Christ's Pieces
A compact Victorian park of flower beds and trees, bought by the town in 1886.
Christ's Pieces is a park laid out in the Victorian period, just east of the city centre. Beds of flowers and decorative trees fill it, and a garden commemorates Diana, Princess of Wales. It lies east of Christ's College and north of Emmanuel College, bounded by King Street, Emmanuel Road, Drummer Street and Milton's Walk.
From farmland to park
The ground was farmland, shown with a cereal crop on a map of 1574, and later became pasture. Milton's Walk, along its western side, was already a lane in 1574, and is named for the poet John Milton (1608-1674), who studied at Christ's College. In 1886 the town corporation bought the land from Jesus College for 1,000 pounds, drained it and laid out the park largely as it appears now. An artificial lake that was planned was never dug, and a bandstand that once stood here is gone.
Using the park
Many people cut across it on foot between the city centre and the Grafton Centre, and on fine days it is a popular lunch spot. Tennis courts occupy the north-west corner and a bowling green the south-east. Cambridge's main central bus station opens off Drummer Street on the park's southern edge. A residents' association exists for people who care about the surrounding streets.
Parker's Piece and Jesus Green are the other central open spaces.
Nearby
Within a few minutes' walk
