterpiece so I hope the development is successful in preserving the historical aspects of it while bringing it into public use for everyone to enjoy – even though previous generations of overnight guests were there at the pleasure of the monarch or the Vice Chancellor rather than themselves!
Lost Cambridge 