Scents & stories · Inspired by Cambridge

Places, people & the things that stay

Cambridge Stories

Meadow paths and college rituals, a discovery shared in a pub, ideas that travelled the world. Get to know the Cambridge behind the memories.

Featured · Gardens & nature

The long way to Grantchester.

Two miles of meadow, a river that changes its name, and tea under the apple trees. The walk that inspired Cam Breeze.

Read the story · 6 min

People & discoveries

The Eagle, and the story beyond the pub.

A Cambridge landmark tied to the double helix, and a discovery with a wider cast.

Scent · The Old Library

Ideas & innovation

The Cambridge Phenomenon.

Beyond the old stone: researchers, founders and engineers connecting ideas.

Scent · Newton’s Apple

College life

What does matriculation mean?

The moment a student becomes a member of the University.

Scent · Best of Luck

Gardens & nature

A garden grown for curiosity.

Inside the Botanic Garden, where science and planting grow side by side.

Scent · Newton’s Apple

Gardens & nature

Byron’s Pool: a quieter bend.

A shaded stretch of river with a poet’s name and a long history of swimmers.

Scent · Cam Breeze

People & discoveries

Stephen Hawking’s Cambridge.

The streets, colleges and corridors of one of the city’s best-known minds.

Scent · The Old Library

Music & quiet moments

Cambridge, heard through its choirs.

Evensong, candlelight and voices that carry across the stone.

Scent · Fellows’ Garden

College life

Why are May Balls held in June?

A celebration that outgrew its month, and kept its name anyway.

Scent · The May Ball

Traditions

An evening at Formal Hall.

A college dinner becomes an occasion: shared tables, conversation and a different pace.

Scent · The Old Library

Traditions

Why the gown still matters.

Cambridge’s academic dress gives milestones a visible shape, from college occasions to graduation.

Scent · Best of Luck

Traditions

A Cambridge goodbye, in Latin.

The Senate-House ceremony brings a college community and a personal achievement together.

Scent · Best of Luck

Traditions

Can you outrun the clock?

Trinity’s Great Court Run turns the striking of noon into an unusual sporting challenge.

Scent · The Old Library

Traditions

Michaelmas, Lent, Easter.

Three names give Cambridge’s academic year a rhythm of its own.

Scent · The Old Library

Traditions

A Cambridge Christmas, heard far away.

How King’s Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols became a tradition beyond the chapel walls.

Scent · The May Ball

Traditions

Voices above St John’s.

On Ascension Day, a college choir takes its music to an unexpected height.

Scent · The May Ball

Traditions

A Cambridge rivalry, on another river.

The Oxford–Cambridge Boat Race belongs to the University’s sporting life, but its course is in London.

Scent · Cam Breeze

Traditions

The wooden spoon: a tradition that ended.

An unusual object recalls an earlier, fiercely ranked Mathematical Tripos.

Scent · The Old Library

Gardens & nature

Room for wildflowers at Trumpington.

A riverside reserve where the city meets a wider, flowering landscape.

Scent · Cam Breeze

Gardens & nature

Wandlebury: older ground beneath your feet.

Woodland and meadow walks meet an Iron Age landscape on the Gog Magog Hills.

Scent · Fellows’ Garden

People & discoveries

Newton, Trinity and an apple tree.

A real Cambridge connection, without mistaking a descendant tree for the original.

Scent · Newton’s Apple

People & discoveries

Alan Turing, before the familiar legend.

King’s College preserves a Cambridge chapter of a life that helped transform computing.

Scent · Best of Luck

Ideas & innovation

From Queens’ to questions about intelligence.

Demis Hassabis’s Cambridge connection is a chapter in a much wider story of artificial intelligence.

Scent · Best of Luck

Museums & collections

A city of small doors into big subjects.

Cambridge’s museums offer different ways to follow a question, from scientific instruments to polar exploration.

Scent · The Old Library

Museums & collections

The Fitzwilliam: take time with one thing.

A museum born from a bequest, with collections that make Cambridge a meeting place of many histories.

Scent · The Old Library

Museums & collections

The whale that came to Cambridge.

A 21-metre skeleton turns a museum entrance into a moment of wonder.

Scent · The Old Library

Museums & collections

When yesterday’s computers feel familiar.

A hands-on museum connects Cambridge’s culture of invention with the devices people remember using.

Scent · The Old Library

College life

A common room is more than a room.

JCR, MCR, SCR: a small guide to Cambridge’s rooms, communities and conversations.

Scent · Best of Luck

Gardens & nature

Behind the walls: the Fellows’ Garden.

A name that suggests seclusion—and gardens whose stories differ from college to college.

Scent · Fellows’ Garden

City & history

Cambridge before the University.

The town had a life of its own long before scholars arrived in 1209.

Scent · The Old Library

City & history

1209: the beginning of a University.

A short introduction to the University of Cambridge, from a gathering of scholars to a collegiate institution.

Scent · The Old Library

Traditions

The May Bumps, explained.

A river race where the aim is to catch the boat ahead while staying clear of the one behind.

Scent · Cam Breeze

College life

One University. 31 colleges.

How Cambridge’s collegiate structure works—and why there is no single campus gate.

Scent · Best of Luck

Local curiosities

The bridge Newton did not build.

A favourite Cambridge tale—and the more interesting story in the college archive.

Scent · The Old Library

Local curiosities

Yes, those are cows in the city.

A very Cambridge sight: cattle grazing on open land close to everyday city life.

Scent · Cam Breeze

Know a Cambridge story we should tell?

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