Best Tourist Attractions in Cambridge, England

The River Cam

Famous the world over for its university, Cambridge lays claim to having one of the highest concentrations of preserved historic buildings anywhere in England. Cambridge is England’s finest holiday spot if you’re looking for culture, academia, and charm all in one place. This article will give you a list of the best tourist attractions in Cambridge.

Best Tourist Attractions in Cambridge

1. Cambridge University Buildings

tourist attractions in Cambridge: Cambridge University Buildings

 

Of course, Cambridge is famed internationally for its world-class university. Attended by some of the country’s top writers, actors, comedians, and politicians, the college is set on magnificent grounds. Dating back to the 12th century and including examples of the earliest patterned brickwork in England, the various colleges of this world-renowned establishment are dotted around the city and should be high on your must-do list for fabulous Cambridge.

2. Ely

It’s fun to wonder what a bewildering sight Ely must have been in the middle ages: A resplendent cathedral isolated in the marshes on alone chalk hill. This incredible monument still has the power to catch your breath and commands the landscape for what seems like miles.

There’s a blend of Romanesque and Gothic architecture in the design, feted for its octagonal tower, which is as beautiful outside as it is when you stand in the interior and gaze up from underneath.

Olive Cromwell lived in Ely from 1636-47 and his half-timbered house at St Mary’s Vicarage will tell you about his time in the city, as well as the compelling history of the Fens.

3. The River Cam

tourist attractions in Cambridge: The River Cam

 

The River Cam is one of the great tourist attractions in Cambridge that you should visit. This attractive body of water flows through Cambridge into the Great Ouse and is usually dotted with pretty punts and small boats. With Byron’s Pool named after the poet Lord Byron, who is said to have swum there, and its waters the apparent subject of a speech from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the Cam has clearly made an impression on England’s literary masters. Picnic on its riverbanks, cross King’s College Bridge, go angling, or, of course, take a punt.

4. Huntingdon

This town is as cute as they come but has a history that will excite the antiquarian in all of us. Huntingdon got its charter from King John at the start of the 13th century.

Follow the “Historic Trail” around the center to see the medieval bridge over the River Ouse and coaching houses from the 1700s when Huntingdon was an important cog in England’s horse-drawn transport network.

But the main reason to come to Huntingdon is for Oliver Cromwell. He was born in the town in 1599 and later became its MP. Get some perspective on this divisive figure at the Cromwell Museum, which has a sumptuous venue in a medieval schoolhouse that the 17th-century diarist Samuel Pepys also attended.

5. The Fitzwilliam Museum

The Fitzwilliam Museum

 

The most famous museum in Cambridge, The Fitzwilliam should be included on everyone’s must-see list of tourist attractions. This masterpiece of architecture contains a magnificent collection of English pottery and china, as well as Greek, Roman, and Egyptian antiquities, and illuminated manuscripts.

The exceptionally fine gallery has works by Hogarth, Gainsborough, and Turner, as well as Impressionists and Dutch Masters of the Baroque including Rembrandt, Van Dyck, and Rubens. There’s also a great café on-site, along with a gift shop.

6. Corpus Clock

This enormous embellished metal clock hangs at street level outside Cambridge’s Corpus Christi College. One of the city’s most remarkable monuments, the clock was constructed by John C Taylor (OBE) and inaugurated in 2008. With a face made entirely of gold, a metal grasshopper called the Chronophage or ‘time-eater’ sitting above it and an undulating ripple design – which suggests the expansion of the universe after the Big Bang, the clock is a truly unique asset to Cambridge.

7. Peterborough

Peterborough

 

A prosperous city on the edge of the Fens and known for its manufacturing and commerce, Peterborough is often neglected by tourists. But there’s a great deal to discover if you give it a chance, with the added bonus of the shopping and dining of an urban center.

The most obvious landmark is the cathedral. It shines for being one of just a handful of 12th-century early-Gothic churches to be largely unchanged since it was first completed.

Lovers of medieval architecture may lose all track of time in this monument.

In conclusion, we have shown you some of the best tourist attractions in Cambridge to visit.

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