Anyone who is familiar with Cambridge, please answer this?

[monrymeadows73]

If you're familiar with the city of Cambridge/the University of Cambridge, please answer this for me:

I plan on visiting Cambridge, purely to take a look around the University (and maybe the city, but mostly the University). I am going to be travelling solo and by train.

So, when I reach Cambridge train station, is the University literally just there or is it really distant? By this I mean that although I know the University is spread across the city, is the train station is some random place or is it close to one of the Colleges/University buildings?

How difficult would it be to tour most of the Colleges (just looking from the outside, not conducting deep, sight-seeing) within a few hours? Is it possible?

Will there be a lot of students everywhere or do they usually stay in their own Colleges not wander around? Do regular Cambridge citizens often walk around the University as in is it connected with where they usually go out to or should I expect to see few regular people and mostly tourists and students?

I can answer that. I will try to do a few posts to answer your various question. Just a sec while I type it.

The centre of the university for visitors is generally considered to be King's College.

If you do a google maps search and ask for time to walk from the station to King's College then that will get you your timing.

The train station is a bit outside the main city. Maybe 10-20 mins walk.

the undergrads have probably finished by now. Post grads and staff still there.

The city gets very busy with Christmas shoppers. I usually avoid in dec to be honest. Parking’s a bloody nightmare.

yes you can just walk around and see colleges. Some are further out than others eg Girton is a couple of miles out (that’s the furthest)

The colleges are quite spread out. There are a lot in town, but then there are "the hill colleges" which are a very little bit to the north.

You could look round the city colleges in about an hour, just looking at the outsides.

You'd want another hour maybe 90 minutes to look at the outsides of the hill colleges (Churchill, Fitzwilliam, Murray Edwards, Lucy Cavendish etc)

Girth is a whole lot further away and you would need a bicycle or car to get there. You can look on google maps.

The colleges are a bit spread out, but Cambridge is a small city. You can get a good feel for the colleges and go into some of them in a few hours. Also, lots 0f buses go from the station to Central Cambridge and you can walk from there.

Yes that's true. Definitely do not try to drive around Cambridge. The city is small and cramped and is largely pedestrianised in the centre.

If you walk around the centre, you will see tourists, locals and students all mixed up together and it will be fairly difficult to tell which is which.

The "city" is kind of 50:50 university buildings and regular ordinary buildings and we all rub along together. There is no campus, as such. The university buildings are just dotted around in the city, which a normal city full of normal-ish people.

If you are coming for the day, it would be really a very good idea to bring a bicycle or hire one. People mostly travel by bike here, from pure necessity. The distances to the hill colleges are mostly cycling distance, rather than walking distance, and you can take a bike right into the city centre.

It's important to observe the one-way travel rules even on a bike.

There are electric bikes to rent through the VOI scheme, if that helps.

It's famously a bit of a trek from the station to the city centre, but it's definitely walkable, and there are buses. If you have any mobility issues, get transport of some kind.

It's not a campus university - there are colleges scattered throughout the city, mostly the centre, northern and western sides. Whether they are open to the public or not will depend on the time of year, whether it's term time or exam time. I assume they all have websites these days that will tell you when they're open. Some colleges have museums or galleries attached, which will have their own opening hours (thoroughly recommen the Murray Edwards Women's Art Collection.) If it's term time, there will be students everywhere. Whenever you go, there will be tourists.

If you want a good overview, I'd get a hop-on/hop-off tourist bus, which isn't as cheap, but will go past a lot of the more famous colleges.

It depends why you want to do this. If you're thinking of applying, then look up open days.

The station is pretty far from the town centre, where the cluster of old colleges and the medieval centre of Cambridge are. You’ll need to walk (about 20mins) or catch a bus to get there.

You can walk around the centre - down Trumpington St, King’s Parade, Trinity Lane, Bridge Street, Sidney Lane, and Jesus Lane, loop around the Backs of the colleges (Queen’s Road). You’d see the outside of the college buildings and, from the backs, King’s Chapel, the Wren Library, etc. Walking that circuit would take a couple of hours.

Full term ended on Friday, so a lot of undergraduate students will already be gone. Cambridge is very busy and touristic - the footfall in the centre can be huge, so it can feel very crowded. The crowds of shoppers may well sometimes be composed of Cambridge citizens, but most people don’t live in the centre and won’t necessarily just be ambling about there, and the people who work in the university tend to be holed up in their departments, offices, colleges, and so on.

Don't forget Sidgwick Avenue with Newnham, Selwyn and the Sidgwick site & leading to Robinson.

If we knew what your aim was in 'visiting the university' we could guide your day a bit maybe?

Because lectures are university wide there will be lots of students around going to/from lectures (even on a Saturday for some subjects).
Tourists in the centre a lot, far less outside the centre.
Locals (like my DB) who live there going about their daily business.

If you look on the College websites they will tell you their opening hours, if you can walk around inside independently, if you can book a tour etc.

I haven't done this in Cambridge but I booked a (free) self guided visit to Magdalen in Oxford and it was wonderful! Do go inside a college if you can. You'll get a much richer experience.

You could also consider booking one of the many guided tours of Cambridge colleges. Here's one example. The start point is about a 30 minute walk from the train station.

