Elizabeth Way Roundabout: Brutality on the Eastern Gate

At the fag end of 2023 the current Housing Secretary, Michael Gove, announced the formation of a new Development Corporation to oversee the expansion of Cambridge and the building of 'northwards' of 150,000 homes. This dwarves the figure of 50,000 previously identified in the Greater Cambridge Local Plan. Gove promised to reveal more about how the water supply issues  would be dealt with later. Given that the Conservatives are almost certain to finally be given the heave ho by the electorate later this year, it seems more than likely that this 'vision' won't pan out quite as advertised. But Gove's plans are not entirely new and seem like an on-steroids extension of existing ones. Whatever happens, Cambridge is set to see significant expansion and development at an ever increasing pace. Gove's 'vision'  is 'for a new urban quarter – one adjacent to the existing city – with beautiful Neo-classical buildings, rich parkland, concert halls and museums providing homes for thousands....  accompanied by further, ambitious, development around and in the city to liberate its potential with tens of thousands of new homes'.   A seemingly intentionally vaguely defined idea combining faux-Victoriana and Silicon Valley sprawl, with the sole purpose being the expansion of the life science and tech economy. That's what the statement brought to my mind anyway.

We will have to wait and see exactly the future city will look and feel like. But development has been gathering pace for some time. There are a number of proposals and plans already in motion that were dreamt up long  before Gove came up with the plan for a 'Development Corporation'. A term which harks back to the utopian idealism of the New Town period. However, unlike that period, things like council housing, civic centres, public art, community,  essential infrastructure and services are not things that look like they are high on the agenda.

While it was easy to be skeptical about Gove's announcement, it gave me the kick up the arse I needed to think about documenting some of the places currently marked for development before they are altered beyond recognition or disappear altogether.

The first site I decided to visit and the destination of the  first official walk of the year, was Elizabeth Way Roundabout. This is located at an entry point to the city centre and the central feature of what has been termed the 'Eastern Gate', an area more likely known to locals as 'the town end of Newmarket Road'. The City Council's Eastern Gate 'supplementary planning document' (SPD), which looks to have been produced around 2011, gives a good overview of the area and has some good maps. But crucially, it shows that over ten years ago plans were already afoot to transform the area. It calls Elizabeth way Roundabout and its underpasses,  'unpleasant and hostile'. Later its says the roundabout 'lacks the qualities of a positive gateway into the city and severely limits pedestrian and cycle movements'. Part of the strategy suggested was to remove the underpasses and remodel the junction. More recently plans to do just that have been consulted on as part of wider development plan called the 'Eastern Access Project'. The Eastern Access Project covers the length of  Newmarket Road to East Barnwell, where significant plans have just been proposed. It seems likely that the Elizabeth Way roundabout underpass will be filled in, with the  surface remodeled into a 'dutch' style roundabout with surface cycle lanes and pedestrian crossings.

The roundabout and Elizabeth Way Bridge, which extends Northwards from the roundabout to cross the river, is an unusual site (and sight)  for Cambridge in its concrete enormity. Cambridge is a bit low on underpasses and 60s/70s brutalist concrete structures of any kind. It is probably because of this that I have a possibly irrational fondness for the roundabout and it's underpass. When I was a kid, I remember having a perception that other towns and cities were made up of underpasses, black tar stained railway bridges, scuffy back alleys, caffs and brutalist concrete offices, flats and road systems. I remember sometimes having the feeling that I was not living in a proper city because Cambridge lacked these things and I was missing out.  My perception was no doubt based on a combination of things I'd seen from the car window when going on holiday with my parents and television programmes from the late 70s and early 80s set in urban environments, like Grange Hill and The Sweeney.  So for me at least, the roundabout is a site of significant psychogeographic interest. It was difficult to get a photograph that does it justice due to it's size.

I headed down to the underpass from the South West side. Graffiti is a perennial feature of the routes leading in at all four corners. Every now and then, it is whitewashed. But the graffiti soon returns. The standard of graffiti has been getting increasingly poor generally, and most was not worth photographing.

