Fitzbillies
A Cambridge bakery-cafe since 1920, known for its Chelsea buns.
A market square older than the university, ringed by colleges, churches and pedestrian lanes.
Central Cambridge grew up around a trading place, and the trading place is still there. Market Hill, the open square usually called the Market Square, was already a market in Saxon times, and stalls still set up on it daily (Market Hill; see also Cambridge Market). A fire in 1849 cleared the buildings that had crowded onto the square, which is why it is open ground today. It has a darker footnote too: during the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, a crowd burned university records here.
The square's west side is dominated by the University Church, Great St Mary's. On the south side stands the Guildhall, a 1930s building. To the south-east the Lion Yard and the Grand Arcade shopping centres lead toward the main retail streets.
Seven streets and passages meet at the square, among them Petty Cury, Peas Hill and Rose Crescent. Several are pedestrianised, so the square works as a hub for walkers rather than traffic.
West of the market the city turns collegiate. King's Parade is the street in front of King's College, while Trinity Street leads north from the Rose Crescent end of the square. Behind the colleges, the Backs is the strip of lawns and bridges along the River Cam. Peas Hill leads on toward Bene't Street and the Eagle; to the south, Trumpington Street holds both the Fitzwilliam Museum and Peterhouse.
The centre is compact and the natural way to see it is on foot, starting from Market Hill: every street named above leads off it or lies a short walk away. The pedestrianised lanes are the quickest routes between the square and the colleges. For the neighbourhoods beyond, see Newnham, Castle and Petersfield.
A Cambridge bakery-cafe since 1920, known for its Chelsea buns.
A Regent Street pub for live sport, karaoke pods and a planted beer garden.
A one-room King Street pub, widely thought to be the smallest in Cambridge, reopened in 2026.
A riverside pub on Silver Street, with views of the Mathematical Bridge.
A Grade II listed Bridge Street pub whose own history stretches back to 1752.
A small, Grade II listed King Street pub with an unaltered late-Victorian interior.
A 17th-century coaching inn where the structure of DNA was announced over lunch.
A listed riverside pub with real ales on the banks of the Cam.
A Magdalene Street inn dating from 1608, with a past as a gin palace and a few ghost stories.
A Japanese sushi restaurant and takeaway on Saxon Street.
A British steakhouse in a listed corner building opposite King's College Chapel.
Cambridge's archaeology and world-cultures museum, free to enter, with Pacific, Torres Strait and local collections.
The University's free geology museum, with Darwin's Beagle rocks, an upright Iguanodon and a huge fossil collection.
Relics of Scott, Shackleton and the Arctic peoples, free to enter, in a Grade II listed 1930s institute.
A free natural history museum under a hanging fin whale, with Darwin's specimens and extinct birds.
Scientific instruments, models and apparatus from the medieval period to today, on Free School Lane.
Christopher Wren's library at the end of Nevile's Court, finished in 1695, with Newton's notes and the Pooh manuscripts on the shelves.
A compact covered shopping centre in the middle of town, named for the pub it replaced.
A round lawn, Milton's mulberry trees and a Modernist 'Typewriter' behind a Tudor gate.
The second-oldest surviving college, with Cambridge's oldest bridge and a view of King's.
Founded by the town's guilds in 1352, with a 14th-century court and the Parker Library.
A neo-classical college of 1800 around a great open lawn, with a door from Number 10.
A former Dominican friary with a Wren chapel, a friars' pool and free daily entry.
A 1348 foundation refounded in 1557, with three symbolic gates and the oldest purpose-built college chapel still in use.
A former nunnery with the oldest university building still in use and a walled 'Chimney' entrance.
Henry VI's college, with its Chapel, its choir and the lawn running down to the Backs.
Cambridge's third-oldest college, with its first Wren chapel and a plaster-ceilinged Old Library.
Cambridge's oldest college, with a 13th-century hall, a Laudian chapel and a 1940s modernist court.
A small college with a friary's cellars, a rococo hall and Cromwell's connection.
An open three-sided court on Trumpington Street, and the stables behind 'Hobson's choice'.
A Tudor college on both banks of the Cam, with a gate, a hall and the Bridge of Sighs.
Henry VIII's merged foundation, with the Great Gate, Great Court and Wren Library.
A three-screen Picturehouse cinema on St Andrew's Street with a café-bar above the street.
St John's covered Gothic Revival bridge over the Cam, completed in 1831.
A Grade II listed Victorian trading hall that now hosts gigs, comedy and graduations.
The city council's seat on Market Hill, a 1939 Neo-Georgian hall on a site that has served the town since the 1220s.
