Called to the bars

Alex Middleton

THIS IS A BOOK ABOUT PUBS, BY A CAM-bridge professor. Very naturally, it draws on Cambridge for many of its illustrations. Cambridge is a city that has no shortage of historic pubs. The Eagle has its RAF bar, and its connection to Crick and Watson; The Pickerel has (probably) the greatest antiquity; The Champion of the Thames is a true time capsule. Any number of pubs have a Grade II listing. The first Cambridge venue to merit a photograph in Philip Howell’s delightfully eclectic little book is The Golden Hind. Surprising. Though well off the hardbeaten city-centre track, “The Hind” is inarguably interesting for its baroque mock-Tudor architecture, and extravagant interior decoration. Fine. But the next pub pictured does not meet anyone’s notability criteria. The picture has compositional oddities: it…

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The Critic (Digital) - 1 Issue, March 2025

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