The Knowhere Guide

Local Heroes in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire*

Cambridge, Cambridgeshire Famous Residents

Cringing Cult of Celebrity (Famous residents and ex-residents.)

• steven hawkings.
• Famous fibber Jeffery Archer has a stupidly expensive place a couple of miles south of Cambridge, and you can occasionally see the wheelchair of double Nobel laureate Stephen Hawking. Don't expect much conversation from either of them though.
• Olivia Newton-John. Her dad was the head teacher of what is now Hills Road.
• Olivia Newton John lived here before going to Aussie and then onto Hollywood for Grease (was also on TOTP). That other Ossie, Clive James, is rumoured to have a pad - another tv hogger but (a lot) more brains than Rory McGrath. Lord Rotshchild lived here up to the 90's. Prince Phillip (Uni Chancellor) has stopover rooms in the the city for himself, manservant and detective. I was almost famous having only just missed driving over prof Hawkings when he was the cleverest man in the world as he bombed down the middle of west road on his way to work one dark winter morning with only bike lights showing.
• Semi-famous band Groove Armada are Cambridge boys. Dunno if they still live here though
• not sure if he lives here but apparently lizo (from newsround) is often to be seen on his own in the Regal pub... ive never actually seen him myself tho!
• Saw Nick Moran (Lock stock film) in Vaults once, shook his hand. Mockney Cockney Jamie Oliver used to live nearby and reckons he was in the Cambridge scene but he is an essex prat. Also saw the bloke from CBBC's newsround, in the regal and queueing to get into Filth!!!
• ezio and booga both live here!
• My two rabbits, John and Dave (latter now sadly deceased).
• Clive James, Pink Floyd,
• Joe Fox, he's a teenager who was on childrens BBC and Family Affairs on Channel 5. he Skateboards now.
• Sid Barret (Pink Flody) lives in Cambridge, and has been spotted around town occasionally.
• The drummer from the Ruttles? (A famous beatles rip off band who had a couple of top ten hits in the 70's) is the landlord of the castle inn.
• jeffery archer...........he lives near harry. dirty dirty man.....
• That Stephen Hawking is a hazard, I tell ya! He coldly ran down my mate whilst we were stood having a beer outside the Mill.
• Steven Hawkings ran over my friends foot in his wheelchair last summer.
• DEREK WILLIAMS, that famous (or infamous) barman from west wales.Migrating all the way from scouseland to lampeter and ending up in Cambridge after years planning it.................and then getting in the local paper with a pint.lovely
• the infemous steven hawking!
• Terry Wait, Sid Owen (Rickkeeee in EE)
• Doesn't Pike from Dad's Army live in Cambridge somewhere?
• Don Estelle ,lofty in it ain't half hot mum (70's comedy series) lives around here somewhere
• Syd Barrett - still lives here by himself since his mother died. Twink - ex-drummer with Tomorrow & Stars (incl: Syd).
• Countless celebs have either studied, appeared at 'Footlights' or lectured in Cambridge.
• Allan Sommerville ( A.K.A Mush ). He left his town of birth of Greenock for an affluent fulfilling life in Cambridge. He now shines shoes near Parker's Piece.
• Ah, yes. Mr Rory McGrath (comedian with a HUGE head, who's on "They Think It's All Over") - he tends to frequent the Free Press, looks like his ego is barely able to fit in the small pub, and generally think too much of himself. Some people think it's cool to buy him a pint, so he probably does rather well for himself in there! The pub is nice though.. small, friendly, definitely a "regular's pub", no-smoking, the townie's rowing club HQ, and has a cool cat.
• Rory McGraph..... thats about it.
• Rory McGrath...hirsute comedian.
• Stephen Hawking, Stephen Fry, Clive James, Jeffrey Archer (twat), the mad one who left Pink Floyd, Rupert Brooke, Keats, etc, etc.
• The most famous resident I know of at the moment is Professor Stephen Hawking. When he is not busy advertising for BT or appearing on Star Trek he has been seen in town. That Archer fella also lives near here.

