Free School Lane is a historic street in central

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, 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. Cam ...

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 ...

which includes important buildings of

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

. It is the location of 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 * ...

, the Department of History and Philosophy of Science (HPS,) the

University A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

's faculty of Social and Political Sciences, and is the original site of the

Engineering Department An engine department or engineering department is an organizational unit aboard a ship that is responsible for the operation, maintenance, and repair of the propulsion systems and the support systems for crew, passengers, and cargo. These includ ...

, and the Physics Department's Cavendish Laboratory. At the northern end is

Bene't Street Bene't Street is a short, historic street in central Cambridge, England, the name being derived from St Benedict. There is a junction with King's Parade to the north and Trumpington Street to the south at the western end of the street. Free S ...

and at the southern end is Pembroke Street. To the east is the

New Museums Site The New Museums Site is a major site of the University of Cambridge, located on Pembroke Street and Free School Lane, sandwiched between Corpus Christi College, Pembroke College and Lion Yard. Its postcode is CB2 3QH. The smaller and older of ...

of the University. To the west is Corpus Christi College.

The Free School

The name of the street comes from the "Free School" which was established in the 17th century by Dr Stephen Perse who left money in his will to educate 100 boys from Cambridge, Barnwell, Chesterton and

Trumpington Trumpington is a village and parish to the south of Cambridge, England. The village is an electoral ward of the City of Cambridge and a ward of South Cambridgeshire District Council. The 2011 Census recorded the ward's population as 8,034. T ...

. This school later became the first site of the Perse School (now in

Hills Road Hills Road is an arterial road (part of the A1307) in southeast Cambridge, England. It runs between Regent Street at the junction with Lensfield Road and Gonville Place (the A603) to the northwest and a roundabout by the Cambridge Bio ...

). The Whipple Museum is situated in the original school hall.

Friar House

While at Cambridge University, Clive James and

Germaine Greer Germaine Greer (; born 29 January 1939) is an Australian writer and public intellectual, regarded as one of the major voices of the radical feminist movement in the latter half of the 20th century. Specializing in English and women's literat ...

lived at Friar House, an early-17th-century Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

with a

timber frame Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...

and

pargeting Pargeting (or sometimes pargetting) is a decorative or waterproofing plastering applied to building walls. The term, if not the practice, is particularly associated with the English counties of Suffolk and Essex. In the neighbouring county of Nor ...

at the corner of

and Free School Lane.Bene’t Street
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References

Streets in Cambridge Schools in Cambridge History of Cambridge Corpus Christi College, Cambridge {{Cambridgeshire-geo-stub