But the first of several Nigels of the day greeted me as continued into the underpass. A deluxe Nigel in purple. 'Nigel' seems to colonise many of the peripheral spaces around Cambridge. The Eastern Gate was a zone in transition and in a liminal phase, waiting for something to happen, as the proliferation of Nigel's in the area made clear.

As well as graffiti, the four underpass 'tunnels' all contain official murals, each with its own theme. These had previously been kept pretty clear of graffiti, due to a protective coating making it easier to clean anything off. But the cleaning seems to have halted. I wondered if this was a sign that the city council had stopped bothering, on the assumption that it wasn't worth it given that the underpass was probably going to disappear in the not too distant future. But I'd also noticed a lack of graffiti removal elsewhere in the city so it could just be down to the council being short of money.

This section of the underpass contained the Technology, Science and History' themed  mural. Being  the entrance/exit pointing pointing to/from the part of town containing most of the colleges and University, this sort of made sense, given that Cambridge's Science and Tech economy originates from the University and companies that span off from it as 'The Cambridge Phenomena'. The Cambridge Phenomena began in the 50s, and now is the driver behind Gove's plans. Of course before that, the University has long been associated with science, back at least as far as  Newton being hit on the head by an apple.

 

 

I arrived at the open sunken courtyard. That doesn't feel like quite the right word, sounding a bit too old fashioned and stuffy for something resembling a sight you would expect to see in downtown Stevenage or Harlow. I don't really know what the right description for this type of feature is, but on entering the open space, once the science mural was forgotten, there was no obvious connection with the University or anything else people usually associate with Cambridge.  Rather, the feeling was of having arrived in a place that was once a vision of modernism that was never quite realised, very much like contemporary Stevenage or Harlow. This disconnect is, I think, one of the main justifications given  for removal of the underpasses and roundabout.  But the environment found here is a symbol of escape from the sometimes overpowering sanitisation  of other parts of Cambridge. It is somewhere where you could imagine seeing Roland Browning stuffing his face with chips while bunking off school. Its a place out of time and space.  Not one that was ever likely to be turned into a heritage feature for the delight of tourists on an official guided walk. 

It was again difficult to get a good photo that fitted it all in. But while I was writing this and doing a bit of googling about the roundabout, I came across the excellent 'Coleridge and Beyond' blog which contained a recent post about the roundabout. It contains photos much better than mine and further information about the roundabout and its murals.

I emerged on the North West side, next to National Tyres which has been there for as long as I remember, but I have a recollection of the logo being in black and white. Beyond this part of a new development, at least one newer than the Eastern gate SPD, came into view.

I followed the path that runs down the side of Elizabeth Bridge towards the river, alongside the development which was on my left. These blocks appear to be student flats. It wasn't made clear if they were any particular sort of students. No signs of a particular college or even the University were evident. The gate I passed was coupled with a residents only sign giving no further clue. I had hoped to cut through the development to investigate further but clearly the public were not welcome.

The other side of the path, there is  space beneath the bridge beyond a brown door, which looks like it has not been opened for some time. In the past there were calls to use the space under the bridge as a music venue, among other things. I imagine its mostly been used for storage as it has, to the best of my knowledge, never been opened to the public.

Further along part of the space is being used as a 'hidden' homeless shelter. This was revealed by the Cambridge News in a surprisingly coherent article. It highlights clearly the contrast between those living in the 'luxury'' student accomodation and those in the shelter. A stark microcosm of Cambridge being one of the most unequal cities in the country, with the student and 'luxury' flats in the new development offering views across the river and Midsummer Common and looking down (literally) on those having to exist in the shelter. 

I stumbled across a desire path heading in the direction of the new development, which from this angle looked not unlike three brick and glass made cruise ships poised to sail across the Common. I supposed the design might have been intended to produce associations with luxury and wealth. The ones with the biggest windows are presumably the most expensive ones.

