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ARTS & CULTURE
WEDDINGS SPECIAL
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GET THE LOW-DOWN ON THIS SUMMER‘S UNMISSABLE EVENTS
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EDITORIAL
Editor in chief Nicola Foley 01223 499459 nicolafoley@bright-publishing.com Chief sub editor Beth Fletcher Senior sub editor Siobhan Godwood Sub editor Felicity Evans Junior sub editor Elisha Young
ADVERTISING
Group ad manager Sam Scott-Smith 01223 499457 samscott-smith@bright-publishing.com Senior sales executive Harriet Abbs 01223 499464 harrietabbs@bright-publishing.com Key accounts Chris Jacobs 01223499463 chrisjacobs@bright-publishing.com
CONTRIBUTORS
Alex Rushmer, Angelina Villa-Clarke, Cyrus Pundole, Charlotte Griffiths, Siobhan Godwood, Sue Bailey, Daisy Dickinson, Jordan Worland, Ruthie Collins, Anna Taylor, Charlotte Phillips
DESIGN & PRODUCTION Designer Lucy Woolcomb lucywoolcomb@bright-publishing.com Ad production Man-Wai Wong manwaiwong@bright-publishing.com
MANAGING DIRECTORS Andy Brogden & Matt Pluck
CAMBSEDITION .CO.UK FIND US @CAMBSEDITION CAMBRIDGE EDITION MAGAZINE Bright Publishing Ltd, Bright House, 82 High Street, Sawston, Cambridgeshire CB22 3HJ, 01223 499450, cambsedition.co.uk • All rights reserved. Material contained in this publication may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior permission of the publishers. • Views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of Cambridge Edition or Bright Publishing Ltd, which do not accept any liability for loss or damage. • Every effort has been made to ensure all information is correct. • Cambridge Edition is a free publication that is distributed in Cambridge and the surrounding area.
This month’s cover illustration was created by Laura Bryant, senior designer at Bright Publishing
Author illustrations by Louisa Taylor louisataylorillustration.blogspot.co.uk
ive or take the swarms of tourists, August might just be the most relaxed month of the year in Cambridge. With the students gone until autumn and plenty of long, balmy evenings for relaxing by the river, now’s the time to kick back and enjoy the city in summer holiday mode. Make the most of these peaceful days by curling up in a favourite spot with a great book: we’ve got a cracker for you in this month’s Edition Book Club. A rare non-fiction pick for us, this month we’re shining a spotlight on local author Bee Wilson and her fascinating book The Way We Eat Now. A look at global food trends, obsessions and oddities which covers a staggering amount of ground, we get the low-down from Bee herself over on page 25. More of the city’s food writers (we do seem to have an unusually large volume here in Cambridge) chat to Dr Sue Bailey in Cambridge on a Plate over on page 64. As delightfully freewheeling as ever, this month’s column sees Sue talk Trinity burnt cream – or should that be crème brûlée? – via Victorian desserts, Edwardian virility potions and the joys of being a food historian. Also in the food section, we pay homage to one of Cambridge’s oldest and finest independents: The Gog. A century’s worth of history has seen this family business evolve from a roadside honesty box to a thriving farm shop, cafe and deli, which every foodie in the city raves about. Read its story on page 54. Our arts columnist Ruthie has been on the trail of Yoko Ono this month, in honour of the city-wide celebration of her work which continues through August. You’d be forgiven for knowing her best for her marriage to John Lennon, but Yoko Ono: Looking For... is a fantastic chance to learn more about this esteemed conceptual artist’s considerable influence on the art world, as well as her special connection to Cambridge. Find out more on page 22. There are a few treats to look out for on the local festival circuit, too, as detailed in our After Hours section (page 33). I’m especially looking forward to We Out Here, which makes its debut at the old Secret Garden Party site this month. As a diehard SGP fan, I can’t wait to return to this beautiful spot and see what the organisers have dreamed up. It’s a tough act to follow, but I’m confident we’re in the safest of hands with curator Gilles Peterson. As always, we’ve also got news on the most exciting new foodie openings, the best gigs and theatre and plenty more – enjoy the issue and see you next month!
Nicola Foley EDITOR IN CHIEF
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8 ● STARTERS Top things to do and see in the city, plus our favourite social media pics
13 ● ARTS & CULTURE Exhibitions, concerts and theatre highlights to enjoy in August
21 ● ART INSIDER
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Ruthie Collins, founder of Cambridge Art Salon, shares her arty picks of the month
22 ● YOKO ONO We find out more about Yoko Ono: Looking For…, a city-wide, summer-long exhibition
25 ● BOOK CLUB We chat to local author Bee Wilson about her writing on our collective eating habits
28 ● DRAGON BOAT FEST Cambridge’s craziest river race is back and we’ve got the low-down
31 ● AQUA PARK COMP Win a fun-packed day out for you and five pals at Southlake Aqua Park!
40 ● COMMUNITY HUB
68 ● INDIE OF THE MONTH
33 ● AFTER HOURS
Community events, charity news and more, from your local hub
In the spotlight this month, Bassingbourn’s charming Homemade at the Barn
Comedy, gigs, festivals and more nightlife fun this month
43 ● WIN A PUNT TOUR
71 ● WEDDINGS
37 ● LISTINGS
We’ve teamed up with Let’s Go Punting to give away a chauffeured punt trip
Your guide to throwing the ultimate Cambridge wedding
Our at-a-glance guide to the top events and goings-on this August
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47 ● FOOD NEWS
82 ● FASHION
All the latest news and gossip from the Cambridge food and drink scene
Summer holiday style picks you won’t be able to pass up
54 ● A GOG’S LIFE
85 ● BEAUTY
We head down to The Gog Farm Shop for a chat with the Bradford family
Daisy Dickinson rounds up the beauty products on her radar this month
61 ● CHEF’S TABLE
87 ● BUSINESS
Chef Alex Rushmer on what’s cooking in his kitchen this month
With the city becoming a hotspot for conferences, we look at top venues
62 ● RECIPE
97 ● GARDENS
A quick and easy summer roll recipe that’s perfect for a no-fuss feast
Flower farm owner Anna shares what’s happening in the garden during August
64 ● CAMBS ON A PLATE
99 ● INTERIORS
Dr Sue Bailey dives into local food history books, making some intriguing discoveries
Create a haven for your little treasures with our guide to decorating kids’ rooms
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STA RT E R S
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O U R FAVO U R I T E C A M B R I D G E I N S TAG R A M P I C S O F T H E M O N T H . H A S H TAG # I N S TAC A M B F O R A C H A N C E TO F E AT U R E ! FOLLOW @CAMBSEDITION ON INSTAGRAM FOR MORE GREAT PICS OF CAMBRIDGE
W Y S I NG P OLYPHONIC Wysing Polyphonic returns for its tenth year of boundary-pushing music with a new collaboration for the arts centre with guest curators Somerset House Studios. The studio, a former Inland Revenue building in London, can host up to 100 artists in residence at any time, so the artists are in an ideal position to put their stamp on Wysing’s latest big event, which is on 7 September (1pm to 1am). Music and performance is across four covered stages, plus a film and talks programme. Johannesburg queer art collective FAKA will be in residence in the weeks before the festival to develop a new work for the event, as will Cairo producer and multi-instrumentalist, Zuli. Returning Wysing festival performers include Jennifer Walshe, Valentina Magaletti and Beatrice Dillon. The latter will perform a back-to-back set with Somerset House Studios’ curator-in-residence Tabitha Thorlu-Bangura. Working with local singers, Wysing studio artist Emma Smith presents 5Hz, a project that imagines an evolution of voice for social bonding, based on research into vocal rhythm. wysingartscentre.org
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STA RT E R S
MUSIC ON THE RIVER
Music on the River, a glorious combination of live music, punting and drinks, comes to the Cam on select Friday nights. Let’s Go Punting and the Traditional Punting Company have joined forces to offer four events featuring five hugely talented musicians on board your punt. On 9 August, Cambridge-based Max Bianco, the singer-guitarist from Max Bianco and The Bluehearts, will perform, while on the 23rd, singer-beatboxer Ukulele Simon takes to the river. Americana/folk duo Roswell round things off on 30 August. The punting firms have teamed up with The Punt and Pole, a floating bar that will never be far from your punt, with 20% off for Music on the River customers. Punts depart at 7.30pm from La Mimosa landing stage and showcase seven colleges along the river while you take in the melodies. A shared music tour ticket costs £17.50. letsgopunting.co.uk
OUTDOOR CINEMA
S U N DAY PAP E RS L IVE Tickets for Sunday Papers Live have gone live, ready for return of the ever-popular event that brings the broadsheets to life. Taking place on 27 October at the Cambridge Union, you can expect the usual mix of talks, debate and good food, with Bread & Meat already confirmed for roast dinner rolls. Walks, entertainment and chilling with a Bloody Mary will feature! mylittlefestival.uk
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Enchanted Cinema returns with more alfresco cinema classics – old and nearly new – at The Gonville Hotel, while Movies on the Meadows returns for the bank holiday weekend at Grantchester. There’s always at least one street food van present, and sometimes live music precedes the film at Enchanted events. Cult noughties film Mean Girls is first up at The Gonville on 2 August, with Call Me By Your Name and The Intouchables on the 3rd and 4th respectively. The hits keep coming, with When Harry Met Sally, Grease, The Great Gatsby and Pulp Fiction from 15 to 18 August. Amélie is on the 22nd, followed by Dirty Dancing, Bohemian Rhapsody and A Star is Born over the next three days. Movies on the Meadows, curated by Cambridge Film Festival, screens 12 films across four nights (23-26 August), with films ranging from Avengers: Endgame to Dr Strangelove. Elsewhere, The Star and Mouse Picture Show screens Hacksaw Ridge at the Cambridge American Cemetery on 10 August, while Open Air Cinema presents Bohemian Rhapsody at Madingley Hall on 16 August.
