Most of the early inns in Cambridge (pre 1500) have names derived from heraldic practice.
Antelope, Brazen George, Dolphin, Griffyn, Star, Sun, Swan and White Hart
Pubs have always taken on the names of the professions of their landlords and so it is we have had in Cambridge the locally-flavoured ‘Arms’ of various professions.
Wheelwrights, Tailors, Haymakers, Gardeners, Glaziers, Carpenters, Cooks, Cricketers, Coopers, Lawyers, Millers, Masons, Miners, Gravel Diggers, Butchers, Brewers, Bakers, Bedmakers, Brickmakers.
More tangentially we have had a series of pub names that don’t immediately give away the object of their dedication – such as
Crispin Arms and Boot (Shoemakers), Catherine Wheel (Coach Builders), Magpie and Stump (Carpenters), Trotter Boy (Neat’s Foot and Tripe Dressers), Hoop (Coopers), Bishop Blaize and Boar’s Head (Weavers), Noble Art (Boxers).
For some reason, many professions have been deemed to be ‘Jolly’. Cambridge has been no exception.
Jolly Butchers, Jolly Waterman, Jolly Scholar, Jolly Gardeners, Jolly Miller, Jolly Ragmen and Jolly Tar (Sailors).
Cambridge, in reflecting its local traditions, personalities and professions in its pubs’ names, has generated an interesting list.
Dobblers’s Inn, Hobson’s House (after Thomas Hobson, Carrier), Isaac Newton, Chariots of Fire, King Street Run, Goulborn Arms, Punter
Names of the Napoleonic Wars
The people of Cambridge were particularly keen to commemorate the nation’s victories over Napoleon – as evidenced by the fact that when, post-Waterloo, the Duke of Wellington came to visit the city, he ‘was escorted into town by about a thousand horsemen’. Because of his exploits at the Battle of Waterloo, the Duke not only got to have a boot and a Cambridge street named in his honour, but also a pub – The Duke of Wellington in Fitzroy Street. No less significant at the Battle of Waterloo was the leader of the Prussian troops Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher (1742 – 1819). He too got to have a boot, a Cambridge street and a pub named after him – the Marshal Blücher, also in Fitzroy Street. In 1818, for the price of a shilling, you could take yourself to the Four Swans on Newmarket Road and see “the costly and curious military carriage of Bonaparte (and its valuable contents taken at Waterloo)”. The victory over Napoleon’s fleet by Lord Nelson gave rise to no less than three ‘Nelson’ pubs: the Lord Nelson in South Street and Sidney Street and the Admiral Nelson in Mill Rd (later the Locomotive).
Ballad Names
Scholars of the pub history often cite ancient and popular ballads as being the inspiration for many pub names. There were a number of Cambridge ‘ballad pubs’ thus named:
Black-eyed Susan, Johnny Gilpin, Guy of Warwick, Dun Cow, Man in the Moon, Hearts of Oak and Paul Pry.
Nicknames
A legend has grown up about the White Horse Tavern (King’s Parade) which earned the nickname of ‘Little Germany’ in reference to the discussions amongst a group of church reformers who came from King’s, Queens’, St. John’s, and the Austin Friars that took place in the inn there about Luther and the new doctrines in the 16th century
Over the years a number of inn nicknames parodied the practice of naming university colleges by using the surnames of celebrated landlords or notorious habitués in the title. Thus, in the 17th century we hear of the ‘Mitre College’ after the Mitre in King’s Parade. At the same time the Rose (Rose Crescent) became known as ‘Wolfe’s College’ after the landlord Sam Wolfe “one of the three best Tutors in the Universities.” In the next century, the White Bear Inn in Trinity Street became known as ‘Adkin College’ after Thomas Adkin (1760-1809) a well-known roué who lodged there for several years.
More recently we have had the Swimmer (White Swan, Mill Road), the Beaky (Earl of Beaconsfield (Mill Road), The Trinidad Arms (Devonshire Arms) and the Bucket and Spade (Spade and Beckett).
Street Names
Just as the old pub names of Cambridge are evidence of the trades that were plied in the pubs, the street names reflect the activities that were carried on in particular streets.
Petty Cury, mentioned as parva cokeria in 1330, took its name from the cookshops which supplied the needs of those coming in from the country; it is possible that the eastern side of the market square was once the Great Cury or Cook’s Row.
Butchery Row (Guildhall Street) and Slaughterhouse Lane (Corn Exchange Street) led to Hog Hill where hogs and horses were sold. Cordwainer Row/Market Street (1322) and the leather market (1362), with Tanners’ Hall (next the prison) indicate the presence of the leather-workers.
Other lanes and rows mostly unidentified but probably in the modern market square give further indications. Shearer’s Row/Market Street (1512), Felters Street/King Street, Comber’s Lane (1319) and the Duddery (1561), are evidence of workers in wool, while Broiderers’ Lane (1561), like Goldsmith’s Row (1589), testifies to more elaborate craftsmanship.
The Cutlers’ Row (1297), is matched by the Sheathers’ Lane (1508) and the Smiths’ (1271), by the Braziers’ (1589). The Lorimers’ Row (1299) housed the makers of metal harness fittings and Smearmongers’ Row (1330), the sellers of tallow.
Potters’ Row, 1249, furnished table ware, supplied with comestibles not only from the corn market and milk market, but from Butter Row, Cheese Market, and Malt Market, and the Poultry Row, 1388.
Source: ‘The city of Cambridge: Economic history’, in A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 3, the City and University of Cambridge, ed. J P C Roach (London, 1959), pp. 86-101. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/cambs/vol3/pp86-101 [accessed 1 June 2020].