Courtesy of the Cambridgeshire Collection

Nine tales from the pubs of Mill Road

Tue 11 November 2025

Ross Street Community Centre

Mark Tinkler takes us on a virtual PowerPoint-aided journey down the length of Mill Road, pausing at each of its 9 pubs (past and present) for brief and refreshing tales of scandal, intrigue, danger and derring-do.

How many of Mill Road’s nine pubs can you name? Here are nine clues: the reason for Mill Road’s name, the Admiral, an 1851 glasshouse, the Swimmer, Chariots of Fire, Brookfield Tavern, the Nine Steps, Kitty Dunphy’s – and finally – Caine – Master Po’s favourite pupil.

Mark is from Cambridge and his family have been in city/Chesterton since at least the end of the 18th century. His family were very much ‘town’ not ‘gown’ and worked mostly as labourers and brickmakers. Several of them ran pubs in the city including the “White Horse” (Chesterton), “The Eagle” (City Road), the “Fox and Hounds” (Trumpington Street) and the “Fat Pig” (Norfolk Street). Since retiring from a life in opera and music education, he researches Cambridge pubs with a view to publishing a book on the subject. He contributes to the ‘Lost Pubs’ series in ALE (local CAMRA magazine); gives tours about the publicans buried in the Mill Road Cemetery; and runs the “Cambridge Pub History Group” on Facebook and writes the website “innsofcambridge.com”.

This talk takes place at Ross Street Community Centre which is fully accessible. Doors open at 7pm and the talk starts at 7:30pm. Tea and biscuits provided. Admission £3.

Note as audience numbers are unpredictable we urge people to arrive early so as not to be turned away if we reach capacity.

https://www.millroadhistory.org.uk
https://innsofcambridge.com

Cost: £3