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T H E AT R E • A RT E X H I B I T I O N S • CO N C E RTS • B O O K C L U B
TOM DALE COMPANY will perform as part of Cambridge Junction’s new season. Find out more on page 13.
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JU NCTION NE W SEA SON Designed to be “positively and creatively disruptive and to linger in your hearts and minds”, Cambridge Junction’s newseason programme yields a dazzling array of arty treats. There’s music, in the form of Japanese psychedelia with Qujaku, slam poetry with Hammer & Tongue and mesmerising contemporary dance in Step Sonic. Another to look out for is Burgerz: a powerful, unsettling performance which asks, what does the trans body do in order to survive? And how can one become a protector, rather than a bystander? Views from the ’Bridge, the Junction’s showcase of works in progress by members of the venue’s artist development network, also returns, while Lifelab brings together budding comedians from the world of science and technology, as they take a humorous look at their life in the lab. For the full programme, visit the Cambridge Junction website. junction.co.uk
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S ALMAN RUSHDIE International bestselling author Salman Rushdie comes to Cambridge on 28 August to discuss his life in writing, on the day before his new novel is released. Quichotte, inspired by Miguel de Cervantes’ classic Don Quixote, follows an ageing travelling salesman who falls in love with a TV star. He sets off to drive across America on a quest to prove his worth. Rushdie’s tragicomic tale is set in a deranged time and covers father-son relationships, sibling quarrels, racism, drugs and, wait for it… the end of the world. The Man Booker prize winner has written 14 novels and is best known for Midnight’s Children and The Satanic Verses. He will be in conversation with acclaimed award-winning author Elif Shafak at Cambridge Union from 6.30pm. The event is one of Cambridge Literary Festival’s occasional stand-alone events, separate from their three-day winter and spring festivals. Tickets are £12. cambridgeliteraryfestival.com
SENSE AND SENSIBILITY A fun, fast-paced, faithful adaptation of Sense and Sensibility comes to Wimpole Hall on 11 August. The production is by the critically-acclaimed Pantaloons Theatre Company, who offer vibrant, slightly anarchic takes on classic plays. “We are known for being somewhat silly,” says writer and director Mark Hayward. “But with Sense and Sensibility we stay respectful to the things that people love about the book in the first place. This production provides a great introduction to those who are new to the story and also interweaves the elements that make a show intrinsically Pantaloony.” It takes place in the garden at the Old Rectory Restaurant and features live music and audience interaction, with guests invited to bring along a picnic. Tickets are £16 and £10 for children. eventbrite.co.uk
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A RTS & C U LT U R E SUMME R AT T HE MU SEU MS There’s plenty for inquisitive minds to learn and discover during Summer at the Museums, running until 3 September. Organised by University of Cambridge Museums, it features more than 140 family-friendly activities in total, ranging from trails to storytelling and performances, plus interactive workshops. Explore the world of dinosaurs at Ely Museum, learn more about climate change at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, or pop along to the Centre for Computing History, with its treasure trove of retro tech, which is hosting various fun coding workshops. Visit the website for the full programme. museums.cam.ac.uk
CAMBRIDGE EARLY MUSIC Cambridge Early Music’s series of Baroque and Renaissance concerts continues this month with The Courtiers of Grace performing different shows on 4 and 7 August. First up on the 4th is Jouyssance vous Donneray, at Girton College Chapel, for some tuneful and poetic French music from the 16th century. Then, at Emmanuel United Reformed Church on the 7th, City Voices, Courtly Airs sees the group perform more French works from a similar period by Josquin, Le Jeune, Sermisy, Sandrin and others. Cambridge Early Music also runs summer schools in Baroque and Renaissance music, and you can catch chamber and large-scale pieces learnt by the students on the baroque course on 3 August at Girton College Great Hall. On the 10th, at the same venue, it’s the turn of the Renaissance summer school students to perform. cambridgeearlymusic.org
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MOVIES ON T HE MEAD OW S Movies on the Meadows returns with hit after hit movie screened in the fab Grantchester riverside setting. Catch recent cinema gems Bohemian Rhapsody, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Avengers: Endgame, and Mary Poppins Returns. There’s silver screen classics too, such as Dr Strangelove, Monty Python and the Holy Grail and American Graffiti. In total, there’s 16 films across four days, from 23 to 26 August. cambridgefilmfestival.org
C AMBRID G E COMIC CON Travelling round comic and TV conventions for 20 years has inspired a group of enthusiasts to set up the very first Cambridge Comic Con. By seeing things from a fan’s point of view first, they hope to create something a little different at Cambridge Junction on 24 and 25 August. Stars from the small screen and the silver screen will be on-hand for panel discussions, photo ops and autographs, plus there will be traders and entertainment, in a fun, family-friendly setting. Tickets from £10. junction.co.uk
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AUGUST AT SAFFRON HALL This month at Saffron Hall there’s a musical treat performed by teenagers from across the country, and something for younger children. The National Youth Girls’ Choir of Great Britain performs on 24 August, showcasing the breadth of music written for women’s voices. Featuring songs spanning the centuries and encompassing a variety of different cultures, the performance is one not to miss. On 16 August, join Peppa Pig and pals for Peppa Pig: My First Concert, which brings all the usual, colourful fun in an interactive show. Peppa and George learn about the sounds that instruments make together, with some of the music played by an orchestra. It’s suitable for ages 18 months and up. saffronhall.com
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SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL TAKE TWO Cambridge Shakespeare Festival starts the month with its second set of plays underway across Cambridge University’s college gardens, serving up an unmissable outdoor theatre treat. If you caught Henry IV Part 1 last month at Robinson College, Part 2 comes to the same venue to complete the tale. The Bard in a more playful mood can be seen in performances of Much Ado About A U G U S T 2 019
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Nothing and As You Like It, in the grounds of St John’s and King’s colleges respectively. Shakespeare’s final masterpiece, The Tempest, with themes of adventure, redemption and forgiveness, is at Trinity College gardens until 17 August. Much Ado About Nothing also closes on the 17th, but the other two plays run until 24 August. cambridgeshakespeare.com
