Where to drink in Cambridge

Where to start

Cambridge is not a difficult city to drink in - it is a difficult city to drink well in. The centre is thick with chain pubs angling for tourist trade, but step half a street off the main routes and the picture changes fast. Bene’t Street, the lanes around Christ’s Pieces, and the stretch of Newnham Road all hold serious drinking - places with age, atmosphere, and landlords who take their casks personally.

The River Cam is the natural anchor. Riverside pubs have a particular quality in Cambridge: the light comes off the water differently at dusk, and the sound of the city retreats in a way it rarely does in England’s market towns. The Punter on Pound Hill does this better than most.

The pub stock

Cambridge has some of the oldest licensed premises in England still operating on their original sites. The Eagle on Bene’t Street is the obvious candidate - a former coaching inn where Crick and Watson announced the structure of DNA over lunch, and where the RAF wartime roll of honour still marks the low ceiling of the back bar. It is, rightly, one of the most visited pubs in Britain. Less visited is the back courtyard on a quiet Tuesday evening, which remains one of the better places to sit in the city.

Cocktail and craft

The cocktail scene arrived in Cambridge relatively recently and has not yet overextended itself. Novi on Market Hill is the standout - a serious bar with a short, rotating menu and no interest in gimmicks. For craft beer, the city has a handful of good independent taprooms within easy walk of the centre. The market area is the natural base for an evening that wants to move between styles.