Remember Cambridge
Open For Bookings May 2024
Often the history of Cambridge after 1209 is presented as simply a story of the development of the University with the town itself largely forgotten. But, it is important to remember that in the early thirteenth century, Cambridge was a thriving town. A market of international importance and home to one of England’s largest medieval fairs on Stourbridge Common. So what happened to the townspeople after the University arrived? And how did the banks of the River Cam transform from bustling docks into serene college lands? In this post we will explore the history of early-modern Cambridge town.
Cambridge prospered in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. However, fortunes started to decline during the fourteenth century. Crop failures affected the markets at the start of the century. The ever-increasing influx of students did little for the town’s economy as poor students often had very little money to spend (not too dissimilar to students today!). By 1346, the entire town avoided any contribution to the Battle of Crecy by pleading poverty because the population had such a high proportion of scholars and beggars!
And then in 1348, Cambridge was hit by the Black Death along with the rest of England. The Black Death is estimated to have killed between a third and half of the country’s population. The aftermath of the Black Death led to a surge in college foundations in the city to replace the lost priests, such as Gonville Hall (now Gonville and Cauis) and Trinity Hall. In contrast to the success of the University in these years, the town itself struggled. With so many killed in the epidemic there were not enough men to farm the surrounding countryside.
A few decades later, the people of Cambridge took part in the 1381 Peasant’s Revolt in protest against low wages. But the revolt failed and as a consequence the townspeople of Cambridge experienced reduced freedoms within the city. A revised town charter gave supervision of weights and measures, baking and brewing to the university. Effectively putting the university in control of the town’s economy.
Meanwhile, the economy of England was shifting. The focus now was more on the docks in the coastal town of King’s Lynn at the expense of inland docks like Cambridge. In Cambridge there were clear signs of stagnation in the town. The problem was worse along the River banks which became increasingly run down. This situation was made worse by the wealthy choosing to move out of what was quickly becoming a squalid town centre. Rental prices and quality were affected by the droves of poor students who were happy to take accommodation in any condition and share several to a room to save costs.
As conditions by the River continued to deteriorate, it became cheaper for large organisations to buy land for redevelopment. Consequently, this area today houses some of Cambridge’s most prestigious colleges who bought up the cheap land as they emerged. The only major building work the town saw for a while were religious houses and student hostels which brought little-to-no economic benefits to the town.
Not only did building student accommodation bring little economic benefits, it was also destructive to the town. The major university development in this period was Henry VI’s decision to build King’s College…
Today, King’s College Chapel is the iconic image of Cambridge. An ornate gothic building overlooking the meandering river. But the true history of this building is much less known. A history of destruction.
Henry VI decided to build a Cambridge College not long after he founded Eton so students had a place to continue their studies after they graduated Eton. To build his college he bought, and demolished, a large area of the town next to the riverbank. The area included several hostels, a church, a school and half a street. A vast area of the town, all to serve just twenty scholars. It had been an area of the town where goods were unloaded from boats on the river just a short journey from the market. But now, like many other parts of the town centre, it belonged to the University.
However, initially the construction of the Chapel brought work to tradesmen of the city: freemasons were needed to shape the stone as well as the stonemasons, woodworkers and artists. But… not long into the construction of the Chapel, disaster struck. The Wars of the Roses broke out and in 1461 Henry VI was taken prisoner. At this moment work on the Chapel ceased completely and did not resume for decades. To the townspeople of Cambridge it must seem as though they had been forced from their homes for no reason!
Over the centuries the university has taken over the bustling heart of Cambridge more and more. Today, many buildings in the city centre belong to the Colleges or the University in one form or another; rented out to shops and cafes or used as student accommodation. 21st century Cambridge bears no resemblance to the thriving market town of the early thirteenth century.
Nothing symbolises the divide between town and gown in this city more than Reality Checkpoint: a lamppost standing in the centre of Parker’s Piece. A marker of the divide between the fantasy city of the University and the real world beyond. The lamppost itself was not built until 1890 but it represents the culmination of centuries of inequality. A process lasting hundreds of years where the university pushed out an entire town into the outskirts.
It’s a story that has significant ramifications today. Recently, in 2018, Cambridge was declared Cambridge’s most unequal city for the second year in a row. Cambridge today lies within silicon fen; a cluster of tech and life-science companies employing thousands of educated people in the area. Some of whom come from around the world to work here.
But behind the large scientific companies and the beauty of the university and beyond reality checkpoint lies a very different story. Cambridge has become a commuter town for London as it is just a 50 minute train ride outside of the capital. This, combined with the university owning large chunks of the city, has meant that house prices in the city are almost equivalent to those in London. These high living costs mean that many townspeople in the city are struggling.
But that is not to say we don’t love our city, or the university that is now such a big part of it. It is because of the university that this city has seen so many innovative developments such as Hobson’s Conduit or Cambridge Biomedical Campus. And for many Cambridge locals, tourism has become a lifeline. Thousands of local people are employed to support a tourism industry that sees millions of tourists pass through annually. But in 2021, when the Covid-19 pandemic has brought international tourism to an abrupt pause… what happens to the people in our beautiful city?
Read our next post to return to the story of Cambridge University and how it navigated the industrial era.