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.

The Closed Shops of Mill Road

I'd noticed scaffolding had gone up in front of the building formerly inhabited by a Tesco. It had been empty for a while, the supermarket oligarch having finally given up the ghost in Mill Road. For many this was a welcome departure. A few years ago, the No Mill Road Tesco campaign was well organised and culminated in a large demonstration. The Tesco opened anyway. But with no alcohol licence and with limited local support, a few short years down the line its not that surprising that it has gone. It had failed  to compete with the long standing and more popular Mill Road Co-op. As a 'product' of the Co-op and so having inherited a possibly irrational semi-loyalty to it, I can't say I was sorry to see the back of Tesco. The building had potential. I had hoped that maybe in a street constantly bigging up its community credentials, somebody with more imagination, ingenuity and access to funds  than me might come up with a great plan. Maybe some sort of cultural venue, library, community repair shop or centre where people could go and interact without feeling like they have to buy an expensive coffee to pay for their seat. 

Of course, nothing of the sort has been proposed. Instead there is currently a planning application for a private MRI scanning facility. I hadn't been that optimistic that what would replace Tesco would be anything to get too excited about. But I had not foreseen something quite as far removed from what- might-have-been as the provision of a private health care facility. This seemed to me something wholly contrary to everything I regarded Mill Road as having once stood for, in particular on the Romsey side of the Bridge.

A bit of cursory investigation revealed the planning application was made by Moor Park Capital Next Gen Ltd.  Companies House records show the company is directed by somebody of Australian nationality who is resident in Thailand. The company is owned by Hamersley Private Limited of the British Virgin Islands. Who is behind the BVI company of course is not (and does not have to be) disclosed.

There have already been a few objections lodged against the plans on grounds of noise, traffic and because the proposed development is out of character with the conservation area. The current building can hardly be said to be of architectural merit, but does have essence of Mill Road about it. What the Council's decision will be is anyone's guess. The developers appear to have already started work regardless.

I took a stroll to observe other recent developments. Or more accurately in most cases lack of development. A number of shops that closed have remained dormant for some time, most since before or during the pandemic. They are frozen in time, creating interim liminal points in between the places that have remained active or in some cases been reactivated. These 'closed shops' are left behind in time and have become temporary relics of the 'before times'.

Opposite the former Tesco is a shop unit which has its windows completely covered in newspaper from the inside. It is not possible to see into the interior and no shop sign remains from its previous incarnation. The newspaper, the Cambridge News, dates from 29 October 2016. I have no memory of what type of business occupied the premises before that which was a realisation that I found quite disturbing.  Eight years is  quite a long time for a shop on a  thriving street to be closed which was something  not so much disturbing as plain odd. The static window display of old news reminded me how quickly places can disappear from memory. Even those previously celebrated are often soon forgotten after abandonment or replacement.

I was interrupted while perusing the archive  headlines by a man asking if I would mind helping with his sons A-Level geography fieldwork. I was happy to oblige, although was slightly perplexed that the Dad was doing all the talking. The son said nothing while I answered his Dad's questions. The questions were concerned mainly with access to state education in Cambridge with a view to University. I was disappointed not to have been asked about current issues around gentrification, active travel, traffic congestion and more specifically given what I was up to, the changing retail environment. I have no children so my knowledge about access to the best local schools is limited, but no doubt money, pushy parents and being in the right catchment area are still factors that have a significant impact on a kid's chances of getting into the best state schools, which is more or less what I told him was my perception.  

After he'd gone, I resumed reading the headlines.  The one that stood out the most was the imminent invasion of 'alien ladybirds'. It was the close up shot that exaggerated the alien-like features of one of these creatures that caught my eye. I don't recall any subsequent emergency involving ladybirds in 2016 or since, and hoped the current flap about African Hornets would turn out to be equally as non-eventful. Another headline concerned the council's determination to push ahead with the Dutch roundabout at the 'accident blackspot' where Fendon Road meets Queen Edith's way. That did go ahead and the reception has been mixed. Having traversed it a few times by foot, car and bike I'm not sure I noticed that much difference in terms of feeling more safe, but initially was considerably more confused about what I was supposed to be doing. Like flat pack furniture, it didn't come with very good instructions, but was easy enough to work out. The roundabout is still often argued about on local social media. The ladybirds on the other hand, are never spoken of.

