Photographed on 5th July 2021.
Introduction
The Grafton Centre is another area of Cambridge that may soon be transformed. It’s recently been reported in the news as for sale. It could be repurposed as laboratory, educational or office space, or redeveloped in its entirety. It opened in 1983 after decades of wrangling over regeneration of the “Kite” area – regarded as a slum, and so called because the boundary along Parkside / Parker Street, Emmanuel Road, Maids’ Causeway / Newmarket Road and East Road forms a rough kite shape. It was extended in 1995, when the Vue cinema was added, and refurbished in 2017.
With decreasing need for physical retail space, the Grafton Centre is probably the retail area that Cambridge can most easily dispense with. There’s the prime city centre shopping area containing the Grand Arcade and Lion Yard, the retail park in Newmarket Road and the Beehive, and streets like Mill Road suited to small, specialist retailers. It’s always been a little off the beaten track – if exploring the city centre as a visitor you wouldn’t stumble into it unless you knew where to look.
There used to be major stores to visit in the Grafton Centre including BHS and Debenhams, and in its early years chains like C&A, Laskys and Virgin Records. Most importantly for student and bedsit living, there was a large Kitchen Reject Shop.
What remains there now could be accommodated in vacant shops elsewhere. Some people have always said building it was a mistake, and would love to see it razed in its entirety and the original streets reinstated, perhaps with Victorian-style terraced houses like those in Malta Road. Many would want to keep the Vue cinema though.
Route
The route for this walk starts and ends at Reality Checkpoint on Parker’s Piece, as this covers the surrounding area better than the direct route from Home via Mill Road, Gwydir Street and Norfolk Street.
From there it heads north to Parkside, then along to the corner and north up Clarendon Street to New Square. From New Square it goes east along Fitzroy Street and Burleigh Street to East Road, then back to the main Grafton Centre entrance.
After passing through the Grafton Centre and exiting via its East Road entrance, the route continues north up East Road as far as the Crown Court, before heading back south to Parkside with a diversion along Norfolk Street as far as Mill Road Cemetery, then west across Parker’s Piece to return to the start.
Parker’s Piece and Parkside
Reality Checkpoint viewed in the direction I’m heading off in. It’s still festooned with coloured streamers as it was when I did the Mill Road walk.
The view in the opposite direction from the same spot, towards the Hills Road / Lensfield Road corner, showing the City View Wheel end-on and the tall spire of the Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady of the Assumption and the English Martyrs.
The view back from Parkside towards Regent Street, showing the University Arms Hotel with Hobbs’ pavilion in front.
Along Parkside there are a number of Georgian buildings, and a narrow entrance to Parkside Academy which is hidden from view behind them.
Clarendon Street
From Parkside, Clarendon Street leads up towards New Square.
The Clarendon Arms has reopened post-COVID, but at the time of writing bookings are still restricted to groups of six.
This long terrace in Orchard Street appears to be bungalows from the front, but two-storey houses round the back.
New Square
New Square was an open-air car park before the Grafton Centre and its multi-storey car parks were built, but it was already a green park by the time I came to Cambridge.
Cows About Cambridge is an art trail in Cambridge for summer 2021. I’ll walk the trail another time photographing all the cows, and maybe raise some sponsorship for the charity Break that it’s fundraising for. Here’s one of two cows in New Square.
And here’s the udder one.
(The “Cows About Cambridge” website and leaflet are full of puns like this.)
The Georgian terrace along the north side of New Square has a curved corner, which appears to contain a dental surgery.
Despite the signage with web and e-mail icons, this phone kiosk contains a 1980s-style coin payphone. As a student I’d put £1 in one of these for a weekly call home – and sometimes end up gabbling or rambling to finish when the credit ran out. Then I wised up and found you could preload them with 10p + 2x20p + 50p + £1 and talk for just as long as needed, wasting at most 9p when the unused coins were returned.
Fitzroy Street
North Side
The modern Eden Baptist Church dating from 1982 replaced the earlier one next to the Grafton Centre entrance.