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ANG L IAN P OTTE RS S U M M E R E XHIBITION Let the latest pottery creations catch your eye at a two-week celebration of the art, featuring more than 60 local potters. Anglian Potters – one of the largest groups for ceramic enthusiasts in the country – holds its summer exhibition from 10 to 25 August at All Saints’ Church, Jesus Lane. Exhibitor and organiser Ian Vance said there would be something for every taste and budget, from traditional domestic ware to the avant-garde and cutting-edge ceramic arts. “With inspiration drawn from so may sources, the variety of work on show is hugely diverse. There’s everything from hand-thrown studio pottery to wallmounted pieces, jewellery and sculpture. The exhibition is a riot of colour, texture and shape.” Entry is free and the exhibition runs from 10am to 6pm, 5pm on Sundays. anglianpotters.org.uk
GENOME LATES Home to some of the most innovative genomics and biodata companies in the world, Wellcome Genome Campus is opening its doors for a special series of afterhours events over the coming months. Taking place on 2 August and 6 September, Genome Lates are your chance to explore the campus, drink in hand, hearing about the latest discoveries in genomics and chatting to scientists about their work. There’s also an exhibition to see, plus a puzzle-solving challenge to get stuck into. Entry is free but booking is required. wellcomegenomecampus.org
L E PE R CHAP E L OPE N DAY A unique building in Cambridge – which happens to be the oldest complete building in the city – opens its doors to the public on 10 August. The Leper Chapel dates from 1125, when it was built as a place of worship for lepers at an adjacent hospital. In the 900 years since, it has been used as a bar, warehouse, dwelling and for animals. It’s Grade 1 listed and features architectural styles from several periods. Open from 12pm-3pm, it’s free to enter (donations appreciated). Two other properties run by Cambridge Past, Present and Future also have open days this month. Hinxton Watermill is open on 4 August, 2.30pm to 5.30pm, and take a look inside Bourn Windmill on 18 August, 2pm to 4pm. cambridgeppf.org CAMBSEDITION.CO.UK
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RUTHIE COLLINS, FOUNDER OF CAMBRIDGE ART SALON, GIVES HER ARTY PICKS OF THE MONTH believe that magic is art, and that art, whether that be music, writing, sculpture, or any other form, is literally magic. Art is, like magic, the science of manipulating symbols, words or images, to achieve changes in consciousness,” said writer Alan Moore (author of multiple comic classics, from Watchmen to From Hell). It’s holiday time! Time to dust off the sand and get your cultural fix. So why not go in search of magic this August? Head over to Wysing Arts Centre for All His Ghosts Must Do My Bidding, an exhibition that considers ‘art as magic, artists as magicians, and the studio as a magical site’. With The Sorcerer’s Apprentice by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe as a starting point, expect a retelling of this magical classic that transforms it into a tale of liberation and experimentation. There’s a diverse array of artists at this show, which runs until 25 August and is part of Wysing’s 30th anniversary celebrations. Roll up, roll up for some circus fun at the Fitzwilliam Museum to kick-start your month. Family Art Week, which sees families taking over the museum, returns from 30 July until 2 August. From 11am until 3pm each morning there are circusthemed free art activities inspired by The Great Belzoni, whose posthumous portrait by Jan Adam Kruseman is in the museum. On 1 and 2 August, see performances by aerialist and hula hooper Daisy Black, plus contortionist Bendini who you may recognise from Disney’s Dumbo film.
This summer sees a new activity pack for four to seven year olds – with The Great Belzoni one of the featured explorers. Babies, toddlers and older children up to 15 are all catered for with these Fitz Packs, too – so, plenty to keep the family entertained if you want to escape the heat and cool down with some of Cambridge’s most loved museum collections. Riddle of the White Sphinx, the first in a new Hidden Tales series, will have children dragging their parents round museums this holiday to solve a Cambridge treasure hunt with a real artefact to find – somewhere in the city. This innovative idea from Sorrel May and Mark Wells gets children engaging with reading, as well as museums and their collections, and is supported by Arts Council England. Hidden Tales is hosting events all summer – pop over to Heffers for weekly craft activities, or head to the Scott Polar Institute on Sunday 4 August. You can also enjoy an illustration masterclass at the Fitzwilliam Museum – plenty to keep everyone entertained. Artefacts are key to most museum collections, but Kettle’s Yard asks: what happens when we don’t know who created a particular object? Artist: Unknown takes this question as its focus, bringing together for the first time an extraordinary selection of anonymous art and artefacts from the University of Cambridge’s renowned museums and collections. Check the Kettle’s Yard website for a series of fascinating talks as podcasts that
“It’s holiday time! Time to dust off the sand and get your cultural fix” CAMBSEDITION.CO.UK
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explore these artefacts – this way, you can enrich yourself with ancient art, without even leaving the house! Fans of Mill Road – and affordable housing – will be pleased to celebrate the creation of 500 affordable new homes from Cambridge City Council at Mill Road Depot, and across the city, with public art programme, Ironworks. There’s a chance to come along and meet the artists and engage with the programme at an event at Mill Road Bridge on 20 August; from seed bombing, to a blue plaque-inspired scheme that researches the history of local homes. Artist in residence Hilary Cox Condron and community historian Helen Weinstein are working with the community and four artists who will be producing works for the new public spaces created across the location. Watch out for artists Jo Chapman, Tom Pearman, Rodney Harris and Valda Jackson. The community engagement and public art programme designed for Ironworks will launch with a series of events, ranging from school workshops mapping the ironworks industry in Cambridge, to a pop-up in collaboration with Calverley’s on Hooper Street. Finally, visitors to this year’s Cambridge Folk Festival, the longest running folk festival in the world, should look out for art activity delivered by the fantastic Oblique Arts, including largescale interactive photo boards. This year’s guest festival curator is Nick Mulvey. He was born in Cambridge and appeared at the Folk Festival in The Den, the festival’s talent development platform for artists under 30, in 2012, so it promises to be a special one. You can see Nick Mulvey perform on Saturday 3 August. Whatever you do, have a fantastic summer!