A Grade II listed English Baroque university building of 1899 by E. S. Prior, with lettering by Eric Gill.
A compact Victorian park of flower beds and trees, bought by the town in 1886.
A three-arched stone bridge of 1639-40 at Clare College, often named the oldest bridge still in use in Cambridge.
A street beside the Corn Exchange, once known as Slaughter Lane and built over the line of the medieval King's Ditch.
A gold-faced clock with no hands, driven by a sculpted insect that appears to devour each second.
A small L-shaped studio theatre in Corpus Christi College's St Edward's Passage premises, run by the ADC and favouring new writing.
A Grade II listed neoclassical council building of 1913-14 on Hobson Street, now student accommodation for Christ's College.
A short street off Mill Road, named after a market garden and home to a pub, The Six Bells.
A central street between Pembroke Street and St Andrew's Street, lined with University departments and museums.
A historic lane of University science buildings, named after the free school endowed by Dr Stephen Perse.
A public foot and cycle bridge at the end of Garret Hostel Lane, one of three that link the centre to the Backs.
The University Church on King's Parade: a late-medieval tower, two organs and the chimes later borrowed for Big Ben.
A short central shopping street, mostly owned by Trinity College.
A short street beside the Guildhall, once the home of the town's meat market.
A Grade II* city-centre church, long associated with the evangelical preacher Charles Simeon.
A riverside park north of Jesus College, with a 1920s-style lido and an annual beer festival.
An ancient route to a medieval nunnery, now lined with colleges, theological houses and a Victorian church.
The only lock within the city, built in 1836, with a Victorian footbridge alongside.
A Grade I listed stone bridge of 1819, designed by William Wilkins, on the Backs beside King's College.
A Tudor-era Gothic chapel with a fan vault, Flemish glass and a Rubens above the altar.
King's Parade, with King's College Chapel on one side and the University Church on the other.
A road south of the centre with Downing College, the Scott Polar Research Institute and a monument to Thomas Hobson.
A Grade II* parish church on Trumpington Street that was Peterhouse's chapel until 1632.
The street across the river bridge, saved from redevelopment and still lined with 16th-century buildings.
The market square at the middle of Cambridge, a trading place since Saxon times.
A shopping street running from Market Hill to Sidney Street, with Holy Trinity Church at its eastern end.
A timber footbridge at Queens' College that looks like an arch but is built entirely from straight beams.
Common land on the river Cam, site of a fair chartered in 1211 and a fireworks night.
The University's first science site in the middle of town, where several landmark discoveries were made and two museums now open to visitors.
A Grade I Gothic Revival Catholic church of 1885-90 at Hills Road, with a 65-metre spire.
A flat green square at the edge of the centre, tied to the early rules of association football.
A short street between Market Hill and Wheeler Street with a 'Cradle of the Reformation' church and the Arts Theatre.
A street along the north side of Pembroke College, with the Caroe Bridge screen and the University's New Museums Site opposite.
A pedestrian shopping street with a name that goes back to the medieval cooks' row.
A major road west of the centre running along the Backs, with the site of early Newnham College on it.
A cast-iron lamppost of 1894 at the crossing of Parker's Piece, with a famously odd name.
The main south-eastern approach to the centre, beside Downing College and Parker's Piece.
A Portland-stone hall of the 1720s where Cambridge degrees are conferred, with a roof-top prank in its history.
A pedestrian passage beside the Senate House linking the end of Trinity Lane back to Trinity Street.
A main shopping street, with Sidney Sussex College on one side and a Waterhouse bank building on the other.
A street crossing the River Cam by Silver Street Bridge, between Queen's Road and Trumpington Street.
A 1959 concrete river crossing designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, which replaced a cast-iron predecessor.
A Grade II listed city-centre parish church of 1842-43, home to the memorial to Captain Cook's family.
A major street running past Christ's and Emmanuel Colleges, with big shops and a branch of Hobson's Conduit.
A parish church with an Anglo-Saxon tower, on the street where Cambridge's oldest standing building meets the Eagle.
A 14th-century parish church by the old south gate, with a medieval rood screen and a richly painted Victorian chancel.
A Grade II* medieval parish church on Bridge Street, with a mayor's tombstone of 1329 and an Anglo-Catholic past.
A hidden Grade II* church by the Guildhall, sometimes called the Cradle of the Reformation.
The north end of the great college street, under the tower of St John's.
A historic street between King's Parade and Market Hill, named after the University Church.
A pedestrianised neo-Georgian shopping street built for Sidney Sussex College between 1928 and 1939.
