A Rainy Day in Cambridge

Museums and churches for a wet day, in a rough south-to-north order, composed from the place pages.

Every stop here is a museum, gallery or church. The list is longer than a single wet day needs, so pick the museums that interest you and drop the rest. Descriptions are taken from each stop's own page; check it for opening hours and any charges, as some temporary exhibitions are ticketed. The order and the time allowances are our suggestion, not sourced facts.

Estimated time on the stops below: about 465 minutes (about 7.8 hours), not counting walking between them. Durations are our own estimates, not figures from the place pages.

1

Morning
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)
2
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)
3
Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences Museum
The University's free geology museum, with Darwin's Beagle rocks, an upright Iguanodon and a huge fossil collection.

Allow about 45 minutes (estimate)
4
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology Museum
Cambridge's archaeology and world-cultures museum, free to enter, with Pacific, Torres Strait and local collections.

Allow about 60 minutes (estimate)
5

Afternoon
Whipple Museum of the History of Science Museum
Scientific instruments, models and apparatus from the medieval period to today, on Free School Lane.

Allow about 45 minutes (estimate)
6
King's College Chapel Church
A Tudor-era Gothic chapel with a fan vault, Flemish glass and a Rubens above the altar.

Allow about 45 minutes (estimate)
7
Great St Mary's Church
The University Church on King's Parade: a late-medieval tower, two organs and the chimes later borrowed for Big Ben.

Allow about 30 minutes (estimate)
8
The Round Church Church
A c.1130 church modelled on the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, now a visitor centre with an exhibition and guided walks.

Allow about 30 minutes (estimate)
9
Kettle's Yard Gallery
A collector's home turned University gallery, kept as its owners left it, beside a modern exhibition space.

Allow about 60 minutes (estimate)