A central street between Pembroke Street and St Andrew's Street, lined with University departments and museums.
Downing Street is a short central street. Starting by Pembroke Street and Tennis Court Road, it heads east and finishes where it meets St Andrew's Street. On the north side it is joined by St Tibbs Row and Corn Exchange Street; Downing Place joins it from the south.
Pembroke Leys, the boggy ground south of the street, lay outside the town in medieval times. That land was acquired for Downing College, and the trustees of the Downing estate commissioned the architect William Wilkins to plan the college. Wilkins, a devotee of neoclassical style, laid out what is described as the world's first campus-based college layout, with a grand entrance meant to face Downing Street. The estate turned out smaller than expected, so the full scheme never happened. The University bought a good part of the Leys instead, and it became the Downing Site, where many science departments now work. The New Museums Site lies across the street.
Four University museums stand close to the street:
On the Downing Place corner there is also a United Reformed church, known as St Columba's.
Sources: Wikipedia: Downing Street, Cambridge · Wikidata: Downing Street (Q5303203)
Cambridge's archaeology and world-cultures museum, free to enter, with Pacific, Torres Strait and local collections.
The University's free geology museum, with Darwin's Beagle rocks, an upright Iguanodon and a huge fossil collection.
A free natural history museum under a hanging fin whale, with Darwin's specimens and extinct birds.