A historic street running south from Pembroke Street past University departments and the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
The riverside college lawns and bridges behind the Cambridge colleges, listed as a Grade I historic park.
A former hotel of 1828 on Trumpington Street, once a wartime base for American servicemen.
A c.1130 church modelled on the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, now a visitor centre with an exhibition and guided walks.
A triple-arched stone bridge of 1764-65 carrying Trinity's Avenue across the Cam to the Fellows' Garden.
A Tudor-Gothic college chapel with Pre-Raphaelite-era windows, a Father Smith organ case and a mixed-voice choir.
The old High Street, now lined by Trinity and Gonville and Caius and a run of bookshops.
Four colleges, the Fitzwilliam Museum and two little water channels running down the gutters.
A Gothic Revival Methodist church of 1913 beside Christ's Pieces, listed Grade II and with Sunday worship.
A short street from Bene't Street to the Corn Exchange, with the former city library building on it.
An eight-storey Aalto-influenced tower of 1963-64 inside the grounds of Peterhouse, listed Grade II.
A small co-educational independent day school on Brookside for ages 4 to 16, opened in 2007.
A central state secondary academy for ages 11 to 16, once the Cambridge Grammar School for Girls.
A Sicilian pizzeria, bakery and gelateria on Bene't Street.
A dessert cafe in Lion Yard built around bubble waffles and bubble tea.
A small gelato counter in a lane just off the middle of town.
A coffee house on Trumpington Street with set laptop-friendly hours.
A board game café on Regent Street with a library of over 700 games.
A sweet pie and vinyl café on King Street.
A brewpub at the foot of King Street, with the brewing kit in view.
A craft-beer house in a listed 1830 building once lived in by E. M. Forster.
A King's Parade tea room turned café and Mediterranean restaurant, facing King's College Chapel.
An independent Bene't Street eatery built around roast meats, sourdough and poutine.
A burger and steak restaurant a few steps from Market Square.
A pie restaurant on Trinity Street, rebranded from its earlier name as Trinity.
A Korean restaurant on King Street, with pancakes, stews and Seoul-style grilled dishes.
A basement tapas bar under the cobbles of Rose Crescent.
An independent, produce-driven restaurant with Spanish-influenced menus, in a townhouse on Green Street.
Aged Argentine steaks and seafood opposite the Fitzwilliam Museum.
An Indian restaurant and takeaway on King Street, run by a family with roots in Scottish Highland restaurants.
A family-run Thai restaurant on Regent Street with lunch and set menus.
An Indian market-food bar and restaurant on Regent Street.
A casual Asian noodle bar with an open kitchen on King Street.
A small King Street restaurant serving grilled dumplings.
The University of Cambridge's art and antiquities museum, in a Grade I listed neoclassical building with free entry.
Samuel Pepys's own library, kept in his own bookcases at Magdalene College, currently closed for refurbishment.
The exclusive shop of Cambridge University Press, at 1 Trinity Street.
A Sussex Street showroom for bespoke picture framing, open seven days a week since 1998.
A Bridge Street jeweller describing itself as the Cambridge Jeweller since 1963.
A small King Street counter built around panuozzi, with a menu that is revised through the year.
A family-run gift shop on King's Parade, stocked with handpicked finds from India and Nepal.
A complete medieval college across the river, with the Mathematical Bridge.
A 1350 foundation on the river with a chained library and an award-winning music building.
Britain's oldest university playhouse, run almost entirely by students, on Park Street.
A Saturday arts and crafts market in a small garden on Trinity Street, where everything on sale is handmade.
A Bodley-designed Victorian church opposite Jesus College, cared for by the Churches Conservation Trust and known as the Painted Church.
A short historic street with the Anglo-Saxon tower of St Bene't's, the Eagle pub and the Corpus Clock nearby.
Medieval courts, a Norman round church, and the old road to the Great Bridge.
An outdoor market on Market Hill that has traded in the same spot since Saxon times, open every day of the year bar three.
A street of pubs and restaurants running east from Sidney Sussex College, once synonymous with a student pub crawl.
Two flood-meadow commons on either side of an arm of the Cam, managed together as a local nature reserve.
A little-changed lane running between colleges from Trinity Street towards the river.
A medieval inn beside King's Parade, said to have hosted Cambridge's first readers of Luther, demolished in 1870.
Cambridge's long-running department store on St Andrew's Street, founded in 1840 and trading under its own name until 2004.
A Grade II listed Congregational church of 1875 on Trumpington Street, home to a congregation founded in 1687 until it closed in 2020.