MORE UNSUNG CAMBRIDGE PUBS – THE TRAM DEPOT

December 2024. Cambridge.

“Never forget where you’ve come here from” sang Take That in their plodding 1995 hit, shortly before forgetting where the band’s talent lay and letting Robbie Williams leave for Burslem on a free transfer.

I come from Cambridge, of course, and circumstances have conspired to keep me in Cambridge rather longer than hoped this year.

Still, a man who is tired of Cambridge pubs etc etc

Always fascinating to revisit the city’s little changed collection of boozers, nearly all of which seemed in rude health on a Wednesday evening in mid December with a largely Gen Z crowd.

Older CAMRA members go into hiding in December of course, fearing they may meet a young person who doesn’t know that Lilley’s isn’t real cider.

There was, literally, no space at the inn at any of the King St pubs, so like little baby Jesus I had to head to the Kite area for my pint.

Good to know : You’ll always find a table in the Duke of Cambridge.

Crowds attract crowds, and empty pubs repel them, and I carried on to a pub I can’t have been in for a decade.

I’ve no idea why Everard’s called it the Tram Depot, it’s probably Latin, most things in Cambridge are.

I remember this being quite the trendy ale house barn when it opened 30 years ago, and it’s hardly changed since then, though still an Everard’s flagship in town.

In slow moving cask venues (97.2% of them, to be honest), always go for the strong festive one (see also : Sheps Neame) and hope for the best.

The way the barman looks quizzically for the “Festive Ale” (“This one ?  That one ?”) suggests it’s not a fast mover,

What’s that in the side room ?

There’s the sound of laughter, banned in Cambridge by Cromwell. It’s comedy night, makes a change from quizzes.

The Tram Depot isn’t a comfortable pub, same as a few other family brewery diners (see : McMullen), but it’s a spacious and unromantic place to take a date for lite bites (Scotch egg, £8) and a Lionel Richie soundtrack and we should cherish that.

Never mind Little Baby Jesus, there are people here who still believe in Father Christmas. They all went to Trinity.

The beer starts a cool and chewy NBSS 3+, I feel a tad sceptical as it’s 6%, but one look at the scummy head and I’m swayed. It’s a 3.5.

Yes, that’ll do.

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Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

11 thoughts on “MORE UNSUNG CAMBRIDGE PUBS – THE TRAM DEPOT”

  1. “Older CAMRA members go into hiding in December of course” except that my fractured spine has recovered enough for me to walk into and around town this afternoon for a Pedigree, two Banks’s Amber Bitters and a Bass. Then the bus home.

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  4. They called it the Tram Depot because it used to be, err, a depot used by the local tram company. There were only ever horse trams in Cambridge and this particular building was used to keep the animals at night and was known as the Stables because a Stable is where you keep horses overnight (not you personally, but you get the idea). The horse trams ran up to 1914 and the building had various users until the remains were converted into the present pub, which opened in the 1990s (some sources say the 1980s). It was opened by the Earl Soham Brewery who I think brewed the original house beers for the pub, but later it was sold to Everards, who now supply the regular beers.

    [IPW]

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      3. That sounds the same as putting the horse before the cart and probably provoked too much philosophical debate to have a chance of getting into common usage.

        [IPW]

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  5. “I remember this being quite the trendy ale house barn when it opened 30 years ago”. Yes, I remember drinking Earl Soham beers there, I thought when only Blackpool had a proper Tram Depot.

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