Silver Street is located in the southwest of 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 ...
.
[Silver Street](_blank)
, Cambridge City Council, England. It links
Queen's Road to the west with
Trumpington Street
Trumpington Street is a major historic street in central Cambridge, England. At the north end it continues as King's Parade where King's College is located. To the south it continues as Trumpington Road (the A1134), an arterial route out ...
to the east. The road continues west out of central Cambridge as
Sidgwick Avenue
Sidgwick Avenue is a road located in western Cambridge, England.Sidgwick AvenueRiver Cam
The River Cam () is the main river flowing through Cambridge in eastern England. After leaving Cambridge, it flows north and east before joining the River Great Ouse to the south of Ely, Cambridgeshire, Ely, at Pope's Corner. The total distanc ...
on
Silver Street Bridge
Silver Street Bridge, officially known as Small Bridge is the sixth river Cam bridge overall and the second bridge on its middle stream in Cambridge. In 1959 the concrete bridge with the design by Sir Edwin Lutyens replaced an 1841 cast iron bridg ...
. The current bridge was built in 1958–1959 to a 1932 design by Sir
Edwin Lutyens
Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens ( ; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memorials ...
, and replaced an 1841 cast iron bridge.
At the southwestern end to the south is
Darwin College.
Queens' College
Queens' College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Queens' is one of the 16 "old colleges" of the university, and was founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou. Its buildings span the River Cam with the Mathematical Bridge an ...
is halfway along on the north side, on both sides of the River Cam. At the eastern end to the north fronting onto Trumpington Street is
St Catharine's College.
To the north are
The Backs
The Backs is a picturesque area to the east of Queen's Road in the city of Cambridge, England, where several colleges of the University of Cambridge back on to the River Cam with their grounds covering both banks of the river.
In 2013, Nationa ...
along the river, providing one of the best views in Cambridge of the backs of some of the most historic and prestigious
Cambridge University
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 ...
colleges.
To the south, on the east side of the Cam, is the Silver Street/Mill Lane Site, one of the University of Cambridge sites. This is bounded by Silver Street to the north, Trumpington Street to the east, Little St Mary' Lane to the south, and Granta Place / Laundress Lane on the Cam to the west.
Mill Lane runs east–west through the middle of the site. Various University departments, other University facilities, and the
University Centre,
University Centre, Cambridge
are located here.
Notable former residents
Gwen Raverat
Gwendolen Mary "Gwen" Raverat (née Darwin; 26 August 1885 – 11 February 1957), was an English wood engraver who was a founder member of the Society of Wood Engravers. Her memoir ''Period Piece'' was published in 1952.
Biography
Gwendolen Ma ...
(1885–1957, née Darwin, granddaughter of the naturalist Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English Natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...
) was a wood engraver
Wood engraving is a printmaking technique, in which an artist works an image into a block of wood. Functionally a variety of woodcut, it uses relief printing, where the artist applies ink to the face of the block and prints using relatively lo ...
, artist, and illustrator, who co-founded the Society of Wood Engravers
The Society of Wood Engravers (SWE) is a UK-based artists’ exhibiting society formed in 1920, one of its founder-members being Eric Gill. Membership is restricted to artists who use wood engraving, as distinct from the separate discipline of ...
. She was the daughter of Sir George Darwin
Sir George Howard Darwin (9 July 1845 – 7 December 1912) was an English barrister and astronomer, the second son and fifth child of Charles Darwin and Emma Darwin. He is known for the harmonic analysis of the theory of tides. The Darwin s ...
FRS, astronomer and mathematician, and his wife Maud du Puy. During her childhood, she lived in Newnham Grange on Silver Street in a house that now forms part of Darwin College. She was born and died in the house. Gwen Raverat married the French painter Jacques Raverat and moved to southern France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
. On her husband's death in 1925, she settled back in Cambridge. In 1946 she moved to The Old Granary on Silver Street, also now part of Darwin College, where she published her childhood memoir ''Period Piece
Period may refer to:
Common uses
* Period (punctuation)
* Era, a length or span of time
*Menstruation, commonly referred to as a "period"
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Period (music), a concept in musical composition
* Periodic sentence (or r ...
'' in 1952.
Panoramic view
See also
* List of bridges in Cambridge
The following is a list and brief history of the bridges in Cambridge, England, principally those over the River Cam of which there are 26 (as of 2021).
The River Cam enters Cambridge from the south west of the city and heads north past many of ...
References
{{reflist
Streets in Cambridge
Darwin College, Cambridge
Queens' College, Cambridge
St Catharine's College, Cambridge
University of Cambridge sites