A little further along, the Chicken Rush takeaway has seemingly been closed for much longer than it was opened.  It was an active concern for an even shorter period than the curry house that preceded it. I managed to visit both only once each, such was their limited tenure.  Prior to the curry house it had been a newsagent-cum-general store that was very useful and now is something lacking from Mill Road. The shutters of Chicken Rush were unusually open one side, suggesting some sign of life inside. But when I passed a couple of hours later to get my tea from the Co-op they were back down. Whether goings on behind the shutters signify an imminent resumption of some front of house activity remains a mystery.

I wandered down to the area of Romsey beyond Coleridge Road. The former Chick-King takeaway has been closed for several years as mentioned in a previous post. Since I last took any notice of it the takeaway signs had disappeared and some graffiti had appeared. The open windows indicated the building is still occupied as residential premises. I've heard nothing anywhere of plans for any new outlet of any sort here. 

I didn't go beyond 'Chick King' and headed back up the road.

I passed the former Romsey Town Labour Club with a mixture of nostalgia and sorrow. It remains (for now) a symbol of a more community spirited and cohesive Mill Road. The crumbling building appeared broken and resigned to its future development into short term 'apart hotel' type accomodation. Last year the City Council's Planning Committee refused an updated application for 43 serviced apartments on the site and said  the previously approved plan for 36 plus a gym and cafe could still go ahead.  But no development whatsoever has started to date and the building, including the facade which I think is supposed to be retained, is getting ever more dilapidated. Some remains of fly-posters pointing out what a great community space the building would make were still hanging on.  Nigel had added his stamp of support to that sentiment more recently on the boarded up front door, appropriately in red. 

Despite searching I can't find any recent update. A post by The Cambridge Town Owl 'Can we save Romsey Labour Club?'  back in April explains the lack of Council funding and powers mean that the building has little chance of a return to its former glory as a community asset. So  the answer to the question is almost certainly 'no'. The post also contains a bit of the history of the current planning application, as well a couple of random links to videos shot inside the club. One of these features a live set from 2012 by 'The Doozer', who was a local musician with connections to the 'Weird Folk' scene of the mid 2000s. He was behind Harvest Time promotions who put on several events in Cambridge featuring some of the leading lights of the 'New Weird America' wave of bands and others of similar ilk. This peaked with the Palimpsest Festivals at All Saints Church that ran annually from 2005 til 2007 (possibly beyond but I only remember three). Harvest time and the Doozer have since faded into the collective memory, having ceased operations some time back as far as I know. The random video was a reminder of what has been lost with the dissapearance of the Labour Club as a space to host arts and entertainment, as well as cheap beer, cheap cheese and onion sandwiches and conversation.

I crossed the road and walked up to Dutch's Corner. It was hard for some reason to get a good photo of the new development that recently replaced the Cambridge Bed Centre in its entirety. Before the Bed Centre, Frank 'Dutch' Holland's petrol station and prior to that Holland's bakery had occupied the site, hence the name 'Dutch's Corner'. The view above is a reflection from one of the windows of the shop/cafe that sits on the ground floor. Reflected from across the street is the shop recently vacated by Cutlacks, a hardware, kitchen and garden shop which had been a staple on Mill Road for years. I heard vague things about a planning application flats but have seen nothing substantial. The owner wanted to downsize and concentrate on his other shop in Ely. But he also cited the planned Mill Road Bridge closure and congestion charge as 'the last straw' and things which hastened his decision.