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Looking for
AS THE WORK OF YOKO ONO CONTINUES ITS TAKEOVER OF CAMBRIDGE, RUTHIE COLLINS FINDS OUT MORE ABOUT THE ARTIST’S SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP WITH THE CITY
ll my life, I have been in love with the sky,’ (Yoko Ono). A symbol for peace, freedom, the eternal and unknowable, the sky has long been a recurring motif in the work of pioneering conceptual artist Yoko Ono. Yoko Ono: Sky Pieces, at Heong Gallery, Downing College, which runs until October this year, sees her bringing the sky into the gallery – with Sky TV (1966/2019), an installation livestreaming the sky through 25 screens – amplifying, with powerful impact, the shifting sky, the movements of birds, bees and clouds. Somehow eerie too, perhaps symptomatic of humanity’s mechanised, sometimes disconnected way of experiencing the natural world. Watch out also for Ono’s
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series of instructions, first published in 1964 in key conceptual art book, Grapefruit. When first exhibited in New York and then Tokyo in the early 1960s, the instructions were arguably the world’s first ever conceptual art exhibition – participatory text-based works that invite your own thoughts and actions to become art. Try some of them out to connect with the natural beauty of summer: and the sky. ‘Sit under a blue sky/Keep your head open and empty/Let ideas come into you/Cherish them.’ (Sky Piece VIII). One of Yoko Ono’s most famous works, ongoing installation Wish Tree, is also on show. Reading the wishes of visitors, hung onto the trees in the courtyard next to the gallery, is a hopeful and sometimes poignant experience – whether a wish to make the ‘grieving of families easier’ or for ‘joy’, or to ‘sit calmly with my own thoughts’. Creating your own is a joyous act of optimism – a reminder of Ono’s belief that ‘you change the world by being yourself.’ There’s also the chance to buy your own Yoko Ono ‘piece’, Air Dispenser (1971/20190 – air in a capsule, again a whimsical nod to humanity’s continued commodification of our natural resources. Or why not play monochrome chess, with Play It By Trust aka White Chess Set (1966)? A hit with surprise visitor Ai Wei Wei, who came to the exhibition’s opening event in
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June, this minimalist-inspired work is also influenced by Zen Buddhism. Competition is subverted into an act of play and collaboration. “The problem is not how to become different or unique, but how to share an experience, how to be the same,” as Yoko Ono said. This exhibition at the Heong Gallery is just one part of Yoko Ono: Looking For…, a city-wide takeover of Cambridge that brings 90 works by Yoko Ono to the city. Opening on 2 March of this year, with an unveiling of a plaque to ‘Yoko Ono and John Lennon’ at Lady Mitchell Hall, the concept was inspired by curator G. The
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YO KO O N O
IMAGES Yoko Ono: Sky Pieces is running at the Heong Gallery until October 2019
“The problem is not how to become different or unique, but how to share an experience” plaque, gifted by G, commemorates the couple’s first live performance together, at a jazz concert on 2 March in 1969. Yoko Ono had originally been invited to perform, with Lennon appearing as ‘her band’ – who played throughout, with his back to what he described as the ‘weird, artsy fartsy’ audience – whom he also rated as ‘totally solid’. An audio recording of the avant garde performance is installed at Lady Mitchell Hall until December 2019. “I wanted to contribute to the social history of the city of Cambridge by shedding light on something previously buried, but to also highlight the important role that music has played in Yoko Ono’s career as an artist, usually overlooked under
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the shadow of John Lennon,” explains curator Gabriella Daris. “It was Ono who was invited to perform at the concert of experimental music in Cambridge in 1969, and Lennon joined in at the last minute. It was her gig, really.” Yoko Ono’s raw, powerful voice, with Lennon’s guitar, showed the influence of Fluxus, of which she was a major pioneer – an art movement that valued creative process as much as final product. The track Cambridge 1969 was part of the couple’s first album together, This is Unfinished Music. “It is just us expressing ourselves like a child does, you know... What we’re saying is make your own music,’ John Lennon explained about their work.
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With a symposium in October at the Heong Gallery, a walking tour of the works, screenings of Fly (1970) and Apotheosis (1970), both co-directed with John Lennon, text posters throughout the city, plus a performance of Cut Piece (1969) at the Ruskin Gallery and another exhibition at the Alison Richard Building – there are happenings and installations for everyone, with the audience at the heart throughout. “All the works in the exhibition are participatory and invite you to contemplate an incomprehensible scope of time. You may not find solid answers but previously unconsidered questions might be revealed in the form of mental somersaults,” Daris adds.
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BOOK CLUB CAMBRIDGE ED IT ION
BRINGING YOU TOP NEW FICTION PICKS, AUTHOR INTERVIEWS, DISCOUNTS AND LOTS MORE BOOK CHAT, THE EDITION BOOK CLUB IS A PARTNERSHIP WITH CAMBRIDGE LITERARY FESTIVAL AND HEFFERS
INTERVIEW BY CHARLOT TE GRIFFITHS
T HE WAY WE EAT NOW THIS MONTH, A FASCINATING LOOK AT HOW AND WHAT HUMANS EAT IN 2019 – AND HOW THIS IS AFFECTED BY WHO WE ARE, WHERE WE LIVE AND EVEN HOW MUCH WE EARN e never snacked like this, and we never binged like this. We never had so many superfoods, or so many chips. We were never quite so confused about food, and what it actually is...” The Way We Eat Now is the latest book by award-winning food writer and Cambridge resident Bee Wilson: it’s an extraordinary piece of work, meticulously researched, that explores what modern humans eat, why we eat it, and how we can move towards a less disordered and more rewarding – both in terms of nutrients and satisfaction – approach to the food we
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consume. The book originally began life as an examination of how we eat in different countries and cultures, but swiftly evolved into a study of the cross-continental similarities that Bee encountered while researching her book. “I kept being struck that the things [people] told me about modern eating were, to a weird extent, the same,” she writes. “People told me they felt they had lived through huge changes in the way they ate, compared to their parents and certainly compared to their grandparents… they spoke of eating in front of screens, of weight-loss diets, of feeling pressed for time to cook the things they wished they could cook.”
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Bee explains more when we meet in person. “I thought it was going to be a lighter book. When I wrote the proposal there was this whole long section, of which only about a paragraph made it in, that contained a huge chapter on the rise and fall and rise again of the egg, and how people stopped eating eggs because of cholesterol and salmonella, and then they started eating them again because of Instagram – but it felt less... alarming.” Bee says. “When I started the book, the phrase I had in my head was ‘kitchen census’ – shopping lists, those things left behind, showing what people really eat behind closed doors. But then I found out about
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BOOK CLUB
LOOK OUT FOR THE CAMBRIDGE EDITION BOOK CLUB STICKERS IN HEFFERS AND GET MONEY OFF OUR MONTHLY PICK HEFFERS IS LOCATED AT 20 TRINITY STREET, CAMBRIDGE BLACKWELLS.CO.UK
the ‘nutrition transition’ [the shifts in diet described by Bee as what happens when “a country becomes richer and more open to global markets: its population inexorably begins to eat differently, consuming more oil and meat and sugar and snack foods, and fewer wholegrains and pulses”] and this was all news to me – but it’s such a great concept, and explains so much.” Once Bee had discovered the nutrition transition and the work of Barry Popkin, an American food science researcher who developed the concept, the book’s potential horizons opened up, requiring some judicious redrafting. “During the editing process the bits that we were losing were the lighter bits – there are still lighter bits in there – but it felt like the more I read about things like the rise of diet-related ill health in Brazil or Mexico, even though you don’t want to be heavy on the subject of food, even though you don’t want to be fearmongering, because food is still a pleasure and it’s wonderful and I think people moralise too much – it is genuinely horrifying how junk food is being pushed on poor families doorto-door in the remotest parts of the Amazonian basin. That’s bad – we can say that’s bad!”
