Museum of Cambridge
Everyday life in Cambridge and the Fens since 1700, in a Grade II listed 16th-century former inn.
The Museum of Cambridge, formerly the Cambridge and County Folk Museum, records everyday life in the city, in Cambridgeshire and in the Fens from 1700 onwards. It sits on Castle Street, close to Kettle's Yard.
The building
Its home was once the White Horse Inn, a sixteenth-century Grade II listed pub that ceased trading in 1934. The museum opened in 1936, following a 1933 Guildhall show of old local life mounted by the county's Women's Institutes. Queen Mary came to see it in 1938 and gave two items the year after.
The collection
The collection exceeds 20,000 objects of social history, among them toys, textiles, costume, coins, medals, medicine, music and material about law and order. Local artists are represented: Mary Charlotte Greene (1860 to 1951) with oil paintings and Richard Hopkins Leach (1794 to 1851) with inn signs. An independent charity runs the museum, and it also maintains Capturing Cambridge, where people record local history street by street. The pandemic closed it, and a successful fundraising appeal allowed reopening in May 2021.
Practical notes
The museum opens Friday to Monday in term time and Thursday to Monday during the school holidays. Opening hours may also change with volunteer availability, so check before travelling. Tickets are £7 for adults and £6 for concessions, with free entry for some visitors, and group rates apply to five adults or more.
Nearby
Within a few minutes' walk