Shared Walking Tour_Cambridge College Tours https://share.google/DWN5itvZ6uzPMrb32

Check on opening times and the times they close their doors for end-of-day if you would like to see some of what is behind the college lodges (recommended). Several of them will be closed to visitors for at least short parts of the day, for many and varied reasons.
The majority of students will now have gone home for the break, but the city will be very busy with visitors/shoppers. Some colleges may host conferences for some of December. Between Christmas and New Year - probably unusually quiet, by contrast.

If you walk from the train station, after about 15 minutes you will be at St Andrews Street where you will be near Downing College, and then further along Emmanuel College. Then look on Google maps and see which other ones you want to concentrate on,eg. Kings's, Trinity. You will get around a lot, but as a previous poster said, some are out of the centre, eg. Girton and Homerton. Maybe chose one that you want to look around.

Does anyone know, can you arrange to visit Trinity? I've always wanted to see it (an old friend, now sadly passed, studied there)

Why don't you look on their website?

Probably for similar reasons the OP started this thread, to get some info from people who might know? I suppose what I really would like to know is; how welcoming might Trinity be to a tourist (who might become quietly tearful at touring a place her now deceased partner of 40 years lived in for four years as a young man? he took me there in 1992 but I can't remember now if we could see all around as he was an old student or if any old tourist can wander) Their website may tell me that. I could phone & ask I guess. But it felt safer to ask anonymously on this thread.
OP sorry to jump in on your thread. I hope you have a lovely day exploring Cambridge.

My daughter was at a ‘hill college’, and still lives in the city now she’s working. We’ve done a lot of walking in Cambridge!
I think if I wanted to get an idea of the place I’d get a taxi or uber from the station to the furthest point I wanted to visit and work back from there.
I'm not sure how useful walking past a lot of colleges is vs looking inside a few tbh, although imo it’d be pleasant if the weather is ok. Some of them you can walk through the grounds eg Downing. If you’re a prospective student many will be happy to let you have a look I believe.

So, a bit more than an 'old frirnd' & yes I went once, many moons ago. I didn't particularly want to go into all that which I now have done whilst justifying my response to your fairly blunt reply) I imagine him rolling his eyes.

Re trinity:

if the college is open tourists can just wander around.

i frequently used it as a short cut over to the backs when I lived closer to the centre.

i don’t know when they are open. In practice you can’t tell the difference between uni people and locals and tourists except that the uni people and locals walk around like they own the place.

members of the university (so people who went there at any point plus staff) generally have free access to all the colleges and some are frequently used as short cuts to avoid busy roads (eg kings parade),

so if you walk through like you belong nobody really stops you.

Sorry if I upset you.

I don't think I could have inferred all that from what you wrote. I imagine much depends on what kind of day the porter's had...

I think the OP could also have answered his/her own question by googling, but the question of "which part IS the university" is a reasonable one as it's not obvious.

@Needlenardlenoono, tbf you couldn't, but I appreciate the apology.
@Octavia64Thank you, that is exactly the sort information I was trying to gauge. Of course there are no guarantees but if a grumpy Porter challenged me as I was trying to retrace his steps it might tip me into getting emotional whereas I'd be hoping for some quietly reflective time. Quietly walking around (obvs only public areas!) as though you have 'a right to be there' sounds sensible.

@ARoomSomewhere there are guided tours of Trinity daily at 10am and 2pm, led by one of the porters. This may not be what you want if you want some reflective time, but just fyi. It doesn’t seem like you can just visit Great Court & the chapel like you could when I was a student unfortunately. Otherwise you might attend a service in the chapel, which would allow you to walk through Great Court to get to the chapel? And the music is always beautiful at chapel services!

@monrymeadows73 I’m sure there are millions of You Tube videos that will show you what Cambridge looks like on any normal day - so you should definitely seek them out.

I can say it isn’t really possible to look around the university without simultaneously looking at the city - no coffee shop or supermarket or hairdresser that you pass will be exclusively for the use of university or non-university residents - and colleges own masses of property which may be leased to entirely commercial businesses with no academic connection at all.

I’d say most people who don't travel from the station by bike simply hop on a bus into the city centre. They’re right outside the station doors, you don’t have to search for them.

No - students don’t ’stay in their own colleges’. During term time they’re all over the city every day. Their accommodation may be within their college but lectures are held on departmental sites, they may have supervisions in other colleges, they’ll probably be involved in sport or music or whatever, all over the city. They use the same supermarkets, other shops, beauticians, salons, as non-uni citizens and tourists. For most purposes it operates just like any other city - it’s just much prettier than most.

I do think though, that if there’s any specific college or uni department you would like to visit more purposefully, it would make sense to find out how to do that, rather than just turning up on spec.

for the person who asked about Trinity it does tours twice a day. You can also go to a service at the chapel. I’m sure their website would list service times.

Like others have said for the colleges in general some you can visit, some will be tickets only and I think ones like Kings are quite pricey. When I went it was with dc who were thinking of studying there and the porters always let us have a nimble round the grounds for free. Apart from Trinity. This was during the Easter break though, the colleges might not have been as accommodating during term time.

In terms of time there will be lots of students milling around. A relative of mine is currently at Trinity and he has his lectures all over town so they are walking from one building to another. You wouldn’t know he was a student. You’ve missed matriculation week when you might see students walking around in gowns.

They have finished for Xmas this weekend. Won’t be back until mid January time.

You can also stay overnight at many of the colleges out of term time. I’ve stayed at Catz overnight which was nice…rooms are very basic! 😀