5 reasons I like living in (actually near) Cambridge

I’ve lived in Cambridge twice. Once as a student/abortive PhD student in the 1960s. And now. When we came back in 1996 it didn’t really seem that different to the place which I’d left 25 years ago. But in the 20 years since it has changed considerably as it’s become one of the UK’s fastest growing cities.

I’ve been around a lot and lived in enough places I might think there’s places I’d prefer to live. But not now. I’ve got enough invested locally, I’ve got a nice house and I’ve paid off my mortgage, and there’s lots of reasons why I like living here. Here’s just 5 of them.

1 it’s flat

That means it’s a good cycling city and once we’re though the worst of the winter I try to use my bike for all my travel into the city. Trouble is though there’s generally a wind, although it’s hardly the Windy City, and it’s always against you. I always reckon that hills can’t cheat you, after an ascent there’s a descent. But wind seems to follow you around so that it’s always against you.

Flat’s also a negative of course and especially if you’ve lived in Switzerland as I did for 13 years. I saw a quote once that mountains ‘stir the soul’ and that’s right. I remember coming out of an office in Santiago one Friday evening and seeing the Andes soaring high above the main drag. That was a sight to inspire you for the weekend.

2 it’s close enough to London

The fast train is just a little over 45 minutes and if I time it right I’ll get a seat and pay just £18 return. And when you get to London it is inspiring. King’s Cross St Pancras is an impressive redevelopment for a start, a great example of old architecture and new technology working well together. Plus of course there’s the excitement of the City, the river frontage and the traditional sights. It never amazes me how well London works given the way it’s developed, been subject to the horrors of world war 2 and the worst that 1960s planners could throw at it.

But the good thing of course is that there’s a fast train home as well and the thanks that you don’t have to fight the tube everyday.

3 there’s easy access to Luton and Stansted

Maybe that shouldn’t be such a plus in these days of climate change concern but I have done a lot of travelling on business from both airport. And my fair share of returning late and patiently waiting to get through immigration. A 30 minute wait was not unusual.

Strangely I prefer Luton to Stansted despite it being further away. The journey home late at night has a little more variety and somehow the staff are not so officious. I do confess to being hauled away by the security personnel at Stansted once because of a casual but stupid reference to ‘exploding toothpaste’.

I remember of course the earlier days of Stansted. It was designed by Norman Foster explicitly to be easy to use. Park by the terminal, walk to check in, walk to the plane. How it’s changed and been abused. Now you park a lifetime away and then fight the retail journey the through the apparently compulsory duty free.

Business is less an issue these days but we do like our short breaks in France, Spain and Italy once in a while and it’s a lot easier using our local airports. Unfortunately our next trip to Perugia’s going to involve an 0400 start to get an early flight out of Gatwick which’ll be no fun.

4 there’s lots to engage with

Or should I say ‘with which to engage’? It is of course the home of Cambridge University and Anglia Ruskin (as it says at Cambridge station) and just academically these give rise to a vibrant arts scene. But additionally of course there’s technology and the entrepreneurial scene which give rise to their own networks and activities. If you’ve a mind to there’s something to do just about every day. The notices on the fences at Great St Mary’s and All Saints’ Garden bear witness.

But it’s all very well to say this but do we? Engage that is. When we came to Cambridge in 1996 we went to see Shakespeare in the open air and we’re sure that this would be a regular event. Sadly that’s not what happened. We go to the Arts Cinema and the Corn Exchange but it’s hardly a cultural smorgasbord on our part.

5 it’s really just a big village

It lacks many of the trappings of a city, it’s small enough to walk from end to end in half an hour and there’s hardly a surfeit of good restaurants, many of the the best options are country pubs. That means that if you live just outside, I describe where I live as an ‘urban edge’ community which is neither village nor suburb, you can escape easily but if you want to engage it’s only 15 minutes on the bike (see point 1 above).

I remember attending one of those network events (see 4 above) some time ago on the subject of Cambridge ‘a world-class city’. One speaker was very clear that Cambridge is not a city and he was right then and would still be right now. He said that Cambridge lacked a top class sports team, it didn’t have an international class concert hall it hadn’t got a decent department store (but I guess that was before we got the new John Lewis). He was right.  It’s small, there’s an historic centre and it’s traffic free. Not a bad place. .

So there you go. That’s the 5. They might change of course. But for now they’re enough to keep me here.