The book continued to evolve as Bee carried out her research. “I had the title from the beginning: we went through phases where both editors thought it should have a different title, but then we came back to that title. Books always evolve with research: if you knew before you did the research what the interesting thing was going to be, then you wouldn’t bother doing the research, would you?” “I remember when I was writing Consider The Fork, and a section of the book on fire, which ends with the microwave – I was cycling along, and suddenly I just pictured children around a microwave like hunter gatherers around a flame. I really liked that concept, and I thought ‘that’s going to be my final sentence’ – that was a wonderful, rare writing moment that wasn’t a horrible moment of self doubt,” Bee laughs. “I feel occasionally – as with music – when you know what the final cadence is, you’re OK. And I do think a lot of writing is cadences and rhythms: and that’s almost the hardest thing about non-fiction: a lot of the rhythms of the book were frustrating because in an ideal world I wouldn’t even be using words like ‘obesity’ or ‘type two diabetes’, but you have to have them there,
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because they’re relevant. But they don’t have very good cadences – or associations. It was a balancing act.” Prior to becoming a full-time author, Bee spent many years as an academic, and her rigorous approach to constructing an argument and finding the evidence to back it up is plain to see on every page. When Bee wrote her first book, The Hive, the research came before the writing. “I just locked myself in the University Library for about six months – I read every book on honey; ate every jar of honey I could find, and then wrote – and there’s a lot to be said for that – but you’ve got to still stay open to ideas. Especially with food, where trends are changing all the time.” The book’s parade of research is garnished with testimonies by individuals of all backgrounds: from world-leading scientists to 18-year-old Deliveroo riders. These conversations are presented as beautifully-drawn vignettes with a strong sense of place, where Bee is often sharing a meal or cup of coffee with an individual, and help to give a human face to the theory or science being presented. A good example comes alongside the mention of Huel, Soylent and other meal-replacement shakes. We meet writer and editor Dan Wang, who – in conversation with Bee – raises the totally valid argument of using these drinks not as replacements for food in general, but when desirable food cannot be acquired: as replacements for not eating. Why waste time, money or calories on unrewarding and un-nutritious meals? “Dan was riled, he told me, that so many critiques of Soylent came from people who had ‘excellent access to food’.” Bee writes. “He resented the implication that everyone should be eating ‘Alice Waters-
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BOOK CLUB
“Food trends are changing all the time” BEE’S CAMBRIDGE “Cambridge food is amazing now, isn’t it? I do a lot of my writing in Hot Numbers and Espresso Library, I love both of them: I think it’s incredible how much good coffee you can get in Cambridge now.” “I love all of the Mill Road shops – I particularly love Bread on a Bike bread: I just think she’s the most incredible baker.” “We’ve had a Cambridge Organic Food Company vegetable box delivered for well over ten years: I’m a big, big supporter of their work.” style organic vegetables at every meal.’ It’s a depressing comment on our bewildering food supply that not-food can now be seen as a better option than food, to thoughtful people like Dan Wang.” Bee’s abilities as a generalist are clearly on show throughout the book – looping together concepts, bringing back earlier discussions and making connections between previously disparate disciplines – and she highlights these conversations as having been hugely satisfying work. “There is no specialist who can oversee what food means in the world: there is no single scientist who could do that,” Bee says. “Even the super-brainy people I interviewed – they don’t know everything: they don’t know what the consumer market researcher or the food trends researchers know – so I felt like the conversations were really important. Having once been an academic, I know that academics are slightly in awe of specialists. When you’re
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an academic you know you don’t know everything: you know you just know the tiny amount of information in your PhD, and you don’t even know that. I feel like being a generalist, being able to join things and put things together, is a joy.” The final section includes Bee’s thoughts on how to navigate this “world of choice” (Bee’s previous small publication This Is Not A Diet Book contains more of these calm tips for navigating one’s relationship with food) which leaves the reader hopeful for change, and empowered to make small alterations to their own eating for the better. The Way We Eat Now is a veritable tasting menu of a read, bringing together carefully considered evidence from across the globe that leaves you dazzled by the author’s breadth of knowledge but grateful at having her guide you through the research. It will make you hungry, but probably not for the same snacks you’d been hankering for beforehand.
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Bee is Chair of TastEd, an educational charity which offers a system of fun sensory food lessons based on the Sapere method – where children learn to respond to many different foods with all of their senses, not just taste. The charity’s work has been trialled at primary and secondary schools in Cambridge: if you’d like to know more about this innovative approach to food education, visit the website or find them on Twitter. twitter.com/tastedfeed tasteeducation.com
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D RAG O N B OAT F E ST I VA L
Enter the dragon NOW’S THE TIME TO GET YOUR TEAM TOGETHER AND ENTER THIS YEAR’S CAMBRIDGE DRAGON BOAT FESTIVAL. HERE’S A TASTER OF WHAT’S IN STORE WORDS BY CYRUS PUNDOLE
urrounded by a blaze of colour and cacophony of sound, let your competitive spirit take hold at the annual fundraising Cambridge Dragon Boat Festival. There are many great ways to get fit, such as Couch to 5K and Parkrun, but the festival offers something a bit different – and a fab team option full of camaraderie that is a grand day out for all the family. Held on a stretch of the Cam every September, each boat has an on-board drummer pounding out a rhythm (that may or may not be perfect to row along to!) as crews jockey for position on the river at Fen Ditton. This year’s big day takes place on 7 September, and there’s still time to book a place for teams .The Dragon Boat Festival raises money for Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust (ACT) and is one of the biggest fundraising events in the county.
Up to 40 teams will battle it out, cheered on by hundreds of spectators. Businesses, groups and friends across the region can test their skills against new and returning crews who have already booked their places, all while raising money for a good cause. Last year’s Dragon Boat Challenge was won by Row-Bots from CMR Surgical, with Puff, representing Team Consulting, taking the mixed prize. Cambridge Commodities was crowned charity champion, with last year’s festival raising an incredible £30,000 for ACT, which is the only charity dedicated to making a difference for patients at both Addenbrooke’s and the Rosie hospitals. The 30-foot long dragon boats, qualified helms (who ensure each boat is steered straight) and racing equipment are all provided by the organisers, Gable Events, while each crew is guaranteed a minimum of three races over the 200 metres course. Most importantly, no previous experience is required to
W HAT:
Colourful river race where teams battle it out in traditional Chinese-style dragon boats, featuring bankside entertainment
W HEN :
Saturday 7 September
W HER E:
Ditton Meadows, Fen Ditton
HOW MUC H ?
Entrance to the event is free to spectators and parking is available at the nearby Fen Ditton Recreation Ground. Standard entry for a team is £650 + VAT
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D RAG O N B OAT F E ST I VA L
W HAT IS DRAGON BOAT RACING ? Dragon boat racing has its origins in ancient China, where the sport began more than 2,000 years ago. Traditionally, these paddled long boats were raced by contending villagers, and it remains a popular Chinese pastime to this day, celebrated each year with a huge festival in June. The sport is becoming increasingly popular in the UK – in fact, it’s Britain’s fastest-growing corporate team-building activity. It requires no previous experience and doesn’t rely on brute strength – it’s something everyone can take part in. The key to success is teamwork, timing and listening to your helm’s instructions – failure to do so could result in an early bath!
“We can provide funds so our local hospitals can offer the very best care” take part, just oodles of team spirit and enthusiasm to have a go. Up to ten people can be in a crew, plus a drummer (though squads for a team can be larger) and trophies are awarded to the top three, the best-placed mixed crew (with a minimum of five women), the team that raises the most money, plus those perhaps who generate the most fun by being the best-dressed crew. This year there’s a special, entertaining incentive to finish top of the pile when it comes to fundraising. The team raising the most money for Addenbrooke’s will be rewarded with a group experience at Cambridge Escape Rooms. Getting lost there is clearly a popular activity, as the rooms have been
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voted the number one fun thing to do in the city on TripAdvisor. And the day is not all about the action on the water. Those taking part and spectators can enjoy Chinese-themed entertainment, including dancing, plus children’s rides, fun with inflatables and a selection of food and drink to satisfy all tastes. Emily Willdigg, ACT’s mass events leader, is looking forward to building on the success of last year’s festival. “We hope businesses will support our much-loved hospitals by getting a team together,” she says, explaining the importance of the money raised. “With the help of many generous supporters, we can provide funds
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so our local hospitals can offer the very best care, day after day, year after year.” Whether its treatment for an emergency, an acute condition, pregnancy or a long-term illness, the charity believes every patient deserves the highest quality of care available. ACT will put funds towards cutting-edge technology, additional specialist services, vital research and extra comforts for patients. Gold and silver sponsorship options are available, plus standard team entries. For further information, and to book your place, visit dragonboatfestivals.co.uk/ cambridge, or call 01780 470718. For more details about ACT, visit act4addenbrookes.org.uk
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CO M P E T I T I O N
WIN A TRIP TO SOUTHLAKE AQUA PARK!
