Mid June. Back “home” in Waterbeach to make sure my parents are eating enough of that yummy Chinese food from Chung Hwa (yes, yes they are).
I’d notice on Twitter that Roxanne de Bastion was playing Blue Moon that night, too good to miss.
And a chance to feel nostalgic about Mill Road 18 months after leaving.
Actually, I don’t feel nostalgic about Cambridge, but it does still have great pubs. This one below isn’t great but it is famous in CAMRA circles;
The streets between the station and Parkers Piece are key to Cambridge’s charm. For goodness sake, I was BORN on Mill Road ! (22 December, mark it on your calendars).
So much choice on the way to the Blue Moon, but one of my favourites had just re-opened after a scary closure.
The Live & Let Live is to Cambridge what the Wellington is to Sheffield, the Angel to Manchester, the Old Vic to Stockport.
Pubby, irreverent, gorgeous beer, often unheralded due to the competition.
Its return is triumphant. OK, the sign is a now bit functional, but the original (top) survives. And the pub itself is unchanged.
Pretty much your standard post-grad line-up, too.
A real unfussy mix of Cambridge life, students and science blokes and the curious. The mates were ostracising the sole one of the four without a Physics A level. “WHAT ! No Physics, we’d better move tables“. The soundtrack of Nik Kershaw seemed entirely appropriate.
A queue was building at the pumps. “This gent was here first” said the lady, nodding at me, when the barperson emerged from the cellar. I was first, but it’s nice to have your existence acknowledged.
A 6.2% Oakham Black IPA on a school night is a bit extravagant, but at least I didn’t have two, and a thick, rich marvel (NBSS 4.5) couldn’t really be rushed anyway (so I missed the first artist over at the Blue Moon).
Perhaps no better place to drink Oakham, and certainly the Nethergate flagship, but really you come here to drink anything, so fast is it selling for a backstreet pub. You’ll see more cask sold here than in the same period at the giant Spoons, I’ll bet.
And the people here are really lovely.
There you go, Mike, I’m almost sentimental for Cambridge.
retiredmartin 
Not sure which looks greater. The beer, pub or meal…
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That (sort of) snug.
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I remember it as an Ind Coope tenancy whilst at Jesus in the late 70s, when Mill Road was distinctly ungentrified.
What happened to the Locomotive??
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I went there with a mate on Christmas Day 1988 to play pool and it went downhill after that. Various restaurant incarnations since then. Great pub.
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Gosh. I was born on Mill Road too.
My brother still regularly visits the city, and I was very pleased to receive his report of the return of the Live & Let a couple of months ago; always a favourite.
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That dates you before about 69 when the maternity unit moved to the Rosie at Addenbrookes.
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1961, to be precise.
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I was right !
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Still having difficulty, posting on WordPress from my desktop, so it’s the one fingered typing on my phone.
A nice write-up, which I’m sure will tempt me to make a return visit to Cambridge before too long.
Nik Kershaw looks very young in that rather strange video, which I obviously missed. Remember the track, though.
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I think we’re ALL having difficulty today, Paul. I couldn’t remember the name of the vegetable (or fruit) and had to go into the kitchen to find an avocado.
I didn’t remember the video either. I think in the 80s artists always came into the Top of the Pops studio and mimed; the videos were mainly for America.
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“The Live & Let Live is to Cambridge what …… the Angel [is] to Manchester, the Old Vic to Stockport”.
It must have gone down hill then since I was there, but it is 29 years since I stayed in Cambridge.
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