Mill Road is a two-lane road in southeast

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 ...

. It runs southeast from near to

Parker's Piece Parker's Piece is a flat and roughly square green common located near the centre of Cambridge, England, regarded by some as the birthplace of the rules of association football. The two main walking and cycling paths across it run diagonally, a ...

, at the junction with Gonville Place, East Road, and Parkside. It crosses the main railway line and links to the city's

ring road A ring road (also known as circular road, beltline, beltway, circumferential (high)way, loop 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 in reducin ...

(the A1134). It passes through the wards of Petersfield and Romsey, which are divided by the railway line. It is a busy road containing many independent businesses, churches, hospital and Cambridge Central Mosque. Near the northwestern end to the south in Mortimer Road off Mill Road is Hughes Hall. Behind Hughes Hall is

Fenner's Fenner's is Cambridge University Cricket Club's ground. History Cambridge University Cricket Club had previously played at two grounds in Cambridge, the University Ground and Parker's Piece. In 1846, Francis Fenner leased a former cherry orc ...

, the

cricket ground Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field, at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails (small sticks) balanced on three stumps. Two players from the ...

of the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, which has hosted

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

since 1848. To the north is

Anglia Ruskin University Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) is a public research university in the region of East Anglia, United Kingdom. Its origins date back to the Cambridge School of Art (CSA), founded by William John Beamont, a Fellow of Trinity College at the Unive ...

, formerly Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology (CCAT).

History

Mill Road was originally a quiet country lane leading to the southeast out of the city of Cambridge, named after the

windmill A windmill is a machine operated by the force of wind acting on vanes or sails to mill grain (gristmills), pump water, generate electricity, or drive other machinery. Windmills were used throughout the high medieval and early modern period ...

that stood at what is now the corner of Covent Garden. The coming of the railways in the mid-19th century brought about a rapid development of the eastern part of the city after the University of Cambridge repeatedly blocked attempts to build a more central

station Station may refer to: Agriculture * Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production * Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle ** Cattle statio ...

. The population of the Mill Road area was listed as 252 in 1801, 6,651 in 1831, 11,848 in 1861 and 25,091 in 1891.Ronald D. Gray, Derek Stubbings, ''Cambridge street-names: their origins and associations''.

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

, 2000. , . Petersfield and Romsey Town, the areas of Mill Road to either side of the railway bridge, developed in markedly different ways. Petersfield, to the west of the railway, was originally developed by Gonville and Caius and Corpus Christi

colleges A college (Latin: ''collegium'') may be a tertiary education, tertiary educational institution (sometimes awarding academic degree, degrees), part of a collegiate university, an institution offering vocational education, a further educatio ...

(a fact reflected in the naming of the area's streets after college fellows). In 1838 the Cambridge Union

Workhouse In Britain and Ireland, a workhouse (, lit. "poor-house") was a total institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. In Scotland, they were usually known as Scottish poorhouse, poorh ...

was opened, a building subsequently to become the Mill Road Maternity Hospital and finally Ditchburn Place, a sheltered housing scheme. Mill Road Cemetery adjoins the Petersfield part of Mill Road to the north and David Parr House, a preserved terraced house decorated in the

Arts and Crafts The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the Decorative arts, decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and ...

style, is close to the junction of Mill Road and Gwydir Street. Romsey Town, east of the railway, started to be developed after the

inclosure acts The inclosure acts created legal property rights to land previously held in common in England and Wales, particularly open fields and common land. Between 1604 and 1914 over 5,200 individual acts enclosing public land were passed, affecting 28,0 ...

of the middle 19th century. Expansion of the railway network drove the building of housing for railway workers and the majority of the houses were built in the ten years after 1885.Alan Brigham and Colin Wiles,
Bringing it all back home
''. CIH, 2006. Historically Petersfield has always been thought of by local residents as being on the 'Gown' side of the

town and gown Town and gown are two distinct communities of a college town, university town; 'town' being the non-academic population and 'gown' Metonymy, metonymically being the university community, especially in ancient seats of learning such as Universit ...

divide, with many of the residents having been employed by the University. Romsey, on the other hand, remained predominantly

working class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...