W O RT H
£ 12 0 ancy winning a fantastic day out for you and your friends or family at one of Cambridgeshire’s top attractions? Good news: we’ve teamed up with Southlake Aqua Park to give away an awesome experience for six people! Located near Paxton Pits Nature Reserve, the park offers a huge, Total Wipeout-style course on open water. Kids and grown-ups alike can have hours of fun tackling the giant inflatables, sliding, climbing and splashing about to their hearts’ content. Worth £120, this prize includes
wetsuit hire and a session for six people. Afterwards, why not enjoy lunch at the recently opened Southlake Grill? Once you’ve worked up an appetite, you and your gang can feast on tasty burgers, hotdogs, fries, ‘tornado potatoes’, ice creams and more: perfect for refuelling! To be in with a chance of winning this fun-packed prize, visit cambsedition.co.uk and hit the Competition tab. Southlake Aqua Park, near Paxton Pits Nature reserve, Little Paxton, St Neots, Cambridgeshire PE19 6BN. Open from 10am to 8pm daily, tel: 07527007568, southlakeaquapark.com
T&Cs: Competition closes on 23 August 2019. Booking subject to availability. Prize must be claimed by the last day of the season, 29 September 2019. No cash alternative available.
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NIGHTLIFE
THE NIGHTLIFE EVENTS NOT TO MISS THIS MONTH
1-4 AU G
CAMBRIDGE FOLK FESTIVAL
Cambridge Folk Festival will bring its merry melting pot of folky sounds to Cherry Hinton Hall once again from 1 to 4 August. Attracting around 14,000 folk fans each year, the event has been running since the 1960s, and has flourished into one of the best-known and best-loved events of its kind in the world. Alongside headliners like Graham Nash, José González and Lucinda Williams, this year’s event will include a guest curator in the shape of acclaimed singersongwriter Nick Mulvey, who has compiled a selection of artists that showcase his passion for world music. This year’s event will also feature The Sisters of Elva Hill, an original ballet commissioned especially for the festival, which blends dance with a score woven from traditional British songs. Tickets start at £29.50 for one day and £179 for the whole weekend. cambridgelive.org.uk CAMBSEDITION.CO.UK
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NIGHTLIFE
NOW BOOKING
NEON MO ON 26 OCT, JUNCTION, FROM £20
The city’s hottest Halloween party is back for a night of cocktails and fancy-dressed fun.
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WE OUT HERE FESTIVAL
CAMBRID G E SOUL F EST I VAL
To the sprawling meadows in Abbots Ripton which used to host Secret Garden Party comes We Out Here: a brand-new, weekend-long festival. Curated by 6 Music DJ Gilles Peterson, the line-up joins the musical dots between soul, hip hop, house, afro, electronica, jazz and beyond, serving up both live acts and DJ sets. From Mr Scruff to Sons of Kemet, Josey Rebelle and Zara McFarlane, it’s a brilliantly eclectic line-up, with the promise of a big, welcoming party celebrating the best of UK club culture. There are standard camping and luxury or family options, and plenty to get stuck into around the site, including open-air cinema screenings, an indie record fair, yoga and well-being sessions, arts and crafts activities and even a high-speed running club (Run Dem Crew). And forget limp burgers and greasy chips; the food offering at We Out Here includes a pop-up restaurant and wine bar from esteemed East London eaterie Brawn, Indian Fusion dishes from En Root and freshly rolled vegan sushi from Happy Maki. Tickets are £167 for the long weekend, which is 15 to 18 August. weouttherefestival.com
JU N KYARD F EST IVAL Bands, DJs, craft beer, street food and Pimm’s combine for the day-long Junkyard Festival at Cambridge Junction on 3 August. Organised by the Junction’s apprentices, the event brings together acts including Gengahr, who’ve previously visited Cambridge Junction in support slots for Jungle and Dry the River, and Chappaqua Wrestling, aka Charlie Woods and Jake Mac, who make “sweet-Americana music with an electronic swooning twist”. There’s also fuzzy shoegaze with Lemondaze, mellow acoustic jams from Butterfly and indie fun with Staycations. Tickets are £13 and the event runs from 4pm until late. junction.co.uk
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8 NOV, JUNCTION, £19.50
Geno Washington & The Ram Jam Band, Joe Staxx and more perform at the Cambridge Soul Festival.
BRIGHTER DAY S 30 NOV JUNCTION, £17
Snap up your ticket now for the Brighter Days end of year party: a glittery extravaganza.
C ARAVAN PALACE
25 JAN, CORN EX, £28
Caravan Palace bring their electro-swing sounds to Cambridge – expect a high-energy, raucous show.
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NIGHTLIFE
MARTIN KEMP’S 80S PARTY
Gig Guide
Star of Spandau Ballet, EastEnders and The Krays, Martin Kemp turns DJ on 30 August, when he spins his favourite 80s classics at The Junction. His Back to the 80s Party is a chance to dust off your dancing shoes, turn back the clock and move to the floor-fillers. junction.co.uk
JORDAN WORLAND FROM LOCAL MUSIC WEBSITE SLATE THE DISCO GIVES HIS TOP LIVE MUSIC PICKS FOR THE MONTH AHEAD
ith her record, Beware of the Dogs, hailed as one of the best debut releases of the year, Stella Donnelly has forged her way to the forefront of the new guard of songwriters emerging from Australia. Donnelly’s off beat guitar-pop burrows down into some hefty subjects, from female empowerment to abuse. You’ll catch traces of Billy Bragg, Japanese Breakfast and Angel Olsen but Donnelly’s warm brand of feminist folk is very much her own. Defiant, funny and unsettling, her show at the Portland Arms on the 21st is our must see gig this month. August at The Portland starts with a headline show from Norwich-based indie/emo quintet Marigolds. With one foot planted firmly in the indie world of layered guitars and complex, intertwined melodies, the band marries an edge of emo and shoegaze influences into their hazy sound led by Lydia White’s gorgeous vocals. Marigolds are complemented by Bury St Edmunds-based teenage psychedelic-groove four-piece KYANOS and Cambridge indie starlets Deep City. The brilliant gloomy, abrasive shoegaze sounds of Slow Crush can also be heard at The Portland this month (29th). The annual Junkyard event returns this month and is again produced solely by the apprentices at the Cambridge Junction. This year’s event (scheduled for the 3rd) features a mixture of great emerging local talent with eclectic acts from beyond the city’s boundaries. This year’s headliners are Gengahr, a four-piece who produce shimmering pop with swirling lo-fi production. The night also features Chappaqua Wrestling, a duo who create swoony electronica crossed with sweet Americana, coloured with influences like Steely Dan, The Beach Boys and Teenage Fanclub. Mallory Knox will take over the Cambridge Junction on the (16th) for a special album release show. The band’s new self-titled album, their fourth in total, is released on the same day so the show gives a first live look at the record in real detail. The new album comes after a tumultuous time for the band; this will be the rockers’ first album release since the departure of original vocalist, Mikey Chapman.
