The Flying Pig
A Hills Road pub that outlasted a demolition approval and a decade of protest, and closed in October 2021.
The Flying Pig stood on Hills Road in Cambridge. It closed in October 2021, and the story of its site is still unfolding.
From The Engineer to The Pig
The building's earliest recorded name was The Engineer, in 1844. By 1860 it had become The Crown Inn. The name most people remember came in the 1980s, when the landlord of the day, a pilot who went by the nickname "The Pig", rebranded the place as The Flying Pig. Among its customers were two members of Pink Floyd, who met there.
Years of protest
In 2008 the city council approved plans that would have demolished the pub. Petitions and public protests kept it trading for well over a decade after that decision, until the doors finally shut in October 2021.
What happened next
Closure was followed by a long planning saga for the site. Proposals to put new office blocks behind the pub were first refused by the city council, then allowed on appeal. A revised scheme, with fewer parking spaces and more office space, won council approval in 2023. The developers have said publicly that the pub will return, a message echoed on the site hoardings. Until it does, this page is a record of what stood there.
Nearby
Within a few minutes' walk
