Where to take family visitors: A Cambridge itinerary

My parents are visiting next week.  They've been to Cambridge many times before so I'm not going to take them to King's College and other familiar sights.  Nor are we going to do a lot of walking as they are getting just a little elderly.


Here's a possible itinerary for when parents visit:

Day 1
Jesus College, sculpture exhibition.

Barry Flanagan, Bronze Horse, Jesus College

If people have enough energy:  pop in to All Saints' Church on the way out and look at the Pre-Raphaelite decorations and stained glass by Edward Burne-Jones, William Morris and Ford Madox Brown.

Possible coffee stop at Clown's on King Street.

Day 2
Drive out to Madingley Garden.
My mother loves gardens and this recent discovery of mine is top of my list for places to visit.

Madingley Garden

If we have enough stamina, we could stop by the American War Cemetery on the way back.

But we will probably head for coffee instead --  possibly at the West Café  in the Hauser Forum on the new West Site of Cambridge University.  I discovered the West Café last month and had a lovely lunch on the outside terrace, overlooking the fields.  Added bonus:  sciencey types with ipads at all the other tables.

West Café, Hauser Forum

The Barton bike path going past the Hauser Forum

Plus, if you're on a bike:  it's a lovely bike ride to get there via the West Cambridge bike path.

Day 3
Botanic Garden.
Did I mention that my mother loves gardens?  The Botanic Garden is one of her favourites, plus we now have the fantastic new Garden Café there.  Both my mother and father love modern architecture so the award-winning Sainsbury Lab is an added draw.

Garden Café, Botanic Garden

Garden Café umbrellas and bits of the Sainsbury Lab

Day 4
If people are up for it, we may take a drive down to near Stansted and go to the Henry Moore Sculpture Park in Perry Green.  I've not been there but it looks like a nice, doable outing from Cambridge.  Nature plus art:  a good combination.

Catalogue of the Henry Moore collection at Perry Green

Local alternative (in case people don't feel like travel):

Lynn Strover Art Gallery in Fen Ditton.  This has a Bank Holiday exhibition called The Little Picure Show from  Sat-Mon, 24-26 Aug 2013.

Source:  © Lynn Strover.

Day 5
I have to pick up another family member from Luton Airport in the morning so that will eat half the day.  Perhaps we will relax afterwards and have Cream Tea at the Orchard Tea Garden in Grantchester.

Gateway Gallery, Luton Airport

Orchard Tea Garden in winter

Possible supper at Bill's on Green Street.

Day 6
A day to go punting.  Or just veg out.  Possibly finish with drinks on the roof terrace of the Varsity Hotel.

Although, if you want great views for free, just take the lift up to the top floor of the Park Street car park.  ;-p

Mural at the Newmarket Street roundabout

More ideas for a Cambridge itinerary are here at my pinterest site:  Visitors' itinerary.

Where do you take visitors?



Related blog posts:
Murals in a tunnel under a roundabout
Werewolf art at Luton Airport
Madingley series


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Madingley Hall 2: The Gardens

Remember when I visited Madingley Hall?  Through the windows of the Saloon, I glimpsed the Gardens, laid out by the famous garden designer Capability Brown in 1756.

I couldn't wait to get out of the hall and wander through those amazing grounds.




It was a sultry summer's day.  I took off my shoes and walked barefoot on the perfectly-mown lawn.  There's nothing quite like springy soft turf under your soles.  Absolutely gorgeous!



I don't know an awful lot about garden design but this combination of wild meadow and architectural formal bushes strikes me as peculiarly English.




Don't you just want to wander down this grassy path?  Like Little Red Riding Hood being tempted into the woods?



And what do you find down in the woods?  Not a Big Bad Wolf but this lovely lichen-clad statue along the Lower East Walk.






Yes, there's art in the Madingley Gardens, too.  Sculpture among nature:  is there anything more Romantic?

This bust of an ancient God stands at the end of the long formal grassy walk, the one with the clipped bushes on either side.



Turn around, and you will see the north façade of the Hall.  It was built in the 1590s, and re-designed in 1909-10.




See the arched shapes at the bottom of the façade?  And above them, the light-coloured rectangles?  This heraldic bird of prey is one of them.  Don't you love its stern eyes and lolling tongue?



A bit further on in the wall, we find this gargoyle.





And under the terrace, the Buddha Pond.  Note also the fun beast's head.



I walked around to the south side of the building and found this Hazel Walk, planted in the first half of the 19th century.



Goldfish and lilies in a pond.



The Sunken Garden, full of white flowers.



A sundial invites you to sit and dream.



Lichen, stone, spiky grass and fatty leaves:  all sorts of textures.



And a lush display of polygonatum or Solomon's Seal.



Now why does the one in my garden not look like that??



Look out for my future blog post, the third and last in the series on Madingley Hall:  Murals of bears and wild boar in the turret.

Enjoy these hot summer days!


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Part 1:  Madingley House (and its paintings)

Mysterious Cambridge rocks at the Classics Faculty: Who is the sculptor?

Ever since I first happened upon these stones in a Cambridge courtyard, I've been wondering what they are and who sculpted them.  And now I've finally found out.

There are three of these stones:

• a round fat boulder, roughly hewn;

• a tall stele, jagged and elegant; 

• and a low flat rock, like a gravestone waiting for an inscription.

It looks thin when viewed sideways, 

like a Giacometti statue, or like the Chapman brothers' dinosaurs at Jesus College.

The stones sit in a small garden, tucked in between the Faculty of Classics and the Faculty of Asian and Middle-Eastern Studies (aka FAMES) on the University of Cambridge's Sidgwick Site campus.  

I asked myself:  Are they three Oriental sages, meditating on nature and death?

Or are they riffs on the theme of classical statues, more ancient and unfinished than the sophisticated kore smiling at us from the nearby lobby of the Classics Faculty?

But no!  Surprise!

They are not art at all!

Thanks to the amazing detective work of Mary Munro of the Classics Faculty, I found out the following:

In 2000-2010, a small extension for the Classics building was constructed, and as part of this, the grass plot between Classics and FAMES was landscaped.  FAMES in particular was very keen on a garden, and it was decided to adopt a minimalist approach: a flower border, a single tree, and three boulders -- "rather reminiscent of a Japanese garden", says Mary Munro.

Colleagues of the Faculty visited a stone yard in Fenstanton (possibly Bannold) in the spring of 2010 and chose:

•  one large boulder of Scottish granite

•  one pillar of Welsh slate

•  and a 'stele' of Western Irish quartz.

Bannold products.  Source:  esi.info

What do you know?  They are rocks!  Not sculptures!

Which is why it was decided not to include them in the Cambridge Sculpture Trails.  

But what is the difference?

Do you look at them differently, now that you know you can never find a plaque with the sculptor's name on it?  

Do rocks, as soon as they are arranged into a pattern by human hands, take on meanings associated with art? 

Related post:
Mysterious sculptures outside the Doubletree Hotel:  Who made them?

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