SLOW CRUSH
Belgian shoegaze band Slow Crush are being hailed as the best thing since My Bloody Valentine in the early 90s. They play the genre in its heaviest, most bone-shaking form. Catch them at the Portland Arms on 29 August. theportlandarms.co.uk
THE UNDERTONES
The Undertones – Northern Ireland’s finest when it comes to punk, post-punk and even early 80s indie-pop – racked up memorable hits, including My Perfect Cousin, Jimmy Jimmy and Teenage Kicks. Catch them at The Junction on 31 August. Tickets are £25. junction.co.uk
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YOUR AT-A-GLANCE GUIDE TO EVENTS AROUND CAMBRIDGE THIS MONTH
29 JULY – 17/24 AUGUST
2, 9, 16 AUGUST
NEWMARKET NIGHTS
HOLIDAY BUSHCRAFT
Celebrating its 32nd year of performing the Bard’s plays in college gardens, the festival’s second half features The Tempest, Much Ado About Nothing, Henry IV (Part 2), and As You Like It. 7.30pm | Various college gardens £17, £13 concs | cambridgeshakespeare.com
The racecourse gig series comes to a close this month with Pete Tong’s Ibiza Classics on the 2nd, followed by eighties hitmakers Bananarama on the 9th. Four-time Brit Award nominees Years and Years play on the 16th. After last race | Newmarket Racecourse Prices vary | thejockeyclub.co.uk
A chance for five- to 12-year-olds to learn shelter building, knots and rope work, whittling, plant and tree recognition, fire lighting, wilderness cooking skills and much more. 8.30am-4pm | Wandlebury Country Park £38 per day | wildthymeandembers.co.uk
2-4, 15-18, 22-25 AUGUST
3 AUGUST
ENCHANTED CINEMA
JUNKYARD FESTIVAL
Alfresco films this month – with deckchairs, headphone hire, street food and more – include Mean Girls, Grease, Bohemian Rhapsody, Dirty Dancing, Pulp Fiction, Amelie and A Star is Born. Times vary | Gonville Hotel From £14.50 | enchantedcinema.co.uk
The one-day music festival returns, featuring indie-rock faves Gengahr. Chappaqua Wrestling, Lemondaze, Butterfly, Among the Citizens and Staycations complete the bill. 4pm till late | Cambridge Junction From £13 | junction.co.uk
CAMBRIDGE SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL
5-7, 12-14, 19-21 AUGUST
6-9 AUGUST
ELECTRIC CITIZENS Creative tech workshops for nine- to 13-year-olds offer a chance to get inventive with circuitry, coding, digital design and even sculpting in a virtual reality, in a series of morning and afternoon workshops. Be sure to book ahead. Various times | Cambridge Junction Prices vary | junction.co.uk 10 AUGUST
HAMLET A solo performance of Hamlet at Cambridge’s oldest complete building, the 12th century Leper Chapel, featuring Richard Spaul bringing out the most relevant and unsettling parts of perhaps Shakespeare’s best-known play. 8pm | Leper Chapel, Cambridge | £15 insitutheatre.co.uk 14-15 AUGUST
IN THE NIGHT GARDEN LIVE Upsy Daisy, Makka Pakka and friends come to the Corn Exchange with a new show, Igglepiggle’s Busy Day. With costumes, magical puppets and enchanting music, it lasts just under an hour. Various times | Cambridge Corn Exchange from £18 | cambridgelive.org.uk
29 JULY – 3 AUGUST
E DUCAT ING R I TA
16 AUGUST
Willy Russell’s classic comedy drama about a university academic less than keen to welcome hairdresser Rita into his class... Starring Jessica Johnson and Stephen Tompkinson. 7.45pm, 2.30pm Thursday and Saturday | Cambridge Arts Theatre From £20 | cambridgeartstheatre.com
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MALLORY KNOX Their debut single Signals reached top spot in the iTunes rock chart, they’ve had numerous singles playlisted on Radio 1 and played the main stage at Reading, Leeds and Download. 7pm | Cambridge Junction £17 | junction.co.uk
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1-4 AUGUST
CAM BRIDGE FOL K F E S TIVAL Putting Cambridge on the folk and world music map for decades, the festival returns, with Nick Mulvey as guest curator. Day tickets and weekend tickets are available. All day Cherry Hinton Hall £179 full festival cambridgelive.org.uk
24 AUGUST
28 AUGUST
THE DRIFTERS
SKUNK ANANSIE
The longest-running singing group in pop still performing, The Drifters can boast some of the most memorable tunes among their 50-plus hits, including Saturday Night at the Movies, Down on the Beach Tonight, Come on Over to My Place and Up on the Roof. 7.30pm | Cambridge Corn Exchange from £25.50 | cambridgelive.org.uk
Hailed as one of the most exciting live acts on the planet, Skunk Anansie emerged in the nineties with a power and energy that set them apart from Britpop, and saw them headline the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury. 7.30pm | Cambridge Corn Exchange from £30.50 | cambridgelive.org.uk 30 AUGUST
19 AUGUST
24-25 AUGUST
INSIDE MAKING A MURDERER 2
CAMBRIDGE COMIC CON
Hit Netflix docuseries Making a Murderer 2 centres on the wrongful conviction of Brendan Dessey. His lawyers Laura Nirider and Steven Drizin discuss coerced and false confessions, interrogation tactics and his case. 8pm | Cambridge Junction £27.50 | junction.co.uk
After 20 years and more of attending conventions around the globe, the team behind Cambridge’s first Comic Con got together to pay their own tribute to everything film, TV and comics. Weekend passes available. 11am | Cambridge Junction from £10 | junction.co.uk
21 AUGUST
28 AUGUST
RAPADEMIC
SALMAN RUSHDIE
Back for its fifth year, in collaboration with DUSK, Rapademic collects together the best of East Anglia’s homegrown rappers, grime artists, MCs and DJs all in one place. 6.30pm | Cambridge Junction £6 | junction.co.uk
One of the most thought-provoking writers of his generation, Rushdie makes his first Cambridge Literary Festival appearance to discuss his career and latest novel, Quichotte. 6.30pm | Cambridge Union Society from £10 | cambridgelive.org.uk
MARTIN KEMP: BACK TO THE 80S PARTY Spandau Ballet star Martin Kemp takes to the decks, spinning all the best hits from the eighties. As well as a glittering pop career, Kemp has also enjoyed great success as an actor. 7.30pm | Cambridge Junction from £18 | junction.co.uk 31 AUGUST
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THE UNDERTONES The Derry group’s musical flair and lyrical invention caught the attention of John Peel in the late seventies, with Teenage Kicks his favourite song ever. The band’s set will focus on their eponymous debut album from 1979. 7pm | Cambridge Junction £25 | junction.co.uk
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CO M M U N I T Y H U B
MILL ROAD SUMMER
© 5TH STUDIO
ith Mill Road bridge closed for works on the railway until 25 August, there’s a chance to enjoy this vibrant street almost fully pedestrianised – with reduced noise, cleaner air and special outdoor activities. Local businesses and community groups are invited to propose ideas to attract people to the area during the closure, with Mill Road Summer able to offer marketing and financial support (email millroadsummer@gmail.com to find out more). As always, there’s lots to enjoy on Mill Road, from interesting indie shops to great cafes and pubs. Keep an eye out for the ‘Romsey Parklet’ too: a temporary new addition to the street that provides an extension to the footway with seating and tables, making a pleasant space for people to relax. It’s located just outside Italian deli Limoncello – so grab yourself one of their excellent Aperol Spritzes and some olives and enjoy! The creation of the parklet was possible thanks to local architecture firms including 5th Studio, a spatial design agency based on Gwydir Street, and rhp and LDA Design. Other planned activities include hula hooping, yoga, gigs and walking tours – search Mill Road Summer on Facebook to keep updated.
