Guildhall 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 ...

.Guildhall Street / Guildhall Place
,

Cambridge City Council Cambridge City Council is a district council in the county of Cambridgeshire, which governs the City of Cambridge. History Cambridge was granted a Royal Charter by King John in 1207, which permitted the appointment of a mayor. The first recorde ...

. To the north is the southeast corner of Market Hill at the junction with the pedestrianised shopping street

Petty Cury Petty Cury is a pedestrianised shopping street in central Cambridge, England.Petty Cury
,

. To the south it continues as Guildhall Place, a

cul-de-sac A dead end, also known as a cul-de-sac (, from French for 'bag-bottom'), no through road or no exit road, is a street with only one inlet or outlet. The term "dead end" is understood in all varieties of English, but the official terminology ...

, at the junction with Wheeler Street, close to the northern end of

Corn Exchange Street Corn Exchange Street is a street in central Cambridge, England.Corn Exchange S ...

. To the west is the

Cambridge Guildhall Cambridge Guildhall is a civic building in the centre of the historic city of Cambridge, England. It includes two halls, ''The Large Hall'' and ''The Small Hall'', and is used for many disparate events such as comedy acts, conferences, craft fai ...

, hence the name of the street. To the east is the

Lion Yard The Lion Yard shopping centre is a covered shopping centre in the city centre of Cambridge, England. Construction work on the centre, which is bounded by St Andrew's Street, Corn Exchange Street, and Petty Cury, commenced in 1970 and the dev ...

shopping centre. Fisher House in Guildhall Street is a Grade II listed late 16th / early 17th century timber-framed building that houses the

Cambridge University Catholic Chaplaincy The Cambridge University Catholic Chaplaincy, known as Fisher House after its patron, English martyr and Cambridge chancellor St John Fisher, is the Catholic chaplaincy for members of the University of Cambridge in England. Founded in 1896, si ...

. The Red Cow

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

is also Grade II listed, built in 1898 in a

Jacobethan The Jacobethan or Jacobean Revival architectural style is the mixed national Renaissance revival style that was made popular in England from the late 1820s, which derived most of its inspiration and its repertory from the English Renaissance (15 ...

style. There is an outdoor sculpture, ''

Talos In Greek mythology, Talos — also spelled Talus (; el, Τάλως, ''Tálōs'') or Talon (; el, Τάλων, ''Tálōn'') — was a giant automaton made of bronze to protect Europa in Crete from pirates and invaders. He circled the island's sh ...

'', by

Michael Ayrton Michael Ayrton (20 February 1921 – 16 November 1975)T. G. Rosenthal, "Ayrton , Michael (1921–1975)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2008accessed 24 Jan 2015/ref> was a British arti ...

in c. 1960, installed in Guildhall Street around 1973.Guildhall Street: TalosCambridge 2000

History

Guildhall Street was originally the location of the

meat market A meat market is, traditionally, a marketplace where meat is sold, often by a butcher. It is a specialized wet market. The term is sometimes used to refer to a meat retail store or butcher's shop, in particular in North America. During the mid ...

in Cambridge. The line of Guildhall Street as a street dates to at least the 16th century, when it was known as Butcher Row because of the meat market. Houses and stalls used to line the street, but these have changed radically, especially during the 20th century. The current building that forms the Guildhall dates mainly from the 1930s, although this site has been the centre for Cambridge's local government since the 14th century. Guildhall Place to the south linked the yards and rows behind Petty Cury since at least the 19th century. Its position was changed when the Lion Yard shopping centre was built in 1975.

References

{{coord, 52.20483, N, 0.11972, E, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title, format=dms Streets in Cambridge History of Cambridge