This film is part of Free

The Other Cambridge

An Anglia TV ‘Here and Now’ documentary, featuring an alternative tour of Cambridge led by architectural journalist Kenneth Robinson.

Documentary 1964 13 mins

From the collection of:

Logo for East Anglian Film Archive

Overview

Outside Cambridge’s famous chapel, Kenneth Robinson recites “where light and shade repose…” from Wordsworth’s “Within Kings College Chapel”. The journalist stands in front of Bradwell’s Court and commentates on the architecture of this university city, notably its modern shopping courts and contrasting college spires and steeples. He argues visitors are selective in remembering the city’s architecture, dismissing its modern features in favour of the historic.

Exterior views of the 1930s Old Fire Station building converted into student accommodation, and a lecture hall designed by British architects Sir Hugh Casson and Neville Condor are two examples of contemporary architecture in Cambridge. A variety of quaint cottagey lanes, high street buildings and monumental university colleges are seen, testament to Robinson’s commentary that many styles and architectural designs can be witnessed in Cambridge in addition to the historic buildings that dominate the tourist guidebook.