The Champion of the Thames
A small, Grade II listed King Street pub with an unaltered late-Victorian interior.
The Champion of the Thames is on King Street, one of the smaller pubs in the city. The building has Grade II protection, and the fittings inside, from the late 1800s, are unchanged. That has put it on the East Anglian register of historic pub interiors.
The name
A sculler who took a race on the Thames, then settled in Cambridge in 1860, gave the pub its name. His letters were to be addressed to "The Champion of the River Thames, King Street, Cambridge". The rowing link lives on, with a rowing club sponsored by the pub.
King Street and literary links
The King Street Run, a race to down one pint in every pub on the street, includes the Champion. A cricket side from the pub meets one from St Radegund each year for the King Street Trophy, a contest running since 1992. Tom Sharpe's Porterhouse Blue gives it a cameo as the favourite haunt of Skullion, renamed The Thames Boatman.
Recognition and visiting
For 2024 the local CAMRA branch (Cambridge and District) awarded it the city title and then the top prize across its whole area. Opening times are not quoted here, so check with the pub before you go.
Nearby
Within a few minutes' walk