The shop/cafe at Dutches Corner sits beneath the flats that make up the bulk of the building. The block is unusually more reminiscent of decent 60s municipal housing than the usual sort of spreadsheet architecture we have come to expect from new developments. It was brown, not beige and of a proportionate size (although still too big for me to photograph without crossing the road, which I didn't bother to do). Around the back is a small development called 'Holland Row' that is owned by 'City Stay' and available for short let via Booking.com. The light coloured small flat roofed brick buildings were utilitarian looking but at the same time eliminated a kind of seaside/Mediterranean feel. Fitting perhaps for short term/holiday lets and symptomatic of the increasing 'destinisation' of Mill road. Two or three normal looking houses have been built on Ross Street, the backs gardens facing the serviced apartment buildings. These houses sit a bit awkwardly, not quite blending in with the existing Victorian stock. But overtime, this newness will probably fade into line with the rest of the street. The houses looked more like they would (or at least could) be occupied by people needing somewhere permanent to live, which is a good thing. The new Dutch's Corner Development is, as signified by a notice stuck onto one of the walls, owned and managed by HTS Estates Ltd, a long standing locally owned company rather than one with owners in tax haven. Also a good thing.

Back around the front I had a closer look at the shop/cafe. It didn't open on Mondays but I could see the menu. Sandwiches at £8.95, even with the addition of a BeefHeart tomato, seemed a bit extortionate for my wallet. I could get a BeefHeart CD for less than that in Fopp. It did have a cheese counter though so I may be tempted to make a return visit.

I carried on up the road to the Broadway. Here was another premises that had fairly recently become inert. The Sea Tree had been a more upmarket fish and chip shop, which opened a few years ago right next door to the existing ABC barbecue chip shop/kebab joint. The Sea Tree had a fire a few months ago that it has not recovered from. Rumours of inadequate insurance have been cited as the reason it hasn't been able to reopen. There has been no sign of any movement for several months.

The ABC Barbecue, while outlasting it's next door neighbour by a matter of weeks, has finally closed having changed hands. It is still operational as a kebab joint I think, so the use hasn't changed significantly, but the chicken spit in the window has finally gone along with the nostalgic ambience and the fish and chips. The old Kebab Leg sign though is still there, for the time being at least. No sign signifying the replacement name for ABC has gone up, giving an ominous air of temporariness about the new incarnation.

The Sea Tree was the final place in a state of limbo I encountered on the Romsey side of the Bridge. I crossed over into Petersfield.

At the bottom of the bridge, the old Mill Road Free Library building is still standing and still has the for sale notice on display. Some months back Centre 33, a charity working with young people, was shortlisted as the preferred bidder. But nothing seems to have happened yet and the building still appears in a limbo state. Prior to its closure it had been used by the Hindi community as the Bharat Bhavan Temple. Earlier this month, 'The Gateway To India'  was was officially opened up the road in Ditchburn Place Gardens. The structure had previously been part of the Bharat Bhavan temple, but following the end of the lease, it was saved from destruction by the efforts  of a local trader. What the future holds for building that once housed the 'Gateway' is less clear.

Over the road on the corner of Devonshire Road is another building in an in-between state. The second and third floors still appeared to be occupied and presumably are in residential use. But the ground floor, which I think was previously a reprographics business of some kind, has been empty a while. I couldn't remember how long for and when it was opened I barely noticed what was inside, which was strange given its prominent position on the corner. Now the ground floor at least has an air of abandonment. There is a pile of unopened post on the mat and what appears to be a collection of unwanted personal belongings inside. Graffiti has started to colonise the windows. I have seen no mention of any plans for the building anywhere. 

Across the street, just next to the butchers, are some fairly recently built short stay flats, again bearing the logo 'City Stay'. There has been talk of development of the Travis Perkins site next door for a while.  I had noticed that the Railway Cottages that sit between Travis Perkins and Mill Road Bridge, behind the butchers had their windows boarded up. The cottages provide accomodation for young people and one of the houses is used to house homeless people. Or at least did before the boards went up. The planned development, called 'Devonshire Gardens', shows the railway cottages remaining, but dwarfed by the modern architecture of the proposed new flats. The site is due to start development in 'Q4 2023' after Travis Perkins have left for pastures new and to be completed 2 years later. 

