St Andrew's Street is a major 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 ...

. It runs between Sidney Street, at the junction with Hobson Street, to the northwest and

Regent Street Regent Street is a major shopping street in the West End of London. It is named after George IV of the United Kingdom, George, the Prince Regent (later George IV) and was laid out under the direction of the architect John Nash (architect), J ...

to the southeast.

Downing Street Downing Street is a gated street in City of Westminster, Westminster in London that houses the official residences and offices of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. In a cul-de-sac situated off Whiteh ...

leads off to the west. On the northeastern side of the street are 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 ...

colleges Christ's College and Emmanuel College. On the southwestern side are

St Andrew the Great St Andrew the Great is a Church of England parish church in central Cambridge. Rebuilt in late Gothic style in 1843, it is a Grade II listed building. The church has a Conservative Evangelicalism in Britain, conservative evangelical tradition an ...

church and St Andrew's Street

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

Church.

Shops

The street also has a number of shops. For example, the following are located here: * The

Robert Sayle Robert Sayle was a department store in Cambridge, England, founded by Robert Sayle (1816–1883). In 1934, it was purchased by Selfridges, who sold it to the John Lewis Partnership in 1939. In 2007, it reopened as a John Lewis store. History ...

(1840–2004) then

John Lewis John Robert Lewis (February 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020) was an American civil rights activist and politician who served in the United States House of Representatives for from 1987 until his death in 2020. He participated in the 1960 Nashville ...

(since 2007) department store * The Grand Arcade shopping mall (since 2008)

Hobson's Conduit

The St Andrew's Street branch of

Hobson's Conduit Hobson's Conduit, also called Hobson's Brook, is a watercourse that was built from 1610 to 1614 by Thomas Hobson and others to bring fresh water into the city of Cambridge, England from springs at Nine Wells, a Local Nature Reserve (), near t ...

was added in 1631, providing a supply of water. It flowed from the conduit head along

Lensfield Road Lensfield Road is a road (part of the A603 road, A603) in southeast central Cambridge, England. It runs between the junction of Trumpington Street and Trumpington Road to the west and the junction of Regent Street, Cambridge, Regent Street and ...

in the south of Cambridge, then through St Andrew's Street and towards Drummer Street. Here it split into feeds that ran into Christ's College and Emmanuel College, as well as a public dipping point. Much of the open conduit that ran along St Andrew's Street was covered in 1996 as part of pedestrian improvements.

Mystery Cavern

During October 2010, engineers excavating what had been believed to be a collapsed sewer underneath the road discovered a man-made subterranean chamberChamber of secrets at site of sewer work
,

Cambridge News The ''Cambridge News'' (formerly the ''Cambridge Evening News'') is a British daily newspaper. Published each weekday and on Saturdays, it is distributed from its Milton base. In the period December 2010 – June 2011 it had an average daily c ...

measuring 9 metres (30 feet) in depth and 6 metres (20 feet) in length. A spokesman for

Anglian Water Anglian Water Services Limited is a water company that operates in the East of England. It was formed in 1989 under the partial privatisation of the water industry. It provides water supply, sewerage and sewage treatment to the area formerly ...

, the organisation carrying out the work, told reporters that the chamber had been dug recently but precisely when - and by whom - is currently subject to investigation. One possible explanation is that the cavern is an abandoned telecommunications vault dug during the extensive building work that took place along St. Andrew's Street in 2007 and 2008 during the construction of the Grand Arcade or during the demolition of Bradwell's Court, a shopping mall that stood opposite where the Arcade now stands.

References

{{coord, 52.2031, N, 0.1239, E, display=title, region:GB_type:landmark Streets in Cambridge Shopping streets in Cambridge Christ's College, Cambridge Emmanuel College, Cambridge *St Andrew's Street