Talk: The History of the Cambridge Townscape, 1500 – 2023

In this illustrated talk, Tony Kirby looks at the changing built environment of Cambridge from the eve of the Reformation to the present day, using what survives today as a guide to what had happened over the past five centuries as a result of the combined – and often conflicting – activities of the Colleges, private developers large and small, architects and local government, together with the railways and the attempts to deal with growing road traffic in the 20^th and 21^st centuries. So we shall go from the few surviving late mediæval houses, through the private affluence and public squalor of the Georgian era, the activities of Victorian and Edwardian developers and the public and private housing schemes of the 20^th century to today’s delights of CB1, Eddington and Marleigh, with a quick look at Bar Hill, Cambourne and Waterbeach.

Tony Kirby was, before retirement, Co-ordinator of Strategic and Curriculum Planning at Anglia Ruskin University. He is Acting Co-President of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, Secretary of the Cambridgeshire Association for Local History and also of the County Advisory Group on Archives and Local Studies.

This event takes place at Ross Street Community Centre on 11 April 2023 at 7:30pm, doors open at 7pm, all are welcome.