Cambridge Living Streets gets walking!
Welcome to our first Cambridge Living Streets blog. Please comment and add to this discussion, so we can build a stronger voice for the importance of walking and wheeling. Tell us about your experience of getting around the city.
You’ll know that our mission is to improve conditions for pedestrians across the city. Many Cambridge residents rely heavily on journeys made by walking or wheeling: children walking to school, parents pushing buggies, people walking to work, bus stops, local shops or for their health. Safe pavements are crucial for older people and those with disabilities who use wheelchairs or other mobility aids.
The Department for Transport places walking at the top of the transport hierarchy yet pedestrian infrastructure has been in decline for many years, with broken slabs and kerbs, blocked drains and worn-out crossing markings making it difficult and sometimes quite risky to walk on local streets. New investment in walking is miniscule compared with road building even though the return on investment for building new roads compares very poorly with the cost-benefit ratio for active travel schemes, which create more space for pedestrians and cyclists.
In 2023 we documented some of the pleasures – and problems – of walking in the city on this website. For 2024 we launched an exciting local walks programme to get more people interested in walking or wheeling for pleasure, health, companionship, and to find out more about their local areas. Over a hundred people of all ages joined our summer street walks in Chesterton, Petersfield and Abbey.
We were able to draw on fascinating research by Mill Road History Society, the Museum of Cambridge and Capturing Cambridge into the city, its people and their history. This enabled us to explore the development of sports, businesses, art, buildings and green spaces. At the same time, walkers documented where local streets and pavements were poorly maintained, with broken paving, inadequate or poorly positioned crossing points and risks arising from shared paths especially when markings were poor.
Our 2025 programme of ‘Winter Walks’ is open to anyone across the city – non-members as well as members. These are free, gentle walks of not more than 1.5 hours and you can just turn up on the day. Starting on 9th January, we are offering twice monthly walks: on a weekday morning and a Sunday afternoon. See the January to March programme below.
Thursday Morning Walks: 10.30-12.00am
Walking along the River Cam towards town
9th January: Meet 10.30 outside the Museum of Technology on Riverside
Off the Beaten Track: exploring Cambridge College gardens.
6th February: Meet 10.30 at West Rd, by U2 University Library Bus Stop
A walk through Ditton Fields
6th March: Meet 10.30 outside the Green Dragon Pub, 5, Water St, Chesterton
Wednesday Morning Walk: 10.30-12.00am
Mill Road Cemetery Spring Blossom and Flowers.
2nd April. Meet 10.30 at the Cemetery Lodge at the end of the access path from Mill Road.
Sunday Afternoon Walks: 2-3.30pm
‘Politics, Punishment and Shopping’ a walk around the Market Square area
26th January: Meet 2pm outside Yo Sushi on Guildhall St
Exploring the history of Health and Medicine in Cambridge
23rd February: Meet 2pm outside St Edward’s Church, Peas Hill
Churchill College Art Trail
23rd March. Meet 2pm at the entrance to Churchill College
Religion in Cambridge: exploring places of worship past and present
13th April. Meet 2pm outside Great St Mary’s Church on Kings Parade
If you’d like to find out more about the walks, have a favourite walk that you’d like to share or get involved in organising them contact our walking project leader Linda Jones at linda.j.jones@icloud.com. To join our campaign to make walking and wheeling safer for everyone you can sign up on this site or go to Living Streets at www.livingstreets.org.uk selecting Cambridge as your local group.