Buskers, Street Entertainers

• the guy who busks in bradwells court-usaully saturday is really good... and hes cute too!-sings stuff like the beatles and robbie williams with an acoustic guitar
• Who said we can't fit it in? There's a busker outside Baker's Oven who is not only FITT but has an amazing voice!
• If you are drunk you should kick the pouch of money of the juggler outside robert sayle. Hilarious as the scrambles to pick up the change before it goes down the gutters. Do take care if he starts running after you with his utensils though. :S
• Theres the most imaginative Big Issue seller in the UK on St Andrews Street at the Lion Yard entrance. some of his 'patter' to shift copies is brilliant. 2join the shortest queue you'll ever see etc etc.
• The loud fellar opposite Senate house on King's parade.
• Mad Charlie who pops out of the dustbin & sings on the corner of Trinity & Bridge Street who can also occasionally be seen running naked outside Henry's when he's been kicked out!! The bloke's a NUTTER.
• mostly classical cos of Cambridges educational position.. some pretty good though.. if u want buskers go to edinburgh.
• Ask for george gunton hes a guitarist who was almost offered a contract with the strokes. hes damn good.
• My friend and I got a shock when we watched a scary guy dressed in a black cloak and a nasty mask blowing a kazoo and threatening kids with a baseball bat outside boots. somehow he made himself grow very tall and the collapse. I also saw him another time with a friend in a similar outfit. they have a sign that says "its show time".
• loas of em outside woolworths and boots on saint andrews!
• Look out for the bloke who walks aroud wih dfferent objects strapped to his head. Previous favourites have included a fresh fish, and rather large teddy bear.
• There are often good string quartets outside Boots (St Andrew's St), and the guy outside Heffers on Trinity St with the Irish harp is good. In summer, trendy-looking people sit around in groups on Jesus Green playing bongos and djambe and stuff surprisingly well. The bloke in Petty Cury with the big hat and the mice is Snowy Farr (OBE), raising money for yet another guide dog.
• Spooky guy outside Boots that mimes?!
• The Scotish bloke who plays bag pipes outside M&S and the pan pipes men
• There are hndreds and hundreds of buskers in Cambridge, and most of them are pretty good (apart form the one guy who managed to play "Wonderwall" by Oasis constantly for the 3/4hr i was within earshot). Some of them are students, some are the few homeless we have, and a lot are people who come especially. There's often a Random Kilted Piper, a young student string quartet, a very unusual Mexican Pan Piping group, and a didgeridoo scattered around the town...
• Bloody brilliant buskers... watch out particularly for the Sigma String Quartet.
• Amusing bloke who hangs around outside Marks & Spencers prentending to play a keyboard with 'Jesus Loves Us' written on it.
• New gent's barber on King Street... cheapest and best in town
• Look out for Snowy (MBE)- an extremely old man who has rabbits, doves, and mice running around him and has collected tens of thousands of pounds for the association for the Blind.
• The nutter who tries to sing opera in a top hat to a kareoke tape is called phillip and he is certifiable. He's been living in cambridge for about ten years, applying to Kings College Choir every year, and doesn't understand why they won't let him in. The girl who plays violin outside heffers is indeed excellent. The nutters who wander around playing bongos are not, and should be banned.
• I don't know if this is a best or worst thing really; there's this guy who sits outside Trinity every day that the guy with the harp isn't there, with a little keyboard and amplified speakers. Anyway. He'll sit there with the keyboard on demo, pretending to play away on the keyboard, and it gets so bloody annoying 'cos the only songs on it are Venus and Let it be. But then again, it's always amusing to see the tourists go by and put money in his hat for his skill and expertise. Well, I thought it was funny anyway. There are far too many tramps and so on in Cambridge though. Most of them only come in during the summer days when the tourists are there, but that just means that those who don't go back to London or wherever are just more desperate during the evenings and harrass you all the time. I'm a student, and though I'd love to help, I can't afford to go (further) over my overdraft limit for some beggar. Oh well. I guess that's it.
• Talking about buskers: there was/might still be (hey, I've been away at university for a while ) a really cool guy who played/plays an amplified guitar or some kind, and does all these weird sound effects, and makes a great change from the bagpiper/opera singer/south american groups. He normally hangs about by Boots/opposite Woolies, or down Petty Cury where it meets up with the Lion Yard.
• There's one thing worse than the tourists, and that's the buskers. A lost Scot wheezes away on the bagpipes in a skirt every other weekend, but he's not half as bad as the weirdo who tries to sing opera with a karaoke orchestral backing tape. He even has a top hat and jumps about when pretending to be Figaro. The awful thing is that he thinks he's great when in fact he's totally crap, and he's always excruciatingly out of tune. But there is a stunning wee lass who plays the fiddle outside Heffers, some guy with a mystical harp opposite Trinity, and occasionally a smashing Andean pan-pipe band in the centre of town.

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Credits

Last updated: 2008-05-09