The desire path led to an official path, which then took me to a gate which the public were allowed through, as long as they were following the 'permissive path' as signified by the green label on the gatepost. The gatepost was otherwise uninteresting and non-descript, save for sign that confirmed the development was called 'Riverside'. I always referred to the area the other side of Elizabeth Bridge that followed the road along to Stourbridge Common as 'Riverside' and wondered if this naming, as well as being a bit unimaginative, would cause confusion.

The development was large but fairly featureless, other than a strange pice of landscaping that resembled a mini amphitheatre, with a sort of abstract (or maybe just unidentifiable) metal public art piece at the centre. Well, more private than public, but it is not alway easy to tell until an officious security guard appears. Thankfully there did not seem to be any around. Here I guess its more a private/public-permissive space. Its probably not permitted to walk on the grass though.

Another piece of art appeared at the end of the route which comes out into Newmarket Road. A depiction of a skeleton belonging to a large aquatic dinosaur ran along a wall. The wall had an air of the temporary about it, but I could not be sure whether that was just a feature of its modern design. Behind the wall, the building that was once the Bird in Hand pub loomed up. More recently it had been an upmarket indian restaurant, but that has relocated across the road, leaving the building empty. The Bird in Hand was one of the few pubs in the vicinity of the 'Eastern Gate' memorable in my lifetime. No doubt there used to be more. My nanna always told me that there were many more pubs along East Road when she was growing up, whilst also reminding me that people didn't have the money to go to the pub 'in her day'. This seemed paradoxical. These days there seems to be an inverse relationship between the amount of affluence (and people) moving into the city and the number of pubs, which also seems paradoxical. So maybe what she said was less contradictory than it seemed at the time.

The building below is on the site of what used to the to be the offices of the Cambridge Evening News, before the paper relocated to the outskirts at Milton, just across the A14 and lost the 'evening' from it's name. The road next to the building is called Evening Court, as if the paper left the 'evening' behind on leaving as a reminder of it's past as a quality local rag. I can't recall exactly what the old building looked like, it has faded from memory,  but I think the site must have covered the area behind where the houses are now. Somewhere around here, probably on what is now the Riverside development, was a part of  Cambridge Regional College that used to train people to be chefs and hairdressers and where the public could go for a cheap meal and  haircut. I think these activities might still go on at the CRC Campus on the edge of town near the Science Park. 

Now next to Evening Court, the building that replaced the Cambridge Evening News offices houses the Cambridge Building Society Headquarters. It is unusual such an institution retaining its premises in town these days. With the Cambridge News, Cambridgeshire County Council and South Cambs District Council having moved out of town, and talk of even the Police station moving out, it feels like the people of Cambridge are being abandoned by an exodus of  public serving institutions as they move to cheaper sites in a bid for efficiency savings.

Across the road building previously known as Shakespeare House was being renovated and will be rebranded 'Generator'. The previous building was a probably from the 1980s or 1990s so not ancient. Although it had been unremarkable looking enough for me to have trouble remembering what it had looked like before and I had to look it up. Like the buildings that runs along Sun Street next to it, there hadn't been much to notice about it. The new version looks from the intranet computer mock ups a similar prospect, just a more modern version.

Heading back to the roundabout I mooched along Sun Street, which is less of a street and more of a layby. A good portion of this is taken up by another brown office building from the 1980s or 1990s called  Dukes Court. Currently it appeared empty and up for lease. At number 6 the letterbox was taped up and the notice board blank.

I retraced my steps under the roundabout and headed back between the luxury flats and homeless shelter until I reached the underpass beneath Elizabeth Bridge. The view towards the river between two large concrete supports was accompanied by the rumble of cars passing above.

I lingered under the bridge for a while, and looked up to see a number of cobweb covered lights. These appeared to have been untouched for years. There were no concessions to gentile aesthtics here. The huge concrete posts, ancient looking cobwebs and relentless vibrations of the traffic passing overhead and the metal barrier running beside the river created a waterside experience diametrically opposed to that to be found further along the Cam in both directions within the city boundary. An experience not to be repeated until well out of the City boundary along the river path under the A14 near Horningsea. The environment under the bridge was akin to something from a J G Ballard novel. There were no straw hatted men passing on punts here or tourists gathering on the riverside having picnics. Nobody stopped here, just passed through. I began to feel self conscious loitering as cyclists and joggers passed me as I photographed the cobwebs, which in this space occupied a similar position to the gargoyles and grotesques found carved into college walls, just with less people pointing their phones at them.