I carried on, passing two long standing limbo buildings that have stood dormant next to each other for several years now. Mickey Flynn's pool hall was active more recently than the former Quality fish Bar next door, but its been closed for several years. An attempt to open a Sainsburys supermarket on the site was thwarted when planning permission was refused following 4,500 objections. Ironically, soon after a Sainsburys, albeit one on a smaller scale, opened in the former Mace shop further up the road. Amended plans to turn Mickey Flynn's into a restaurant and flats were, as I recall, approved. But nothing has ever happened since so I might have misremembered. A cursory google search brings up nothing and the building remains stubbornly in stasis.

The former Quality Fish Bar next door is the Petersfield version of the Chick-King across the bridge. The building is apparently occupied as residential accomodation but that isn't immediately obvious and the place resembles an abandoned takeaway/restaurant. It last operated with added kebab, but I can only recall going in when it was an old school fish and chip shop of the sort that are rarely found in Cambridge now. The Chick-King had also been an old school chip shop called The Belgrave around the same time. Both I think had the same owner, which probably accounts for the similar current use as ghost chip shop accomodation.

 

Meanwhile, opposite the now ghostly and precarious burnt out remains of H Gee is hidden behind the boarded up facade. I noticed I had been preceded once again by 'Nigel', who I assumed must have been carrying out his own survey of the liminal sites of Mill Road. The former Roll On Blank Tapes, down Gwydir Street just opposite, had recently been boarded up. It had been said that Mr Gee had lived there. I don't know if that was true or if he still does. I wondered if the boarding up of Roll On Blank Tapes signified something ominous. The loss of the H Gee emporium of electrical gadgetry meanwhile was a significant change and seemed to herald a new era on Mill Road and not necessarily a better one.

On the corner of Tenison Road two dormant premised face each other. The former premises of Culinaris Deli (not photographed) has been closed for a relatively short time and the business has moved up the road to bigger premises previously occupied by Lloyds Bank, on the corner of St. Barnabas Road. I didn't think this warranted inclusion as the business still exists and the site has not been dormant for long (maybe a year?). But while I stood on the corner, memories came back of the long standing Chinese Takeaway that once occupied the building. The Rice Boat was its last incarnation and while this was still an old school chinese takeaway, complete with a large formica encased television permanently on in the corner, it was  its predecessor The Jade that appeared in my mind. The Jade was a seemingly timeless presence while I was growing up and well into the 1990s. It had a small restaurant at the back, which I think was where my first ever sit-in Chinese meal happened. I remember being a bit shocked  at the relatively extortionate eat in price  compared to  the (same) food available for takeaway. The Jade had some connection to The Times, another established Chinese Takeaway on Cherry Hinton Road. One of my friends nannas had a calender in her kitchen featuring  the names of both establishments, which she had obviously obtained from one of them. They presumably shared ownership. The Times was the first place I ever had a Chinese Takeaway from, so theres another connection between the two. Mill Road now has no now old school Chinese Takeaways of the formica TV variety, having hosted several over the years. But it does have The Spring, which although no TV, has almost certainly better quality food. But memories of the Jade and the Lotus House, and a lesser extent the Taipei, live on.  A friend of mine found a quantity of old menus when clearing his mums house featuring some of Cambridge's finest lost Chinese Takeaways and Indian Restaurants. Judging by the prices, they mostly dated from the 1980s, which is the era I first encountered takeaway food and which was one where Cambridge had a prolific array of such places.

Shaking myself out of an unhealthy moment of nostalgia and the craving for a Times chicken fillet curry that came with it, I focused my attention on the opposite dormant premises. This had been Music And Digital Village,  more recently known as  'DV 247'. The shop had sold musical instruments and associated equipment. Apparently it was part of a chain which suffered during the financial crises. As with many of the other places mentioned already, I can't recall exactly when it closed nor know what plans (if any) there are for the future of the shop.

Beyond the former DV 247, on the townward stretch, I saw no more 'closed shops' until I got to the site of Fagitos. This has been closed since the pandemic and had a sign saying it was 'opening soon' as a Greek restaurant for so long that I'd assumed that it was never going to happen. But it seems it is. The people behind it are apparently the same family. 'Mr Fagito' as we thought of him has I imagine has retired and passed on the business. On the 'Fagitos Albania' Facebook page, he is also referred to as Mr Fagito. The last communication from 27 April 2020  ended with: To celebrate the launch of the schedule, I will be giving away an all inclusive trip for two to Parkside Pools. All you need to do is comment 'Mr Fagito you're so ripped' on this post. Good luck! The page is almost certainly does not feature messages from the real 'Mr Fagito' despite its superficial appearance as the official means of communication of the previous takeaway incarnation.