At the end next to the Eden Baptist Church there are two 1980s units with maisonettes above, matching those further along. It looks like the developer wanted to build six either side of the Wilko building, flanking it symmetrically, but failed to acquire the intervening grey, flat-roofed block of four units on this side. It’s a shame – unlike Burleigh Street, Fitzroy Street is otherwise free of ugly buildings.
The Kitchen & Things store has an extensive pavement display. The weather this afternoon is unsettled – hopefully if it rains they can get all this inside in time.
The Wilko building was originally a department store, but I always remember it as Habitat. The grey, flat-roofed block can be seen to the left
I know someone who used to live in one of these maisonettes, above what was then Andy’s Records. They’re unusual in that they’re entered from a second-floor roof terrace and have (IIRC) a kitchen, bathroom and bedroom on that level, with internal stairs down to a large first-floor sitting/dining room opening onto the balcony.
The final stretch of the north side leading to the Grafton Centre entrance.
South Side
On the site of the former newsstand there’s now a mobile phone shop. That’s digitisation for you.
On the site of the former Iceland supermarket there’s now a Waitrose. That’s gentrification for you.
In the other end of the Greggs / Waitrose building, the Argos store has closed. This replaced the one in the now-demolished Bradwell’s Court on Christ’s Lane. There’s one close to here in the Newmarket Road retail park, so this isn’t really needed.
The former Eden Baptist Chapel was incorporated into the Grafton Centre when it was built. There used to be a restaurant called Footlights here, but it now contains small shop units including Gail’s Bakery.
Burleigh Street
South Side
The unit on the corner of Burleigh Street is now vacant.
The large Primark store on the south side served as a temporary John Lewis store while the “Robert Sayle” store was being redeveloped into part of the current Grand Arcade.
There are two more phone kiosks here, one containing a newer coin/card payphone and the other empty.
Next to Primark is this modern, not unattractive block of similar height.
This flooring shop appears to have closed down recently, although the firm is still trading and based in Newmarket. Compared with the Grafton Centre itself, there are relatively few vacant shops in Burleigh Street and Fitzroy Street.
As far as attractive buildings in Burleigh Street go, from here on it’s downhill all the way. The rest of the south side contains a mixture of building types, including grey, flat-roofed units and shabby Victorian ones.
The Vacuum Cleaner Centre has not closed down – but it shuts at 4 p.m. and it’s shortly after that now.
Near this was a sewing machine shop called Stitch In Time – “until recently” I thought, but Googling shows it had closed by 2008! I wouldn’t know – following limited success in needlework lessons in Years 7-8, sewing has never been part of my life.
At the East Road end of the south side there are is a row of Victorian shops.
The PMT music store would do equally well anywhere with nearby parking, from Lion Yard to the Beehive Centre, if this area gets redeveloped. It’s the sort of place that relies on deliberate visits rather than passing trade. Before broadband was fast enough to stream broadcast-quality movies, this was a Blockbuster video/DVD rental store.
North Side
The former Boat Race pub has been renamed The Snug and sells Vegan Vice burgers.
The north side of Burleigh Street has no aesthetic saving graces. The only elegant building (Forbidden Planet) has graffiti on its end wall painted by someone who has got onto the neighbouring flat roof.
Apart from Primark and the adjacent new 4-storey block, and perhaps the Forbidden Planet building, I’d vote for flattening the whole of Burleigh Street and starting again, especially if that’s what is done to the Grafton Centre. The block in the foreground is the ugliest one.
The north side of Burleigh street here is a jumble of flat-roofed units in different styles, heights and colours.
There were two hi-fi/electrical stores that I used to visit along here. Signorelli’s Deli used to be Sevenoaks Sound and Vision, now in Chesterton Road. Hughes Electrical moved to Cherry Hinton Road for a while, but no longer has a Cambridge branch.
I note there’s a small British Heart Foundation shop here, despite their nearby East Road megastore, shown later.
I’ve now returned to the Grafton Centre entrance.
Grafton Centre
Main Entrance
The entrance was remodelled in 2017, creating a taller indoor space. The previous entrance dated from the 1990s when the centre was extended.
There’s another Cows About Cambridge sculpture just outside.