I left the scene and came out the other side of the bridge. I turned into Abbey Road to head back up to the roundabout. The street is mainly residential victorian terrace but at the corner of Beach Road is the Abbey House, a 17th century built of the site of the old Barnwell Priory, reputably the site of several hauntings. But I passed this by fairly quickly, distracted by the weathervane on top of the hairdressers at the end of the street. This seemed to symbolise the divide East and West in Cambridge. West pointing into the City and University. East meanwhile, was going out of town to East Barnwell, the most deprived part of Cambridge and also a part due to be redeveloped as part of the Eastern Access Project. That's a blog for another day but suffice to say anything currently existing on Council owned land in the centre of East Barnwell is up for change, while the drive through Macdonald's will remain unaffected.

 

I arrived  at the North East entrance to the underpass beneath the roundabout. I was greeted by another deluxe Nigel.

Instead of descending, I decided to head East along Newmarket Road  as the weathervane had directed.  I observed the traffic passing by the ex-Rose and Crown pub. The brown 1930s pub building exterior is intact, with the rose and crown symbols incorporated into the brickwork, along side the Greene King figure above the door. The interior of the building is now the offices of a property letting agency. It stands  almost opposite the old Bird In Hand pub building across the other side of the roundabout, which I had passed earlier. Both closed pubs appeared portents of potential blandness to come if the Eastern Gate fails to deliver anything more than the filling in of the roundabout, some cycle lanes and the erection of more bland 21st century residential buildings and office space.

On my side of the road, the North side,  it was clear things were being allowed to become run down in advance of development. The South side had already seen quite a bit of development and reflected a likely future state. I walked past a sign on a board around a site about to be brought into this Eastern Gate future. It stated stated 'Building your visions, creating reality' alongside an uninspiring computer generated photo of what was presumably to come. Underneath was a Nigel with a backwards question mark added to the end, perhaps expressing both confusion and  distain about what was coming.

A faded circus poster occupied position above the cracked pavement outside number 129, a premises that must have recently been something but I had no recollection what. The word 'Fun' in large letters had probably once been bright red but was now false teeth gum pink. I don't think 'fun' was a word or sentiment found in the Eastern Gate SPD, nor in Michael Gove's vision for an expanded Cambridge. I couldn't even recall noticing its more corporate counterpart, 'leisure', being much of a feature either. It did say something about there being several pubs in the area. Several is stretching it a bit, even if you count the closed ones.

The Cambridge Odd Fellows District Office, along with Casey House, was one of the few buildings on this stretch not in a state of pre-development dilapidation.

Across the road, I could see the building that replaced the old Five Bells pub and is now occupied by the game studio of Ninja Theory Limited, a company that make computer games and were recently acquired by Microsoft. On the ground floor of the building is the Bird and Worm, which operates as a pub but appears closed at the weekend. I heard somewhere that originally it was just intended for the workers of Ninja Theory, so presumably envisaged as a sort of social club. But does open to the public, although perhaps grudgingly. I've never seen much advertising on social media.

A bit further along is one of the few buildings on the South side that has survived the beige spreadsheet architecture invasion that has taken place there over the last few years. Cambridge Refrigeration Technology has occupied the  purpose built premises since 1962 and has its originated from the The Low Temperature Research Station formed in the University in 1937. So part of the Cambridge Phenomena and a place of research and development, while paradoxically having the appearance of something resisting the  development that phenomena is currently perpetuating.

Back on the North Side, the site previously occupied by the Veritas Further Education College, Logic House, was in a state of advancing decay. Profuse wild vegetation sprang from the walls and graffiti had developed within the open space behind the fenced off wall. The 'access in constant use' sign spoke from an earlier age. It looked like nobody had been in for months, possibly years. Its days were undoubtedly numbered.

