Reality Checkpoint
A cast-iron lamppost of 1894 at the crossing of Parker's Piece, with a famously odd name.
At the point where the diagonal paths of Parker's Piece cross stands a tall cast-iron lamppost with a name painted on its base: Reality Checkpoint. It is a piece of local humour, and since 1996 it has also been a Grade II listed structure. It is always accessible and free to see, being in an open public park.
How it came to be
A lamp for the middle of the Piece was first proposed in 1890, and work began in January 1894 with a pipe laid in from Parkside. The pillar was cast by the Sun Foundry of George Smith and Company in Glasgow. It rises from a square plinth with waterleaf decoration, and four intertwined heraldic dolphins wrap the base of the shaft. It is said to be the oldest electrical lamppost in the city.
The upper part was torn down in 1945 during celebrations marking victory over Japan, and a local firm, George Lister and Sons, repaired it in 1946. The present arrangement of four pendant lamps dates from that repair. Cambridge City Council restored it in 2016-17, bringing back a scheme of moss green, red, white and gold.
The name
The words first appeared as graffiti in the early 1970s, and they are now painted on officially. Nobody agrees on the meaning. One reading treats the post as the border between the university's "reality bubble" and the everyday town beyond. Another says it is simply the only light for a hundred metres or so, a landmark for anyone crossing the park in fog or after a night out. A third makes it a prompt for revellers heading past the nearby police station.
Practical notes
The post is easiest to find from the centre of the park. It sits roughly midway between the corners, and the grass around it is where the Piece's diagonals meet.
Nearby
Within a few minutes' walk
