Stories of a City: Join a guided Cambridge tour in our new monthly column

In her new column for Velvet, Cambridge novelist Susan Grossey takes us to a different city site each month - and tells us their stories, past, present and personal Illustrated by Lucy Jones of Poppet Pics

Welcome to our first Stories of a City column. I have lived in Cambridge for nearly four decades and sometimes I take it for granted. Then I turn a corner or look up above the shop windows and pow – I am reminded what an astonishing place it is. And in these columns, with the artistic talent of Lucy Jones and my words, we hope to take you on a tour of its highlights – some familiar, and some unexpected.

One of the great joys of Cambridge is how it is both constantly changing and always the same. And this month you can see that contradiction as we walk along Bridge Street. Not the part with all the restaurants and pubs – let’s start at the bridge and walk towards ‘the hill’ (the only one in town).

Nowadays we call it Magdalene Bridge, but when it was first built over a thousand years ago it was the ‘Grantabrycge’. For many years it was the only bridge over the river, and was known as the Great Bridge. The waters beneath it were crowded with boats, men shouting and jostling for positions at the wharves, as most of the supplies for the growing town were brought in along the river.

And although the Mathematical Bridge tends to get all the glory these days, this bridge is still a wonderful place to stand and gaze along the river, admiring the beautiful gardens of Magdalene College and watching the punt jams. And being thankful that the Cam is no longer used as the town’s sewer…

Another reminder of Cambridge’s endurance is the Pickerel Inn. Its pale yellow walls and black window frames are much-photographed today, but the absolutely huge doors to the yard remind us that it was once an important stopping-off point for coaches (the horse-y type, not Easybus), and there is still a gorgeous lamp above the gates.

Next door was one of my favourite haunts as a student: the University Grocers. I could pretend that I was buying wholesome veggies and improving journals, but actually they were the first place in town to stock Paprika Max crisps, to which I was unhealthily addicted.

Here the street is at its most narrow, and Cambridge folk used to be very wary of walking along here when a coach was passing, in case the horses took fright and crushed you against the buildings. Today, it’s just as unnerving with the Park and Ride buses.

Just beyond the grocer’s there is an overlooked wooden gate with the blue and gold Magdalene crest painted on it. If you stand opposite the grocer’s and look to your right, you will see the most delightful wobble in the roofline of the street – every building has its own height and shape, and with the palette of pastels and pops of colour, it is just glorious.

Bowns has been one of our most elegant dress shops for many years, and the addition of little Bowns Bis next door has given them more room to shake their boa feathers. Bridge Street shops are proudly and gloriously independent and favour clever names like What the Fleur, and Tea Apothecary.

Il Barbiere has been tending to Cambridge whiskers for 30 years, and the tiny Save the Children charity shop has yielded me many treasures. Vintage clothes shop Fridge, pictured, occupies one of the prettiest buildings in the row – I long to sit in one of those enormous upstairs windows, reading and watching the world below.

The window display of pottery shop Country Traditionals is always tempting, as are the delicious aromas wafting from the Thanh Binh Vietnamese restaurant and its Italian neighbour La Margherita. Lost in Vinyl and Soap & Clay are two more miniature marvels that make the very most of their historic location.

Rounding off the street, just as it turns the corner into Northampton Street or rears up towards Castle Hill, is the office of perhaps the most Dickensian-sounding architectural practice in the world: Pleasance, Hookham and Nix.

Susan Grossey is the author of many historical crime novels, including the Hardiman books, set in Cambridge in the 1820s. The second in this series – Sizar – was published in December 2024. See susangrossey.com

For more about Lucy and her work, follow @lucyjonespoppetpics on Instagram.