About the Cambridge Excursion Walk in London
Cambridge, name is enough to evoke many unforgettable images and ideas:the prestigious university, the grand architecture of the colleges, the historical conflict with Oxford, the beauty and the calm of the tree-lined Backs and of the river Cam, the bustle of bicycling students of King's Parade and the and the extraordinary vivacity of research and and literature.
But there are just some of unique facets of this historical city. When first scholars arrived in 1209, Cambridge was already a flourishing market community that had grown from a Roman fort in the first century before Christ, a Saxon settlement during the Middle Age and then a Norman stronghold. Walking around the city is to discover a mix of a Medieval, Tudor, Georgian and Victorian architecture, the quaint winding streets and passages, the widely stately courts of the colleges, the treasures of its churches and of its museums and the stories and discoveries of some of the most famous scientists of the present and past days t
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Cambridge, name is enough to evoke many unforgettable images and ideas:the prestigious university, the grand architecture of the colleges, the historical conflict with Oxford, the beauty and the calm of the tree-lined Backs and of the river Cam, the bustle of bicycling students of King's Parade and the and the extraordinary vivacity of research and and literature.
But there are just some of unique facets of this historical city. When first scholars arrived in 1209, Cambridge was already a flourishing market community that had grown from a Roman fort in the first century before Christ, a Saxon settlement during the Middle Age and then a Norman stronghold. Walking around the city is to discover a mix of a Medieval, Tudor, Georgian and Victorian architecture, the quaint winding streets and passages, the widely stately courts of the colleges, the treasures of its churches and of its museums and the stories and discoveries of some of the most famous scientists of the present and past days that here lived.
Our walk starts from the Fitzwilliam Museum, the original magnificent building dating from the mid-19th century with its internationally-renowned collection of European paintings including Titian, Tintoretto, Veermer and Reynolds, drawings and prints, some fine furniture and sculpture, antiquities, coins and medals and manuscripts and printed books. Walking along Trumpington street, depending on opening times we may visit then Peterhouse college, founded in 1284, with its original hall and with the windows by William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones and Ford Madox Brown, the Pembroke college with its chapel, first work of the architect Christopher Wren, Queens' college with its absolutely beautiful medieval Old Court, home to the chapel, library and dining hall, the 18th century sun and moon dial, one of few in the world and the “Mathematical Bridge” and King college, founded in 1441, with its chapel, the icon of the city of Cambridge, and a real masterpiece of English architecture with its fan-vaulted ceiling and the famous Rubens altarpiece The Adoration of the Magi.
We may step into the little Anglo-Saxon church of St' Benet with the oldest tower in the county, built around 1020 and in St Mary the Great church, a late Gothig building, overlooking the marketplace and regarded as the main city church. Going forward Trinity street, we will get into Trinity college, founded by Henry VIII in 1546 and St' John' College with the Pytagoras building and the neo-Gothic Bridge of Sighs. We can't absolutely miss to get into the Round Church, built in 1130, the distinctive oldest Norman building in the country. And to finish, something really special and so full of charme, The Kettle Yard. It was once the home of late Helen and Jim Ede, Tate Gallery curator. Here nothing is labelled, you are free to wander into the rooms, sit down and read one of Ede's books or stop and look at one Constantin Brancusi or Barbara Hepworth or Ben Nicholson pieces of art here housed.