Likewise, the former newsagents which used to be a well stocked and busy establishment. A large deluxe Nigel brightened up the whitewashed windows and signified this temporary stage in the life of the building before its inevitable demolition and redevelopment. 

Further along, I was amazed to see the former Coopers building was (just) still standing. The faded lettering and distinctive blue tiling were, I thought, things I was probably seeing for the last time. Last I heard an Easy Hotel was due to be built on the site to compliment the Travelodge and Premier Inn across the road, but its taking a while to materialise. I'm not sure if the delay is caused by the developer knocking down the adjacent Victorian house. Apparently it was to be kept and incorporated into the new hotel as part of the approved plans.

Nigel had colonised the site, twice, this time with Tape and some cryptic symbols. Maybe these were protective and there to ward off the coming of the Easy Hotel  and the encroachment of more bland development.

They were not pointing hard enough to have prevented the new 'Anglia House' student building next door presenting messages on garish boards covering the windows. 'Take a peak to begin your extraordinary journey with us' was a phrase I was having trouble reconciling with student accomodation. Surely students go there to sleep and eat, not to set of on some kind of 'journey'. But then I ruminated on the proliferation of the nauseous expression 'customer journey' that is used by the corporate world to describe even the most basic and mundane transaction or service activity.

The nearest pub in the Eastern Gate area closest to the roundabout and actually still open is the Corner House. Up until a few years back live music happened here but now its all pub and food. Maybe its survival is in part due to people from Anglia House making a 'journey' across the road. One not very far in distance but one leading to a destination most likely miles apart in atmosphere and environment.

Just beyond the pub is a large Tescos, on the site of the old Gasworks. In front is an area with a war memorial where people wait for the bus. The Tescos car park is extensive, but has paths along each side and around the back that led to the river and the Technology Museum at the old pumping station. This is just beyond the periphery of the 'Eastern Gate' but I had hoped I might get a pint at the outside bar that Calverley's Brewery have in pumping station grounds.

Alas, it was not to be because they were closed, I was too early. I came back the other side of Tescos along Cheddars Lane. 'I almost died here' was one of the messages delivered by the graffiti infested wall on the edge of a light industrial area. I wondered whether to take this literally or if it was meant as a comment reflecting the general state of the area in which I stood 

I carried on back to Newmarket Road, past a white crumbly MOT garage on one side and the Wrestlers pub on the other. The Wrestlers is another brown 1930s pub building, which would have served the Gas Works. These days it does decent Thai food and served Charles Wells beer.

I crossed over to the South side on Newmarket Road. Here, between the Pizza Hut on the edge of the retail park and Coldhams Lane, were several sites in a state of flux, pending development.

One vacated building contained a more faded circus poster than the one spotted earlier.  The word 'fun' had disappeared completely. The colours had washed out leaving only cold blue, the warmth and joy expressed by the bright colours of the original version completely erased. 

It was not all gloom though. Directly across the road, the Seven Stars Indian Gastropub offered both curry and beer under one roof. I have only managed to get there to try their wares on one occasion about a year ago and very much enjoyed it. 

In a previous life, The Seven Stars was not encased by residential buildings with grey plague windows. The flats above, to the right side and to the rear are a relatively recent phenomena, dating from 2018/19. The building to the left obviously a bit more ancient, and typical of the remaining residential  buildings along the road between here and the Roundabout. The frontage of the original pub that closed in 2012 remains, despite a serious fire that broke out in 2014. At the time the building was being used as living accomodation. After the fire the building was left empty and boarded up for sometime, but the facade, which I think had to stay as a requirement planning permission, managed not to fall down. Before the 2012 closure, the pub was known as a bikers pub, and before that frequented by an older crowd. My mum used to regularly go there in probably the mid nineties or early 2000s  and went on pub outings to places like Blackpool. My only memory of going there in my youth was a brief stop on a pub crawl. Me and my friends found ourselves engulfed in a middle aged karaoke so drank up swiftly and left.

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Back on the South side of the road, I approached the site where a Premier Inn now stands. This spot had previously been occupied by a black glass building which had stood for sometime on the corner of Newmarket Road and Coldhams Lane.

