Bradwells Court

This concrete disaster is about to be put out of its misery and guess whats going up in its place, yes a bigger one.Bradwells Court was the very first shopping center in cambridge.From the late 1800s up to 1958 there were houses and shops here, the area was called Bradwells Yard, you see in the old days people thought it might be a good idea to have houses as well as shops in the town centre, now its all shops yet still people wonder why the traffic problems have grown. Whoever was responsible for the design of the court obviously didnt bother about trying to blend it in with its surroundings, and from the pictures of the new arcade nothing has changed, so you could say Bradwells court was where it all started.

Thats more like it

Just a slight adjustment and the picture looks a lot older, the 80s paintwork doesnt show up and the bicycles dont look too out of place either. I actually didnt know I could do that, my excuse is that I havent had this camera for long, oh well, there will be a lot more black and white shots from now on heh.

Looking up St Edwards passage

I got hold of a city guidebook that goes back to 1964 and although its aimed at the tourist there isnt much day to day life stuff but it is still very interesting.There are some great adverts for local shops that have long gone though.I dont have the hardware to scan pictures yet but I will one day I hope.There is one great picture that shows the passageway along the side of St Edwards church so I thought why not take one now and see how much things have changed.Well to be honest not much has changed at all, the bikes in the original were leaning on the wall and there wasnt that hideous red paint on the window frame, also the brickwork has been painted over, I think it was an 80s thing to paint over bricks, I could be wrong but it makes perfect sense to me.

The Rose Tavern

Today I ventured into the city center and took this picture of macdonalds, and yes this is the very place that Samuel Pepys used to drink in, he mentions going there one day, the date is july 15 1661, my birthday, not the year though heh, anyway he goes in and gets "very merry" as he puts it.Well I never thought i'd say something good about macdonalds but here goes......... They have managed to hold back on the red and yellow paint and have been very subtle and even the sign is hanging where the original one used to I would guess. I took the picture and swiftly moved on.

Cambridge nearly had a white christmas!

This picture was taken on dec 28th last year, it shows York street and its a view that has been like that for a long time, a rare opportunity to have a glimpse of the past, thats a good thing isnt it? Why would anyone think it isnt, and I bet those houses arent cheap either.

Back to Cambridge ramblings, with added pics!

This photo shows the building that replaced the inn from the 1600s, one of the pubs that samuel pepys used to frequent while in Cambridge, it was knocked down and replaced by this ugly looking thing in 1959, a hostel for kings college students.The rest of the buildings are all quite old, the church next to it is St Edwards, it dates back to 1200s.What I dont understand is why the central hotel as it was called in the 50s had to be knocked down at all, I am trying to be more understanding of change in me old age you see, another pub that pepys drank in is now a macdonalds but at least the building itself is still there, so there is always the chance that one day someone with a bit of sense might realise how important local history is, not just the academic side, old pepys did have something to do with the university though as well.