Elizabeth Way is a road in northeast

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 ...

. It is designated the A1134 and forms part of Cambridge's inner

ring road A ring road (also known as circular road, beltline, beltway, circumferential (high)way, loop, bypass or orbital) is a road or a series of connected roads encircling a town, city, or country. The most common purpose of a ring road is to assist i ...

. At the northern end is a

roundabout A roundabout is a type of circular intersection or junction in which road traffic is permitted to flow in one direction around a central island, and priority is typically given to traffic already in the junction.''The New Shorter Oxford En ...

forming a junction with

Milton Road Milton Road is an arterial road in Brisbane, Australia. It is currently signed as State Route 32 for its entire length. Milton Road is a major corridor for traffic between the Brisbane central business district and the western suburbs. It car ...

(continuing the A1134 to the left and as the A1309 northeast out of Cambridge to the right). Near the north end is another roundabout linking with

Chesterton Road Chesterton Road (part of the A1303) is a road in the north of Cambridge, England.Chest ...

(the A1303) to the west. At the southern end there is a

that links with East Road (part of the A603, continuing the inner ring road southeast) and Newmarket Road (also part of the A1134, leading east out of the city). Just north of the Newmarket Road roundabout to the west is a former site of Cambridge Regional College, a

further education Further education (often abbreviated FE) in the United Kingdom and Ireland is education in addition to that received at secondary school, that is distinct from the higher education (HE) offered in universities and other academic institutions. I ...

college now located on Kings Hedges Road; before the Regional College was there, the site was a school. As of 2011, the site is under development for residential use. The houses on Elizabeth Way are mainly terraced and

semi-detached A semi-detached house (often abbreviated to semi) is a single family duplex dwelling house that shares one common wall with the next house. The name distinguishes this style of house from detached houses, with no shared walls, and terraced house ...

. Midsummer Fair was granted in 1211 and held in June each year on

Midsummer Common Midsummer Common is an area of common land in Cambridge, England. It lies northeast of the city centre on the south bank of the River Cam. The common borders the River Cam and houseboats are often moored on the common's bank. The boathouses ...

in the area around the modern Elizabeth Way. It is now a modern travelling funfair. The northern part of the road in Chesterton was known as ''Haig Road'' and ''Cam Road'', before it was linked across the

River Cam The River Cam () is the main river flowing through Cambridge in eastern England. After leaving Cambridge, it flows north and east before joining the River Great Ouse to the south of Ely, at Pope's Corner. The total distance from Cambridge to ...

by Elizabeth Way Bridge.Cambridge 1950: Elizabeth Way bridgeCambridge 2000
Elizabeth Way is named after

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...

Bridge

Elizabeth Way Bridge on Elizabeth Way crosses the

just to the north of the Newmarket Road roundabout, with Midsummer Common to the west.Elizabeth Way Bridge (Cambridge)

Wikimapia Wikimapia is a geographic online encyclopedia project. The project implements an interactive "clickable" web map that utilizes Google Maps with a geographically-referenced wiki system, with the aim to mark and describe all geographical objects ...

. In the 19th century, Chesterton to the north was not formally part of Cambridge. Links to the city were not good because of the River Cam, which blocked the way. Until 1890, the only bridge access into Cambridge from Chesterton was via Magdalene Bridge (the "Great Bridge") to the west. In 1889, the Cam Bridges Act enabled two new bridges to be constructed between Chesterton and Cambridge. In 1890 the first of these was built,

Victoria Bridge Victoria Bridge may be a reference to: Bridges ;Australia * Victoria Bridge, Brisbane, a road bridge across the Brisbane River in Brisbane * Victoria Bridge, Devonport a road ridge across the Mersey River in Devonport, Tasmania * Victoria Bridge, M ...

on Victoria Avenue, between

Jesus Green Jesus Green is a park in the north of central Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, north of Jesus College. Jesus Ditch runs along the southern edge Jesus Green. On the northern edge of Jesus Green is the River Cam, with Chesterton Road (the ...

and Midsummer Common. In 1911, Chesterton was incorporated into Cambridge and a new bridge was promised by 1917. However, with the outbreak of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, this never happened. In 1950, a report state that the construction of a second Chesterton bridge should be undertaken a matter of urgency. Eventually, in 1971, the Elizabeth Way Bridge was opened, on the proposed 1950 route. The bridge is a plain four-carriageway concrete bridge. It was formally opened by Rab Butler in his capacity as High Steward of Cambridge on 13 July 1971. It is still the most recent road bridge to be built in Cambridge and is now one of the main vehicular bridges across the Cam in the city. To the west on the northern bank of the Cam is ''The Eights'', a private

marina A marina (from Spanish , Portuguese and Italian : ''marina'', "coast" or "shore") is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats. A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ships o ...

and apartment blocks.

References

{{coord, 52.21109, N, 0.13673, E, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title, format=dms Streets in Cambridge Transport in Cambridge Roads in Cambridgeshire Bridges completed in 1971 Bridges in Cambridge Bridges across the River Cam

Bridge

See also

References