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Downing Street is a street in central
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
,
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
.Downing StreetCambridge Online
It runs between Pembroke Street and
Tennis Court Road Tennis Court Road is a historic street in central Cambridge, England. It runs parallel with Trumpington Street to the west and Regent Street to the east. At the northern end is a junction with Pembroke Street to the west and Downing Street to ...
at the western end and a T-junction with St Andrew's Street at the eastern end.
Corn Exchange Street Corn Exchange Street is a street in central Cambridge, England.Corn Exchange S ...
and St Tibbs Row lead off to the north. Downing Place leads off to the south. To the north at the western end is the
New Museums Site The New Museums Site is a major site of the University of Cambridge, located on Pembroke Street, Cambridge, Pembroke Street and Free School Lane, sandwiched between Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, Pembroke College, Camb ...
of the
University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
. To the south is the
Downing Site The Downing Site is a major site of the University of Cambridge, located in the centre of the city of Cambridge, England, on Downing Street and Tennis Court Road, adjacent to Downing College. The Downing Site is the larger and newer of two cit ...
of the University. Many of the University's departments are located here. Downing Place United Reformed Church (St Columba's) is on the corner with Downing Place.


History

The area south of Downing Street was originally known as
Pembroke Leys Pembroke may refer to: Places Australia * Electoral division of Pembroke, an electoral division in Tasmania * Pembroke Land District, formerly Pembroke County, Tasmania Bermuda * Pembroke Parish Canada * Pembroke, West Hants, Nova Scotia * ...
, a boggy area to the south of Cambridge in medieval times. This was acquired for
Downing College Downing College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge and currently has around 650 students. Founded in 1800, it was the only college to be added to Cambridge University between 1596 and 1869, and is often described as the olde ...
. The architect William Wilkins was tasked by the trustees of the Downing estate to design the plan for the college. Wilkins, a devotee of the neoclassical architectural style, designed the first campus-based college layout in the world with a magnificent entrance planned on Downing Street, reaching back to form the largest court in Cambridge, extending to
Lensfield Road Lensfield Road is a road (part of the A603 road, A603) in southeast central Cambridge, England. It runs between the junction of Trumpington Street and Trumpington Road to the west and the junction of Regent Street, Cambridge, Regent Street and H ...
far to the south. However, the estate was much reduced from that expected and these grand plans failed to materialize. Much of the northern end of the Pembroke Leys was sold to the University and is now home to scientific departments and museums on the Downing Site.


Museums

There are several of the University's museums in this location. On the corner with Tennis Court Road is the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. On the corner with Downing Place is the
Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences The Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, is the geology museum of the University of Cambridge. It is part of the Department of Earth Sciences and is located on the university's Downing Site in Downing Street, central Cambridge, England. The Sedgw ...
. To the north at the eastern end of the New Museums Site is the
Cambridge University Museum of Zoology The University Museum of Zoology is a museum of the University of Cambridge and part of the research community of the Department of Zoology. The public is welcome and admission is free (2018). The Museum of Zoology is in the David Attenborough ...
. Just to the west is the
Whipple Museum of the History of Science Whipple may refer to: People * Whipple (surname) (including a list of people with the surname) * Whip Jones (1909–2001), American ski industry pioneer, founder, developer and original operator of the Aspen Highlands ski area in Aspen, Colorado * ...
in
Free School Lane Free School Lane is a historic street in central Cambridge, England which includes important buildings of University of Cambridge. It is the location of the Whipple Museum of the History of Science, the Department of History and Philosophy of ...
off Pembroke Street.


See also

*
List of museums in Cambridge The following museums and art galleries are located in Cambridge, England: * Round Church Visitor Centre — History of the Round Church, the development of Cambridge and the university * Cambridge Museum of Technology — Housed in the sewag ...


References

{{coord, 52.203, N, 0.122, E, display=title, region:GB_type:landmark Streets in Cambridge Downing College, Cambridge History of Cambridge Museum districts in the United Kingdom