with a

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

tradition in its local politics, becoming known locally as 'Red Romsey' or 'Little Russia'. File:Mill Road, Cambridge, England 01.jpg, Mill Road, looking toward the city. File:Bridge mural on Mill Road, Cambridge, England.jpg, Railway bridge mural. File:cmglee_Cambridge_Romsey_Mill_from_Coleridge_Road.jpg, Romsey Mill Centre File:cmglee_Cambridge_Mosque_look_out.jpg, Cambridge Central Mosque atrium, looking towards Mill Road

Mill Road Winter Fair

The Mill Road Winter Fair is an annual fair on the first Saturday in December. Attendance grew from 10,000 at the first fair in 2005 to at least 20,000 in 2009. Since 2009 part of Mill Road, including the bridge, has been closed to traffic for the duration of the fair. Regular activities include a shop window display competition, live music, folk dancing, a local history walk and open days at the road's churches, temple and mosque. The fair was founded by Suzy Oakes.

Gateway from India

The Gateway from India is an intricate temple archway that was carved by hand in

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; Literal translation, lit. 'Land of Kings') is a States and union territories of India, state in northwestern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the List of states and union territories of ...

, over a period of five years. In 2006, it was installed in the Bharat Bhavan Hindu temple, inside the library building on Mill Road. Following repossession of the temple by

Cambridgeshire County Council Cambridgeshire County Council is the county council for non-metropolitan county of Cambridgeshire, England. The non-metropolitan county is smaller than the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county, which additionally includes the City o ...

in 2020, the archway was bought by hairdresser Piero D'Angelico, a member of Mill Road Traders' Association for £1. Subsequently installed in public gardens in Ditchburn Place. It was opened in September 2023 in the presence of local dignitaries.

Notable residents

The following live or have lived in the Mill Road area: *

Douglas Adams Douglas Noel Adams (11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001) was an English author, humorist, and screenwriter, best known as the creator of ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy''. Originally a 1978 BBC radio comedy, ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the ...

— author. Born at Mill Road Maternity Hospital, 1952. *

Syd Barrett Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett (6 January 1946 – 7 July 2006) was an English singer, guitarist and songwriter who co-founded the rock band Pink Floyd in 1965. Until his departure in 1968, he was Pink Floyd's frontman and primary songwriter, ...

— musician. Born at 60 Glisson Road, 1946. Attended Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology (now

) with

David Gilmour David Jon Gilmour ( ; born 6 March 1946) is an English guitarist, singer and songwriter who is a member of the rock band Pink Floyd. He joined in 1967, shortly before the departure of the founder member Syd Barrett. By the early 1980s, Pink F ...

, 1962–64. Worked as a postman at Mill Road Sorting Office. * Richard Berengarten (aka Burns), poet and founder of the Cambridge Poetry Festival. * Allan Brigham — local historian and tour guide. Lived in Cockburn Street, off Mill Road. * Robert Carpenter — cricketer. Born 18 November 1830 in Mill Road. *

Susanna Clarke Susanna Mary Clarke (born 1 November 1959) is an English author best known for her debut novel '' Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell'' (2004), a Hugo Award-winning alternative history. Clarke began ''Jonathan Strange'' in 1993 and worked on it durin ...

— author ('' Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell''). *

Rajani Palme Dutt Rajani may refer to: * Rajani (name), people named Rajani * Rajani (actress) (born 1965), Indian film actress * Rajanikanth (born 1950), Indian actor * ''Rajani'' (TV series), a 1980s Indian TV series * ''Rajani'' (film), a 2009 Indian Kannada rom ...

— communist ideologue and vice-chairman of the British Communist Party (CPGB). Born 1896 in 25 Mill Road, where his father Upendra Krishna Dutt had founded a medical practice around 1890. The building now houses th
Petersfield Medical Practice
* Gordon Fraser — publisher. Lived at 274a Mill Road during the late 1930s.

Dylan Thomas Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953) was a Welsh poet and writer, whose works include the poems " Do not go gentle into that good night" and " And death shall have no dominion", as well as the "play for voices" ''Un ...

attended a notorious week-long drunken party there in 1937 after coming to Cambridge to give a reading.Graham Chainey, ''A literary history of Cambridge''. CUP Archive, 1995. , . *

— musician. Lived in a flat on Mill Road while playing in Joker's Wild, his first band. *

Colin Greenland Colin Greenland (born 17 May 1954) is a British science fiction writer, whose first story won the second prize in a 1982 Faber & Faber competition. His best-known novel is '' Take Back Plenty'' (1990), winner of both major British science ficti ...