 

 

Just before this, behind the Majestic wine Warehouse site, another new building was going up. I couldn't recall if the glass building had also occupied previously this site or if something else had. What was coming next was ground floor retail/office space with, presumably, flats above. I wondered at the possibilities the retail space might afford, and wss not optimistic. The building did not look like one designed for the provision of fun. But hopefully something more interesting than a Costa Coffee or an estate agents will materialise on the ground floor.

 

I turned off at Coldhams Lane to follow the back of the Travelodge on Harvest Way, which appropriately features some allotments sandwiched between the Travelodge and New Street.

It only took a short time to get along Harvest way, which is essentially a service road for the back of the Travelodge and other new buildings along the stretch of Newmarket Road that runs parallel. I don't recall seeing much of interest, The street was one of back doors and tradesmans entrances. I emerged at the junction where York Street, New Street and the short street leading to the pedestrian crossing over Newmarket road and the Bird and Worm meet. I took a diversion down the latter and noticed a profusion of shopping trolleys left at the base of one of the the residential block. 

Back at the junction, the two large advertising boards that are usually well maintained had become infested with poor quality graffiti. Advertisers had given up entirely on one of the boards, which resembled a modern art nightmare of ripped paper and despondency. Nigel watched over the scene from a nearby green telecoms box. The small blue advert between the boards promised 'boutique living', presumably in the beige block behind. Images of the flats inside being lined with psychedelic wallpaper, clothes rails, lava lamps, hammond organ music and 'groovy' people briefly flitted through my mind, as if someone had just put on an early 70s library soundtrack album. I quickly came to my senses and realised the reality inside would be more in keeping with the exterior of the building and with probably much less space than the place that had briefly manifested in my head.

Further along New Street I looked for the old blue Lacon's Rodney Stores building. This had disappeared since the sojourn I documented here where I first noticed it. I hadn't noticed the subsequent disappearance until now. It's replacement was another typically 21st century building, presumably containing flats. Next door, part of Mackay's still existed. The Metal Warehouse's metal shutter contained some half hearted graffiti. Mackay's have recently announced they will be relocating out of town, which will free up space that will presumably become inhabited by similar buildings to the one on the right.

Further along another part of Mackay's backway featured another metal shutter, this time with a Nigel which was unchanged since my previous perambulation in search of the 'mythical' Gas Lane back in 2017.

I head back down Occupation Road, which these days is lined with student accomodation on the left hand side and flats or possibly student accommodation on the other, until emerging atbthe Rose and Crown and the roundabout.

Occupation road was previously more reminiscent of the old back of Mackay's in my memory, and somewhere that raves used to happen in the 1990s prior to redevelopment.

From this side it was still not possible to photograph the roundabout in full. 

I descended and wandered into the underpass featuring the mural dedicated to Stourbridge Fair. Thie fair was apparently a ribald affair and the mural paid homage to this with scenes of drunkenness among the market stalls and juggling entertainers. The sort of debauchery depicted is probably about as far from the ethos of the Eastern Gate SPD as it's possible to get.

I took one last look across the space under the roundabout in the direction of National Tyres before I departed. I'm sure it won't be the last time I pass through the underpass before it is filled in, but by the time I get around to documenting it again it may well be gone, faded into the memory and imagination of the collective psych of Cambridge.

The graffiti on the way back up to East Road I think summarised this and the residence of the roundabout in my mind pretty well. 'Everything you see now is part of your imagination'.  A much better and more positive way of looking at the loss of places previously taken for granted than becoming mired in 'nostalgia' for things past. Elizabeth Way Roundabout may represent part of a lost future of 70s Newtown utopianism that was never to be in Britain and is a hauntological landmark in Cambridge. But with its dissapearance will come another era. The forthcoming buildings may seem bland now, but maybe one day as they themselves are about to be removed for whatever comes next, they will be regarded similarly to the way I regard the roundabout. They might be documented by somebody who has lived with them for decades and regards them as an intrinsic to the psychogeographic fabric of the City, hard to imagine as that might be now.