Bene't Street is a short historic street in central

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, the name being derived from

St Benedict Benedict of Nursia (; ; 2 March 480 – 21 March 547), often known as Saint Benedict, was a Christian monk. He is famed in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Lutheran Churches, the Anglican Communion, and Old Catholic Ch ...

. 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 School Lane leads off to the south. To the east, the street continues as Wheeler Street.

History

The street is named after St Bene't's Church. Bene't is a contraction of Benedict, hence the unusual apostrophe in the name. The

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

tower of St Bene't's, built sometime between 1000–1050AD, is the oldest standing building in

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfor ...

. The Eagle pub is on the north side of the street. In this pub,

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 Nucleic acid doub ...

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

James Watson James Dewey Watson (born April 6, 1928) is an American molecular biology, molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist. In 1953, he co-authored with Francis Crick the academic paper in ''Nature (journal), Nature'' proposing the Nucleic acid ...

had discovered the structure of

DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...

. There is a

blue plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom, and certain other countries and territories, to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving a ...

on the outside wall of the pub to commemorate the event. The main site of Corpus Christi College is located on the south side of the street. It also has accommodation on the north side of the street. On the corner of the College with Trumpington Street is the

Corpus Clock The Corpus Clock, also known as the Grasshopper clock, is a large sculptural clock at street level on the outside of the Taylor Library at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge, in the United Kingdo ...

, installed in 2008. The main entrance of the college is in Trumpington Street. While at Cambridge University,

Clive James Clive James (born Vivian Leopold James; 7 October 1939 – 24 November 2019) was an Australian critic, journalist, broadcaster, writer and lyricist who lived and worked in the United Kingdom from 1962 until his death in 2019.Germaine Greer Germaine Greer (; born 29 January 1939) is an Australian writer and feminist, regarded as one of the major voices of the second-wave feminism movement in the latter half of the 20th century. Specializing in English and women's literature, she ...

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

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

with a timber frame and

pargeting Pargeting (or sometimes called Wall pargetting) is a decorative or waterproof 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 co ...

at the corner of Bene't Street and Free School Lane. eaglepub.jpg, The main signboard of The Eagle pub in the snow on Bene't Street, as seen from the Corpus Christi College accommodation above TheEaglePub-Cambridge-NewBluePlaque.jpg, The

outside The Eagle pub on Bene't Street cmglee_Cambridge_Corpus_Clock_night.jpg, The Corpus Clock, looking east down Bene't Street at night cmglee_Cambridge_Friar_House_from_east.jpg, Friar House and the Bath House pub, looking west along Bene't Street

References

{{reflist Streets in Cambridge Corpus Christi College, Cambridge