At the moment there’s a one-way system in operation for social distancing. The government is due to relax restrictions a week from now. It will no longer be a legal requirement to wear face masks in shops, but still advised in crowded indoor spaces. The public is split equally between pro- and anti-maskers. Shopkeepers are in a no-win situation: if they ask customers to wear masks they risk confrontation from anti-maskers and if they don’t they risk complaints from pro-maskers.
Inside
I nearly didn’t get any photos inside the Grafton Centre. On entering with my DSLR around my neck the security guard told me photography inside was prohibited by management policy. He wasn’t unpleasant, just “doing his job”.
At the same time a mother and daughter arrived, on the cow trail and intending to take photos of themselves with the cows in the centre. When told the same she said it was a legal right to take photos in a public space. I’m not convinced – I’ve seen documentaries where shopping centre guards ban shoplifters caught with goods, without a conviction or injunction. I think staff can withdraw your implied right of access – or restrict what you may do – for any reason they choose, so I slipped away.
She could be right in contract law – the shop leases may only allow centre staff to intercept potential customers for agreed reasons (intoxication, antisocial behaviour etc.). Anyway she wasn’t taking no for an answer, and phoned the management there and then and got them to confirm to the guard that photography inside is permitted. Her daughter, gleeful in victory, then came and found me and told me so. The guard was good-humoured about it and we put it down to shortcomings in his training.
The new entrance and roof lets in lots of natural light. From the roof are hanging vertical and horizontal coloured light tubes. Presumably after dark they all light up bright white to illuminate the concourse.
On the left, the original outside wall and windows of the old Eden Chapel can be seen.
Most of the vacant units are shuttered, but this one has just a glass frontage so the empty shell inside can be viewed.
Here there’s still a prominent sign for Debenhams, although it closed on May 4th. They could have made use of the lockdown while most stores were closed to remove it.
The sections with little daylight really need light flooding out onto the concourse from the shops on both sides. With several shuttered, this spot looks gloomy.
The next section at least has open stores all along this side.
Another high-ceilinged area with natural light. The advertising boards above each unit with varied patterned areas beside them aren’t to my taste. But I’m a 50-something male for whom shopping is an occasional necessity rather than a pastime: hardly the demographic they’re trying to appeal to.
The Debenhams branding hasn’t been removed from here either.
In several parts of the centre they’ve used dark or black ceiling finishes. Why? The T.H. Baker store seems to have decided its future is elsewhere.
Shall I see if I can squeeze into here? Perhaps not – I don’t need the publicity of the fire brigade coming to cut me out.
I’ve now reached the rear atrium area. There’s a popup NHS clinic here to give AstraZeneca COVID jabs – quite efficient: on both occasions I was out in under 15 minutes. It’s not open at the moment.
From the first floor you can get to the east car park and Vue cinema.
Mini-Moo Sculptures
The small cows were decorated by local primary schools. There are half a dozen here, out of a total of 45 or so on the trail.
The one covered in crisp and biscuit packets is quite attention-grabbing. At the time of writing these are “not yet recycled”. There’s enough trouble with plastic that can be recycled getting exported to countries that don’t actually recycle it once it gets there.
I took one of the leaflets home to learn about the cow sculptures. The very next day one was put through my letterbox.
East Road Entrance
This long, featureless corridor leads from the East Road entrance into the rear part of the Grafton Centre.
Someone seems to have decided the safety notice is less important than the need to divide the corridor into lanes using continuous hazard tape. The left hand doesn’t seem to know what the right hand is doing.
In case your three-year-old can’t yet read, remind them not to smoke while they’re enjoying the “In the Night Garden” ride. Just in case they forget.
Like the phone booths, I doubt photo booths will be around for much longer. Nowadays you can use an app to take your photo, and upload it to the passport office.
By contrast with the new Fitzroy Street entrance, this one is tiny and unmarked. There are just some monochrome store logos to the right.
The Park & Ride buses drop off and pick up here. When I first moved to Coleridge in 2002, the Citi 2 buses used to come through here too, but soon after that they changed to going straight to the city centre along Parkside.
East Road
West Side (North of Burleigh Street)
The view of the Snug across East Road, with Burleigh Street to the left.
