INNS
From the 15th century Cambridge inns begin to
figure by name in town rentals, college accounts and
deeds of purchase. The 'Angel', the 'Antelope', the
'Black Bull', the 'Black Swan', the 'Boar's Head', the
'Brazen George', the 'Cardinal's Cap', the 'Dolphin',
the 'Griffyn', the 'Lilypot', the 'Ram', the 'Star',
the 'Sun', the 'Swan', the 'White Hart', and the
'White Horse', are all mentioned before 1500, and
the 'Cock', the 'Crane', the 'Falcon', and the 'Lion'
occur soon after. (fn. 96) The accounts of a Cambridge
vintner for 1510 note deliveries of wine to several of
the foregoing and also to the 'Vine' and the 'Unicorn'. (fn. 97) Some of these were on the sites or in the
buildings of former University hostels; (fn. 98) many of
them were to be swallowed up by University and
college buildings. (fn. 99) St. Catharine's, for instance, has
absorbed the sites of the 'Three Horseshoes', the
'White Swan', and the 'George' (Hobson's property);
Corpus has annexed one of the 'Dolphins'; King's
cut a new thoroughfare across the site of the 'Boar's
Head' and of the 'White Horse' which once earned
the nickname of 'Germany' from the meetings of
the reformers who came from King's, Queens', St.
John's, and the Austin Friars to discuss the new
doctrines; (fn. 1) the University Press occupies the site of
the 'White Lion' and the 'Cardinal's Cap'; the
Senate House and its yard have replaced the 'Green
Dragon', the New Angel and the Devil Inns, the
last the house from which in 1653 the first stage
coach ran to London. (fn. 2) Across the river, Magdalene
has ousted the 'Chequers', the 'Black Boy', the
'Green Peele', and the 'Star'.
As the earlier inns drop out, new names come
into prominence. (fn. 3) The 'Dolphin' whose premises
stretched from All Saints churchyard to Bridge
Street was the home of the girl for whom Cranmer
resigned his Jesus fellowship, and also the lodging
for the justices of assize before Trinity gave them
hospitality; (fn. 4) the 'Falcon' in Petty Cury was Lord
North's lodging when he stayed in Cambridge in the
later years of Elizabeth I's reign, and its yard still
exists. (fn. 5) The Bear Inn, which supplied committee
rooms for the Grand Committee of the Eastern
Counties Association in 1643, for the Earl of Manchester's Commissioners in 1644 and, when the
tables were turned, for the committee which purged
the Corporation of Cambridge in 1662, (fn. 6) was probably
the Black Bear Inn, (fn. 7) opposite Trinity Church, whose
yard survives today as Market Passage. (fn. 8) In Alderman
Newton's days the 'Three Tuns', by St. Edward's
passage, a considerable portion of which survives
as the Central Hotel, behind the Midland Bank,
was the favoured place for aldermanic dinners, (fn. 9) but
in the 18th century the Rose Tavern, whose yard
survives as Rose Crescent, was the centre of corporation gossip and intrigue. It was the meeting-place of
the Aldermen's Club from the reign of Anne; (fn. 10) it
was also the headquarters of the County Club, where
town, gown, and county dined together, and William
Cole collected the latest political gossip. (fn. 11) From its
balcony the candidates made speeches during parliamentary elections and here the committee set up
after the meeting of 25 March 1780 laid its plans. (fn. 12)
The 'Rose' was frequently visited by Pepys. It
harboured foreign royalties in 1796 and 1812 but
ceased to be used as an inn about 1814. (fn. 13) The 'Hoop'
in Jesus Lane, the 'famous inn' at which young
Wordsworth alighted in 1787, was also used for
political celebrations. (fn. 14) As has been seen, the headquarters of the Mortlock and Rutland caucus from
1782 to 1832 was the 'Eagle and Child' in Bene't
Street. Its yard is marked as the Post Office in many
contemporary maps, since the Royal Mail set out
thence daily. (fn. 15) Most of the inns in the town were
centres of political treating during the county elections. Thus the Cambridge Chronicle for 20 May 1780
lists seventeen inns (of which the 'Little Rose' and
the 'Blue Boar' alone survive) where Lord Robert
Manners's friends might find accommodation on
nomination day. The ten inns open for Sir Sampson
Gideon's friends included, besides the 'Rose', the
'Eagle and Child', the 'Red Lion', and the 'Castle' in
St. Andrew's Street.
Music-lovers also forgathered at the Cambridge
inns in the 18th and early 19th centuries. The 'Black
Bear' was notable for the excellent concerts given
there from 1773 to 1809 under the auspices of its
Music Club, which had a predilection for Handel,
though Mozart, Haydn, and Purcell also figured on
its handbills. The Cambridge Town and County
Choral Society held its fortnightly meetings at the
'Hoop' from 1830 to 1847, and the Apollo Musical
Society also gave concerts there in 1838. The Cambridge Philharmonic Society, which flourished from
1832 to 1844, used the 'Red Lion' for the performances it organized. (fn. 16)
The last-named inn is still in use, as is the 'Eagle'.
Of the 150 or 160 hotels and public houses of Cambridge today, however, a scanty half-dozen are older
than the 19th century. The 'Bishop Blaize' in St.
Andrew's Street was largely pulled down for Dr.
Watson of Trinity and Llandaff to build his house; (fn. 17)
the 'Sun' opposite Trinity, where the Duke of
Sussex lodged in 1819, (fn. 18) had been destroyed to make
room for the Master's Court before 1866 when
Cooper wrote his Memorials. (fn. 19) The 'Bird Bolt', the
'Half Moon' near the Great Bridge, (fn. 20) and the beautiful 'Wrestlers' (fn. 21) in Petty Cury, have since been
destroyed, whilst the 'Cross Keys' opposite Magdalene is still intact but is no longer an inn. The 'Black
Bull' opposite Corpus, mentioned in Edward IV's
reign, bequeathed to St. Catharine's in 1626 and rebuilt in 1828, preserved its character until 1941; it
then became a centre for United States soldiers in
Cambridge and so remained until September 1945;
as 'Bull College' it was in 1945–6 a centre for Russian
courses for the British Army; but it has now merged
its identity in St. Catharine's College. The former
'White Horse' on Castle Hill is used as the Cambridge and County Folk Museum. Only the 'Lion'
in Petty Cury and the 'Eagle' in Bene't Street retain their old yards and their ancient functions.