The Eagle (formerly known as the Eagle and Child) is a

Grade II listed 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 Ire ...

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 ...

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 beca ...

, England which opened in 1667 as a

coaching inn The coaching inn (also coaching house or staging inn) was a vital part of Europe's inland transport infrastructure until the development of the railway, providing a resting point ( layover) for people and horses. The inn served the needs of tr ...

. It is the second oldest pub in Cambridge, after the Pickerell Inn. The street frontage, located on the north side of

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 Sc ...

in the centre of the city, is of circa 1600, with a galleried 19th-century wing behind, facing the courtyard. The site is owned by Corpus Christi College and is managed by

Greene King Greene King is a large pub retailer and brewer. It is based in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England. The company owns pubs, restaurants and hotels. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange until it was acquired by CK Assets in October 2019. H ...

brewery.

History

World War II

During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, Allied airmen, who drank and socialised at The Eagle, used wax candles, petrol lighters and lipstick to write their names, squadron numbers and other doodles onto the ceiling of the rear bar. The tradition is believed to have been started by

RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) ...

Flight Sergeant P. E. Turner, who climbed up on the table one night to burn his squadron number on the ceiling. The graffiti, in what is now known as the "RAF Bar", was uncovered, deciphered and preserved by former RAF Chief Technician James Chainey during the early 1990s.

The Announcement of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA

When the university's

Cavendish Laboratory The Cavendish Laboratory is the Department of Physics at the University of Cambridge, and is part of the School of Physical Sciences. The laboratory was opened in 1874 on the New Museums Site as a laboratory for experimental physics and is name ...

was still at its old site at nearby

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 ...

, the pub was a popular lunch destination for staff working there. Thus, it became the place where

Francis Crick Francis Harry Compton Crick (8 June 1916 – 28 July 2004) was an English molecular biologist, biophysicist, and neuroscientist. He, James Watson, Rosalind Franklin, and Maurice Wilkins played crucial roles in deciphering the helical struc ...

interrupted patrons' lunchtime on 28 February 1953 to announce that he and

James Watson James Dewey Watson (born April 6, 1928) is an American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist. In 1953, he co-authored with Francis Crick the academic paper proposing the double helix structure of the DNA molecule. Watson, Crick a ...

had "discovered the secret of life" after they had come up with their proposal for the structure of DNA. The anecdote is related in Watson's book ''

The Double Helix ''The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA'' is an autobiographical account of the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA written by James D. Watson and published in 1968. It has earned both critica ...

'', and is commemorated on a

blue plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker. The term i ...

next to the entrance, and two plaques in the middle room by the table where Crick and Watson lunched regularly. Today the pub serves a special ale to commemorate the discovery, dubbed "Eagle's DNA". Also in 1953 Watson and Crick worked over lunch in the Eagle to draw up a list of the 20 canonical

amino acids Amino acids are organic compounds that contain both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. Although hundreds of amino acids exist in nature, by far the most important are the alpha-amino acids, which comprise proteins. Only 22 alpha a ...

. This has been a very influential rubric for molecular biology, and was a key development in understanding the protein-coding nature of DNA.

References

Pubs in Cambridge History of Cambridge Corpus Christi College, Cambridge 1667 establishments in England {{Cambridgeshire-struct-stub