This must be the biggest charity shop in Cambridge. For years there’s been debate over charity shops, business rates and the “death of the High Street”. Charity shops only have to pay the council 20% of the rates. Commercial retailers say they’re paying unfairly to subsidise them and online retailers operating from cheaper warehouses. No government of any political persuasion has had the courage to tackle reform.
What the government has done is to alter property use classes to allow shops to be converted to other business uses without planning permission, and to homes if vacant for at least 3 months. That comes into effect fully next month (August 2021). So if the Grafton Centre disappears, nearby shops could gradually be repurposed.
The Vue cinema is prominently branded.
Looking north along East Road there are small “PUREGYM” and “Grafton” signs on the buildings to the right. The centre really needs a big monolith sign advertising its retailers, like those outside the Beehive and Newmarket Road retail park.
If heading south, there’s nothing to tell you what this is apart from the cinema.
To the right of the working men’s club is the entrance to the Grafton Centre east car park. The west car park has its entrance on Maids’ Causeway.
East Side (North of Norfolk Street)
Just as lockdown started in March 2020 I was meant to be doing jury service here. I spent a day and a half in the jury lounge (one of the first-floor rooms on the right), before we were all dismissed and the court closed down for several months.
There are several 4-storey blocks of maisonettes along East Road, at angles with triangular lawns in front.
I remember walking past here when the original red K8 box was being hoisted onto a truck, to be replaced with a twin KX100 kiosk with a yellow door strip for coins and a green one for phonecards (remember them?). I’ve no idea when the triple KX100+ kiosk arrived. There are still payphones in the two I can see into without opening them. The last will probably disappear when the BT landline exchanges are finally replaced by VoIP.
Norfolk Street
There are a few Victorian shops and cafes along the south side of East Road. The north side contains more 1960s maisonettes and flats.
The Man on the Moon pub has been renamed the Blue Moon – allegedly because it’s now in common ownership with the Cambridge Blue on Gwydir Street.
The 1960s housing, pub and parade of shops were all built with styles and finishes that complement each other.
This is the view back towards East Road. The Blue Moon can be seen beyond the shops on the right.
Opposite the shops there’s a passageway between houses leading to somewhere…
The gates are an entrance to Mill Road cemetery. A winding path leads through the small square area to the north of the main square, as shown on the map.
I’ve now returned to East Road from Norfolk Street.
East Road (Continued)
West Side (South of Burleigh Street)
This is the view north along East Road, with the Snug and British Heart Foundation store in the distance. The KFC has replaced its traditional red fascia with mud brown.
There are a few Victorian shops here, sandwiched between larger student accommodation blocks. On the left is St Matthew’s Primary School. It used to be clearly visible from East Road, but a large three-storey block was built along the boundary in 2012 and this is screened from the road by trees and a hedge.
East Side (South of Norfolk Street)
The main Anglia Ruskin University building, viewed from the corner.
Anglia Ruskin University could teach the Grafton Centre a thing or two about promoting itself. They even had signs in Cambridge railway station saying “Welcome to Cambridge, home of Anglia Ruskin University”.
They seem to have a one-way system and reminders to wear face masks here too.
As mentioned earlier, today’s walk isn’t about the cows. When I photograph the cow trail I’ll take one of this cow that doesn’t look like it’s dangling a bin from its mouth.
The large cage and banners certainly succeed in making an otherwise nondescript building draw attention to itself.
When I was a student the Zion Baptist Church had a large sign outside that read “This is a Ch–ch. What is missing?” (Answer should be pronounced “You are”, not “Err…”)
Parker’s Piece (Continued)
Opposite the Zion Baptist Church, some of the flats built as part of the Fire Station redevelopment can be seen.
At the junction of East Road and Parkside, much of the view is obscured by the trees.
Here’s a side of the Cambridge Rules sculpture since I’m passing it. Two other sides were included in the Mill Road walk.
The sky has darkened enough for the lighting effects on the wheel to be observed – a sort-of shimmering effect. I should come and try to photograph it after dark sometime.
Now I’m back where I started. It’s started to rain a little and I’m half an hour’s walk from Home without a coat.