— Science fiction author (''

Take Back Plenty ''Take Back Plenty'' (1990), is a novel by British writer Colin Greenland, which won both major British science fiction awards, the 1990 British SF Association award and the 1991 Arthur C. Clarke Award,Clute and Nicholls 1995, p. 525. as well a ...

''). *

Timothy Gowers Sir William Timothy Gowers, (; born 20 November 1963) is a British mathematician. He is the holder of the Combinatorics chair at the Collège de France, a director of research at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Trinity College, Camb ...

— Mathematician. *

Fred Hoyle Sir Fred Hoyle (24 June 1915 – 20 August 2001) was an English astronomer who formulated the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis and was one of the authors of the influential B2FH paper, B2FH paper. He also held controversial stances on oth ...

— astronomer and mathematician. Lived on Mill Road as an undergraduate in Emmanuel College digs, 1933–35. * Tom Karen — designer of the Reliant Scimitar GTE, Bond Bug and Raleigh Chopper bicycle. *

Mary Kingsley ''For the English novelist, see Mary St Leger Kingsley.'' Mary Henrietta Kingsley (13 October 1862 – 3 June 1900) was an English ethnographer, writer and explorer who made numerous travels through West Africa and wrote several books on ...

— Ethnographist, writer and explorer. Lived at 7, Mortimer Road. *

F. R. Leavis Frank Raymond "F. R." Leavis ( ; 14 July 1895 – 14 April 1978) was an English literary critic of the early-to-mid-twentieth century. He taught for much of his career at Downing College, Cambridge, and later at the University of York. Leav ...

— notable British literary critic. Born above his father's music shop at 68 Mill Road, 1895. * David Parr - decorative artist in the

and

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

styles, lived at 186 Gwydir Street, just off Mill Road, from 1886 to 1927 * Shahida Rahman - English author, writer and publisher. Born at Mill Road Maternity Hospital, 1971 *

Tom Robinson Living people Thomas Giles Robinson (born 1 June 1950) is a British singer, bassist, radio presenter and long-time LGBT rights activist, best known for the hits " Glad to Be Gay", " 2-4-6-8 Motorway", and "Don't Take No for an Answer", with hi ...

— Singer-songwriter and radio presenter. Born at Mill Road Maternity Hospital, 1950. *

Ronald Searle Ronald William Fordham Searle (3 March 1920 – 30 December 2011) was an English artist and satirical cartoonist, comics artist, sculptor, medal designer and illustrator. He is perhaps best remembered as the creator of St Trinian's School and f ...

— Artist and satirical cartoonist. Creator of

St Trinian's School ''St Trinian's'' is a British gag cartoon comic strip series, created and drawn by Ronald Searle from 1946 until 1952. The cartoons all centre on a boarding school for girls, where the teachers are sadists and the girls are juvenile delinquent ...

. Lived at 6, Petersfield as a child and then at 29 Collier Road while studying at The Cambridge School of Art (now Anglia Ruskin University). *

Tom Sharpe Thomas Ridley Sharpe (30 March 1928 – 6 June 2013) was an English satire, satirical novelist, best known for his ''Wilt (novel), Wilt'' series, as well as ''Porterhouse Blue'' and ''Blott on the Landscape,'' all three of which were adapted fo ...

— author ('' Wilt''). Lived on Mill Road while lecturing in History at CCAT between 1963 and 1972. *

Amy Williams Amy Joy Williams, (born 29 September 1982) is a British former skeleton racer and Olympic gold medallist. Originally a runner, she began training in skeleton in 2002 after trying the sport on a push-start track at the University of Bath. Al ...

—

2010 Winter Olympics The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXI Olympic Winter Games () and also known as Vancouver 2010 (), were an international winter multi-sport event held from February 12 to 28, 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with ...

women's

Skeleton A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of most animals. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is a rigid outer shell that holds up an organism's shape; the endoskeleton, a rigid internal fra ...

gold medalist. *

Bee Wilson Beatrice Dorothy "Bee" Wilson is a British food writer and journalist. She writes the "Table Talk" column for ''The Wall Street Journal'', and is also a campaigner for food education through the charity TastEd. Early life and education Beatri ...

— Food writer, journalist and historian.

References

External links

Mill Road community websiteMill Road Winter Fair websiteAbu Bakr Jamia mosque
{{Authority control Shopping streets in Cambridge History of Cambridge Hughes Hall, Cambridge