The frontage is now unrecognisable. I wasn't sure if the undercoat had still yet to be painted over or if there had been a localised outbreak of Grey Plague. It looked likely that the new Fagitos was going to a different proposition to the infamous late night Takeaway that almost certainly invented Spicy Potatoes and remains Mill road's most celebrated outlet of its type (with the possible exception of Carlos). The new Fagitos will, I guess, need to cater for the demands of the new Mill Road and so no doubt will be different. But the name will live on. And with a bit of luck the spicy potatoes.

The final site I checked out was the building that was once well known for being the Ann Pettengel Bureau. At least it was well known to Cambridge cinema goers during the 1980s, when it featured in the reel of adverts for local businesses.  My main recollection  was the representation of the building itself in a graphic, almost cartoon form, with the businesses logo above. I think I was too young to realise that a recruitment agency was a gateway to office toil and all that entailed. Instead, I recall at the time that the representation of the building had a slightly magical quality about it but I can't remember exactly why. Ann Pettengel left Mill Road some years ago and now operates from Cowley road business park on the Northern periphery of Cambridge.  Recently the Mill Road site was used as offices for for an insurance company, but at the time of the walk was almost ready to reopen after a short gap as offices for Home Instead, a social care franchise operation.

It stuck me as a bit of an odd place and an unnecessarily large building for offices of a social care company.  Also locating where rents are I imagine  unfavourable for a business which could easily be located on a cheaper site seemed an odd move. At first I had assumed it was going to be an actual care home which would have made more sense. The only explanation I could think of that it would only serve local people within walking distance or cycling distance and its carers would  not have to dive anywhere-even to get to work. That seemed unlikely. But I'm not a business person, so what do I know. I was glad though to see the building still the same shape as in the one in  old cinema adverts and was also glad it has been occupied by something that will bring some social benefit, unlike its counterpart over the bridge at the former Tesco should the MRI scanner plan come to fruition.

I finished my amble back at the former Tesco site, noticing that only one of the four cars that had been parked up before was still there. Activity was at a standstill.  

Shops, restaurants, takeaways, pubs and other businesses have come and gone over the years along the road. Some have been fleeting, barely noticed or remembered. Others have been well established and long serving and when gone remain in faded form in the collective memory. Several of the 'closed shops' seen today though seemed to belong to a different phenomena to the normal ebb and flow of businesses closing and opening. The duration many have been in limbo seems counter to all the talk of the street as a thriving  'destination'. Maybe they are biding their time, pending decisions on the bridge closure and congestion charge before deciding what to turn into. Maybe difficulties with planning permission or lack of funds are the causes of stasis. Maybe they are the victim of the general change in the retail environment due to increasing automation and online buying, coupled with the cost of living crises reducing the viability of retail, even in well off places. 

Whatever the reasons, the 'closed shops' seemed to me symbolic of the current division of opinion about the bridge closure and more widely congestion charge. At the time of writing, the Fiends of Mill Road Bridge have launched a legal challenge against the decision to close the Bridge that has delayed the closure.  Last week a woman was reported in the Cambridge Independent as saying she would 'self identify as a bus' if fined for driving over the bridge. Meanwhile,  pressure groups on the other side of the debate are citing statistics gleaned from the recent Greater Cambridge Partnership consultation to back up their arguments. 72% of just under 2,000 respondents said they were in favour of restricting traffic over the bridge. Whether that figure, based as it is on only a fraction of the number of people living in Romsey and Petersfield, is representative of the true feeling of the majority of the population or if it should be regarded as the result of just another 'non-sultation', is anyone's guess. But until things move on for good or ill, the more long standing of the 'closed shops' of Mill Road will probably remain in limbo.