For as long as we have gazed at it, we have imagined seeing a face, head or body (so-called pareidolic images), in/on the moon. Given that we are keen to see a ‘man in the moon’ several myths have grown up around this notion. There is, for instance, a traditional European belief that the Man in the Moon enjoyed drinking, especially claret. An old ballad contains these lines:
Our man in the moon drinks clarret, With powder-beef, turnep, and carret. If he doth so, why should not you Drink until the sky looks blew?
The builders of Staffordshire Street were probably more likely to know this version – an early dated English nursery rhyme:
The man in the moon came tumbling down And asked his way to Norwich; He went by the south and burnt his mouth With supping cold pease porridge.
They may well have also been aware that in the English Middle Ages and renaissance, the Moon was held to be the god of drunkards. As a consequence, several taverns have been named after him including Cambridge’s own newly built pub (c.1850) in Staffordshire Street, next to Smart’s Row near St. Matthew’s Church.
Having enjoyed a lengthy and slightly riotous history, the original 19th century pub was demolished as part of slum clearances in the early 60s. Shortly after, 50m away on the junction of Norfolk Street and Staffordshire Street, a new version of the pub was built. Optimistically (5 years ahead of its time – and, as it turns out, presciently), the 1964 version was named the Man On the Moon. It had a space-themed interior, replete with formica topped tables and a lino floor, and was decorated with pictures of moon landings and astronauts. One wall apparently had plastic model rockets stuck onto a mural of the milky way, whilst another had a mural of a spaceman with a waving space-dog,
Then, in 1998 it had a makeover and was renamed The Office, complete with a decorative photocopier in one corner and a pub sign showing a city gent with a bowler hat.
In 2000, the old name was restored, and all went well until 2013 when its very existence seemed to be under threat. Step up Jetro Scotcher-Littlechild, Brexit enthusiast and owner of The Cambridge Blue – who embraced the pub into his mini-empire and branded it accordingly – by renaming it – The Blue Moon.
Sources:
- The Man in the Moon drinks Claret. Bagford Ballads, Folio Collection in the British Museum, vol. ii. No. 119.
- Cambridge & District CAMRA. (1976-2000). ALE. Cambridge: CAMRA.
- Hotten, J. C. (1908). The History of Signboards From the Earliest Times to the Present Day Ill: J. Larwood London. London: Chatto and Windus.
- Maskell, H. P. (1811). Old Country Inns of England . Boston: L. C. Page & Co.