A Free Day in Cambridge

A day of Cambridge places with no admission charge: museums, a clock, a market and the riverside commons.

Each stop's page lists free entry or a free tag; see the full list in Free Cambridge. The Corpus Clock and Senate House are free to view from the street. The Fitzwilliam Museum's page notes that some temporary exhibitions are ticketed, so check before you go. The order and the time allowances are our suggestion, not sourced facts.

Estimated time on the stops below: about 320 minutes (about 5.3 hours), not counting walking between them. Durations are our own estimates, not figures from the place pages.

1

Morning
The Polar Museum Museum
Relics of Scott, Shackleton and the Arctic peoples, free to enter, in a Grade II listed 1930s institute.

Allow about 45 minutes (estimate)
2
Fitzwilliam Museum Museum
The University of Cambridge's art and antiquities museum, in a Grade I listed neoclassical building with free entry.

Allow about 90 minutes (estimate)
3
University Museum of Zoology Museum
A free natural history museum under a hanging fin whale, with Darwin's specimens and extinct birds.

Allow about 60 minutes (estimate)
4

Midday
Corpus Clock Landmark
A gold-faced clock with no hands, driven by a sculpted insect that appears to devour each second.

Allow about 10 minutes (estimate)
5
Senate House Landmark
A Portland-stone hall of the 1720s where Cambridge degrees are conferred, with a roof-top prank in its history.

Allow about 10 minutes (estimate)
6
Cambridge Market Street food
An outdoor market on Market Hill that has traded in the same spot since Saxon times, open every day of the year bar three.

Allow about 30 minutes (estimate)
7

Afternoon
Jesus Green Landmark
A riverside park north of Jesus College, with a 1920s-style lido and an annual beer festival.

Allow about 45 minutes (estimate)
8
Midsummer Common Landmark
Common land on the river Cam, site of a fair chartered in 1211 and a fireworks night.

Allow about 30 minutes (estimate)