Cambridge is so impressive that Part 1 focused on one small stretch of road, yet was still one of my longer posts. Let's try that again, shall we?
The Senate House
The Senate House is adjacent to Gonville and Caius, a grand house that has stood here since the eighteenth century. They wanted it to be one side of a larger complex, but this never happened; not that that's a bad thing for visitors. There is a Senate in Cambridge, which used to run the university, but that role has belonged to the Regent House. Nowadays, it elects the Chancellor of the University, as well as the High Steward - both positions that used to be more significant than they are now.
The Senate used to meet here, but they don't anymore. Instead, it's best known as the place where students officially graduate. The house has also hosted an election debate before, though aside from that, seems to not host regular events. The large vase in the middle of the green field behind the fence is actually a replica of a shattered Roman vase, known as the Warwick Vase. It just so happens to be one of several, scattered across the country, and similar ones lie abroad too.
The Corpus Clock
This is a curious installation just down the road, next to King's College and owned by Corpus Christi. It's a bug supposedly eating time, as blue flickers of light make their way round the clock, the bug treading on. Apparently it blinks once a while, though I didn't watch it long enough to see that. It's strangely hypnotic in a way and somewhat relaxing. But you shouldn't necessarily use it as a clock.
It came about in 2008 as an art piece, not as a measuring device, so of course some aspects will are deliberate and to create a message few people will actually notice. John Taylor, who created the clock, was weary of time, saying "he'll eat up every minute of your life". The pendulum isn't all that exact, and sometimes the seconds will tick by arrythmically. It is quite nice, though, and it's made of proper gold - you can't say Taylor wasn't passionate about the project. Here's an old Guardian article about the clock.
Corpus Christi College
Few college names point to Cambridge's religious background like Corpus Christi. Another college that I could only peer through a walkway to see what it looked like, this one came about in 1352 specifically to train priests. The college building by the high street isn't all that big, with the magnificent Gothic New Court lacking accommodation - instead, that's outside the city in Leckhampton. It also houses lots of old texts in its Parker Library, too. Opposite lies St Catharine's College (which I don't have photos of), and by the junction with the Corpus Clock lies Bene't Street. Here's the church that Corpus students attended when it opened, and there's the Eagle Pub where the concept of DNA was announced by Watson and Crick. Some local businesses advertise themselves as Cambridge businesses, possibly in the hope that tourists would find them more attractive.
At this point, we were heading back to the bus, so we started to head out of the centre. Passing over the River Cam, near Queen's College and its impressive exterior, and the Department of Land Economy's less impressive front, was the Mathematical Bridge.
The bit that's mathematical about it is that it's comprised of many tangential trusses that come together to form an arc. This method had been used to construct a wooden Westminster Bridge in 1737, but after the wood froze over, this was scrapped. However, the bridge, built ten years after Westminster's, still stands here to this day. It's claimed that the bridge was built without bolts, but looking at the bridge for a few seconds confirms that there are bolts. Some even claim the bridge was the work of Isaac Newton, but he was dead at the time - instead, it was William Etheridge (who also created the Westminster design).
At this point, we were outside of the town centre. To the south lays Coe Fen, an open green space where the Cam briefly splits in two, and the nearby Darwin College lies at the upcoming junction. The college itself is quite new for Cambridge standards, opening in 1964, purely for postgrad students.
If I was planning a trip to Cambridge, purely to visit the town, perhaps I'd have included information on the local football stadium or Reality Checkpoint - a lamppost with its own name. Perhaps I'd have dared to approach Grantchester Meadows, if only for the fact that Pink Floyd have a song of the same name. Maybe I'd have bored all of you with some needless chatter about railways and the Cam. Instead, as we made our way back to the bus, I took some photos, including this one of St John's College.
Now we're full circle. And if you want to go back round the circle, here are the previous Cambridge posts:
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