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University of Cambridge celebrates its 800th!
The University of Cambridge reaches a milestone – 800 years of people, ideas and achievements
By: Mary Gostelow
WOW.travel was daydreaming lyrically while being punted past the manicured lawns of King's College Cambridge when supermodel Lily Cole ran past.
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Lily Cole had been out for a spot of exercise and was returning to her rooms in the college - yes, she is an undergrad at one of English's two most famous Universities (the other is Oxford). In October 2008 she began a three-year course at Cambridge in October 2008 - after majoring in English, Ethics and Philosophy at school she had originally planned to read Social and Political Sciences at college, but changed her mind and switched to History of Art. She continues to model during vacations.
The University of Cambridge is celebrating its 800th birthday during 2009, www.800.cam.ac.uk. It grew out of an association of scholars in the city of Cambridge that was formed, early records suggest, in 1209 by scholars leaving Oxford after a dispute with local townsfolk there. It has produced 83 Nobel Laureates. Of the 31 Colleges, there are still three - Lucy Cavendish College, Murray Edwards and Newnham - that are women-only. Today there are over 18,000 students (of whom one third are post-grads), plus nearly 9,000 tutors and other staff. The Chancellor is HRH The Duke of Edinburgh.
Some of the most famous scientific minds in history have studied, researched and taught here. This is the home of Newton and Darwin, Crick and Watson, Babbage and Hawking. However, it is also the place where the first fully 3D computer game was written, where the precursor to the modern webcam was invented, and where some of today’s best-known entertainers began their careers. Today’s top names are being featured in Cambridge Ideas, a year-long series of podcasts and movies to showcase the breadth of academic expertise and the cutting edge research which is taking place at Cambridge. The University's special 2009 Fund has attracted applications for funding from over 40 groups, including Lucy Cavendish College, the Department of Archaeology, CU Spaceflight, Cambridge Contemporary Dance, the Endellion String Quartet, the Department of Engineering, the University Chaplaincy, the CU Quiz Society and Full Blue Racing.
Anniversary events are taking place year-long. The list includes Cambridge Cantat 800: a Celebration of Cambridge Choirs, April 11-19, 2009, www.800.cam.ac.uk/cantat800. The life and work of Charles Darwin will be celebrated July 5-10, 2009, when the Darwin 2009 Festival will feature talks, discussions, performances, workshops, exhibitions and tours.
Yes, Cambridge is unique, worldwide. For a start you have a mass of incredible old buildings, each one an architectural gem, set practically next door to each other. King's College, for instance, dates back to the 15th century. The young Henry VI laid the first stone of the King's College of Our Lady and St. Nicholas in Cambridge on Passion Sunday, 1441. King's was to have a Provost and 70 poor scholars, drawn exclusively from Eton College, Henry's other foundation near Windsor. From the first, the College's buildings were intended to be a magnificent display of the power of royal patronage and Henry went to great lengths to ensure that King's College Chapel would be without equal in size and beauty - among its most striking features today is the painting Adoration of the Magi by Rubens, originally painted in 1634 for the Convent of the White Nuns at Louvain in Belgium. The College is particularly renowned for the annual Christmas Eve Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, introduced in 1918 to bring a more imaginative approach to worship. It is now broadcast to millions around the world. Every year a new carol is commissioned, from such composers as Lennox Berkeley, Thomas Adés, Judith Bingham, James Macmillan and John Rutter, www.kings.cam.ac.uk.
As part of Cambridge University’s 800th anniversary celebrations, you can now take a free audio walk around the city. You go at your own pace using your own iPods or MP3 players, switching on and off as you go. The walk, called “Buildings, Lives and Legacies“, is a celebration of the history of the University from its early beginnings to the present day, showcasing some of the outstanding architecture, achievements and people that make the University and the City of Cambridge such a unique place.
Wherever you go in the Cambridge vicinity you will be struck by the plethora of what's-on promotional labels crudely tied on to railings,
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and long after the posters have fallen or been pulled off, their strings remain. You will also notice, but one hopes not be struck by, the swarm of bicycles. During all waking hours cyclists nip in and out between cars, dodging people. Night and day, thousands of bikes are parked, anywhere, anyhow. In fact Cambridge is very autophobic. The city hates cars. It does allow you to park way out in the outskirts, for free, and buses every ten minutes take you to the center for a nominal sum. The best way to arrive in Cambridge is train. Once there, get around on foot. If you are allergic to walking, try a push bike: you can rent bicycles from such companies as www.citycycle.hire.com. Another way of getting around is by punt, which allows you to see the glories of the city's architecture from the River Cam. Why not rent a punt and guide (probably a student wearing a straw boater hat and traditional waistcoat): the 50-minute punt tour, with guide, passes eight Colleges, Kings Chapel, the Wren Library and the Bridge of Sighs, www.puntingincambridge.com.
The best place to stay is undoubtedly Hotel du Vin & Bistro Cambridge, www.hotelduvin.com, right on Trumpington Street - across from the Fitzwilliam Museum and a few minutes' walk from King's College, St John's College and many of their siblings.
The 41-room Hotel du Vin & Bistro Cambridge is an ingenious conversion of five mid-19th century terrace houses that still belong to Cambridge University. Outside, apart from the big glass windows looking into the Bistro and into the Laroche Tasting Room, you would hardly know what a treasure is within. WOW.travel specifically recommends the Brown Brothers suite. After descending your own private staircase - ten lovingly-worn stone steps that hint at so many stories over nearly two centuries - you enter the bathroom, dominated by a free-standing tub, its exterior covered in black-and-tomato patterned wallpaper. Further on, you have the bedroom, with two central brick columns and, behind the bed, a wall of the same wallpaper. Even further on, oh what a treat, you enter your own private screening room, a barrel-vaulted brick interior room which just has space for two large blue velvet loungers, and a massive Philips screen at the far end (there is more, by the way - you have a private terrace for outside dining, but that is probably only used, and rarely, in summer).
What must be on your list at Hotel du Vin & Bistro, Cambridge, is a look at the brilliant Stevie Mackie murals in public areas. The whole-wall painting in the lobby shows a typically decadent May Ball scene, with suitably happy party-going students. Next door, in the well-stocked library, a painting of other 'books' includes 'Hotel Empire Building' by Robert B Cook, who happens to be the boss of the hotel's management company, MWB Holdings, and another, 'I can't believe we got there' by Denis Frucot, the hotel's Nicoise GM. You must also not miss a tour of the hotel's fabulous basement bar, with oh-so-comfortable brown leather sofas and oh-so-private alcoves for serious conversations and other affairs. Start with a glass of Hôtel du Vin Champagne, by Raoul Collet. The hotel's own Bistro is so justly popular that we found a reservation to be essential even on a Sunday night. Chef James O'Connor's food is real and wholesome. There is nothing pretentious here. Butternut squash soup and a leaf salad with Planeta Extra Virgin Olive Oil were followed by duck confit with excellent mash, and a Hereford rib eye and hand-cut fries that came on a big wooden platter with indented juice channels. We had no space, sadly, to go on to desserts, which included 'Cambridge burnt cream', another name for crème brûlée, said to have been invented at Trinity College Cambridge in the 1660s (for a recipe, and history, click here). Sommelier Alexis Tostain suggested a really good Geoff Merrill Shiraz 2005.
Apparently Lily Cole hangs out here at, by the way - well, the headquarters of the History of Art department of Cambridge University is also across the road.
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