Stories of a City: Exploring the hidden delights of Cambridge’s Botanic Garden

Cambridge novelist Susan Grossey takes us to a different city site each month and tells us their stories - past, present and personal. This month, she’s taking a pew in the Botanic Garden

Some years ago, for a significant birthday, a friend gave me the most thoughtful present: membership of the Cambridge University Botanic Garden. I had often visited before then, but membership – which I have gladly maintained ever since – means that I can really get to grips with the place, exploring every bit of it. And to my mind, the truly magical parts of the Botty G (as we rather twee-ly refer to it) are not the showcase locations such as the Main Walk, the fountain and the glasshouses, but rather the hidden corners where you can almost imagine yourself alone in a private paradise.

I have long had a favourite secluded spot: a bench in an elevated but concealed location which catches the afternoon sun and lets me people-watch while unobserved myself. But I am not going to tell you where that is, partly because I am a bit selfish about it, and partly because it’s in a part of the garden that is under renovation at the moment and you can’t actually get to it. What I will do, by way of compensation, is take you on a little tour of six more wonderful hidden benches around the garden – all perfect for reading, snoozing, chatting, lunching or just plain being.

We’ll start our tour at the main gate on Brookside. Head into the garden and instead of following the path more trodden along Lynch Walk, plunge straight ahead into the Woodland Garden. And here is our first bench, surrounded on three sides by bamboo and overlooking the lake. If you sit very quietly, you are bound to see a very nervous black coot, with its extravagant feet, pecking around at the water’s edge. Make your way out of the woods, ignore the Main Walk (lined with benches, but everyone can see those), cross the Systematic Beds, and train your sights on the curved wooden Rising Path. And beyond that, right at the edge of the garden, is a lovely picnic table – perfect for an elegant little lunch.

For your post-prandial nap, you’ll need somewhere more secluded. Rejoin the world by coming back under the Rising Path, and walk a few yards along the South Walk. Then duck off to the left, into the wooded area, and there are two very unusual benches, hacked out of a fallen tree just where it fell.

They’re chunky and comforting, and perfect for putting your feet up and drifting off. But if you’re feeling a bit more cultured than rustic, then our next bench will be just right for you. Continue along the South Walk until you reach the Rose Garden. In the middle is a tall, clipped hedge – and nestled right into it, back-to-back with the high hedge between them, are two benches. When the roses are in bloom, the smell from these benches is just phenomenal.

And it is aroma that will take us to our fifth bench. This one is slightly less hidden, but its distance from the main gate and the café means that not many people bother to make the journey. So strike off north-eastwards from the Rose Garden and make your way to the Scented Garden, where you will find an ideal bench for rainy days, as it is positioned under cover in a wooden structure that reminds me of a rather elegant bus-stop, or one of those huts you find on seaside piers.

Our final bench is on the way back towards Brookside. Rejoin Bateson Walk and head back into the centre of the garden. Turn right immediately after the Dry Garden and you will see ahead of you the side of the gorgeous white Cory Lodge. Look to your right, and tucked up to the hedge is a curved bench that is the most wonderful sun-trap. Settle yourself down, and imagine yourself the resident of the lodge, just taking a little rest in your own beautiful garden. Well, I can dream, can’t I?

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

Illustrated by Lucy Jones of Poppet Pics. For more about Lucy and her work, follow @lucyjonespoppetpics on Instagram.