“There’s a chance to enjoy this vibrant street carfree, with reduced noise and cleaner air”
PRIDE IN ELY
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ly’s second Pride festival will take place on 10 August, running from 10am until 4.30pm at Maltings Green. Geared towards celebrating the local LGBT+ community, the festival will be followed by an after party at the Riverside Bar & Kitchen from 7pm until 2am. Entertainment will include performances from local acts such as 4th Dimension youth dance group, a children’s area and stalls promoting LGBT+ education, plus a variety of food and drink. “We were overwhelmed by the support for our first event, which brought
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the community together,” says Fritha Love from the Pride in Ely team. “Our theme is having an inclusive community, so everyone is welcome – we want this to once again be a family fun day for all. A good time and a bundle of laughs are guaranteed! We have the support of Ely Cathedral again, who are this year lighting up the Octagon tower in the colours of the rainbow across the 9th and 10th, and much-appreciated support by the emergency services and RAF who have stalls again.” Both the event and the after party are free to attend. prideinely.co.uk CAMBSEDITION.CO.UK
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THE SOUND OF SUMMER JULIAN CLOVER & LUCY MILAZZO REVEL IN THE SUNSHINE AND LOOK BACK ON A YEAR AS PRESENTERS OF CAMBRIDGE 105 RADIO’S CAMBRIDGE BREAKFAST
t’s summertime in Cambridge! The sun is out, in theory anyway, giving even breakfast presenters a few extra hours of daylight. Time for bike rides around the city and surrounding green areas that are all the more pleasant. This particularly applies to Mill Road, where the closure of the railway bridge has changed the dynamic of our favourite cosmopolitan street, though bringing with it many challenges for its wide array of shops. The greens are perfect for picnicking with friends and punting is made for summer. We have the fantastic openair Cambridge Shakespeare Festival, where not only do we get incredible performances, but we also get to see the normally closed college gardens. And you might be reading this article as you await another act to appear on stage at the Cambridge Folk Festival (Cherry Hinton Hall, 1-4 August). Cambridge 105 Radio will be broadcasting live across the weekend and we’ll be there with a Sunday Brunch CAMBSEDITION.CO.UK
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programme from 10am to 1pm. Tune in or better still, come over and say hello! August now has a further special meaning, at least for us, because it marks one year since the launch of Cambridge Breakfast. It has gone so quickly – and what a year! We have got over our nerves, settled in and been extended by 30 minutes – we’re taking that as a positive sign! We’ve met so many people coming in to speak to us about issues that matter to the city and South Cambridgeshire. Our Friday Foodclub guests have given us insight into what we should expect to see next in the ever-changing Cambridge food scene. And we never let them go before asking them what will they’ll be cooking on the weekend – always a great source of inspiration. A recent addition is Sarah Colwell, our local theatre reviewer who comes in each week to talk to us about first night at the theatre and reminding us each week how lucky we are in Cambridge to have such talent available. One of our
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newer features is the Mill Road Moment, with Councillor Dave Baigent, who has been popping in once a week while the bridge has been closed. We’ve got our listeners – the regulars, and some new ones – who get in touch with us to play along with our little competitions, tell us their thoughts (a Cambridge chelsea bun emoji anyone?), and make their Jukebox Friday requests, where we all party together over the breakfast table for the weekend ahead. So after one year of Cambridge Breakfast, we’d like to say a big thank you to all those who contribute to our show, who set their alarms early to come in and talk to us, to the team at Cambridge 105 Radio and most importantly of all, to our wonderful listeners who join us each morning, 7am to 9.30am, for a Cambridge spin on breakfast radio – thank you! First year done, here’s to many more! Julian Clover and Lucy Milazzo present Cambridge Breakfast, Cambridge 105 Radio, weekday mornings from 7am. A U G U S T 2 019
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WIN A PUNT TOUR FOR 12 PEOPLE! Enjoy a chauffeured river excursion of Cambridge with Let’s Go Punting
ancy winning a punting trip for you and your friends? We’ve teamed up with Let’s Go Punting to give away a chauffeured punt experience for up to 12 people, redeemable any time until next May. Worth up to £149, it’s the perfect chance to bask in Cambridge’s beauty as you glide along the Backs, taking in famous sights including King’s College Chapel, the Bridge of Sighs, New Court St John’s College and the Wren Library. You and your friends will be free to recline in comfort as your chauffeur expertly punts you along the River Cam, offering fascinating stories and snippets of history as you go. Pack up a picnic and a bottle or two of fizz, and you’ve got yourself the makings of a perfect day out! Let’s Go Punting is a small, independent punting company specialising in private and shared chauffeured river tours of the River Cam. It also organises Music on the River events during summer. The next dates for your diary are 9, 23 and 30 August, when you can enjoy a magical evening of entertainment from your punt, plus pick up refreshments from The Punt & Pole, a floating bar offering fine wine, prosecco and beers To be in with a chance of winning this great prize, head to cambsedition.co.uk and hit the Competitions tab. letsgopunting.co.uk
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W O RT H
£ 14 9
Ts&Cs: The prize is a private chauffeured 50-minute punt tour for up to 12 people. Valid 1 September 2019 – 31 May 2020. Pre-booking is essential and subject to availability. No cash alternative available. Entries for the competition close on 1 September.
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R E C I P E S • N E W O P E N I N G S • C H E F ’ S TA B L E • CA M B R I D G E O N A P L AT E
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A MONTHLY ROUND-UP OF GASTRO GOINGS-ON AROUND CAMBRIDGESHIRE
NEW MENU & 10% OFF AT HOTEL FELIX Hotel Felix’s award-winning in-house restaurant Graffiti has relaunched its food offering under new head chef Mark Allen. Specialising in inventive, modern European cuisine, dishes include honey and soy glazed confit duck leg, and steamed salt cod and king prawn linguine. There are also classic, bistro-style dishes, like gourmet burgers, steak frites and truffle mac ’n’ cheese, plus a new bottomless brunch menu on Saturdays, and a Sunday BBQ menu. “I was tasked to come up with a new style of food for the hotel, which for many years was an à la carte menu,” explains Mark, who has been cooking professionally for more than 20 years. “We decided a modern bistro menu would suit the restaurant and guests, and we’ve had very good feedback.” He adds: “It’s important to use as many local ingredients as possible, and to make sure you cater for all, as the vegan and vegetarian options are becoming more popular.” To celebrate the new menu, the hotel is offering 10% off all food this August. hotelfelix.co.uk
DINE AMONG T HE FLOWER S Tucked behind Audley End village you’ll find Anna’s Flower Farm; a hidden haven of beautiful blooms. Ordinarily, Anna grows and sells floral arrangements for special events (and writes a monthly column for Cambridge Edition), but this month the farm is hosting a series of special dining events, beginning on 16 August with Dinner and Jazz in the Walled Garden. A delightful eight-course meal cooked by Liz Young (ex co-owner of Cambridge Cookery School), in collaboration with Bumble & Oak, Chocolatier and SEED Ceramics, together with artisanal baker Mini Miss Bread, you can expect seasonal dishes, live jazz music and a magical setting. On 17 August, enjoy Lunch Among the Flowers; a lunchtime grill of delicious mezze dishes. On the 18th, meanwhile, there’s a chance to Picnic Among the Flowers with a luxurious home-made picnic. All events include a tour of the flower farm, and tickets can be booked via Eventbrite. annasflowerfarm.com
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B ARD AT T HE BAR Enjoy some literary libations at The Ivy this month, which is celebrating the annual Cambridge Shakespeare Festival with a series of themed cocktails. There’ll be no question whether to sip or not to sip once you’ve seen the menu, which features a range of tipples inspired by Shakespeare’s most iconic plays. Try the Outrageous Fortune (£13), featuring a combination of Beluga vodka, Lillet Blanc and Pino Mugo pine liqueur, or a We Happy Few (£9), which incorporates Whitley Neill quince gin, grapefruit juice, sugar and lemon tonic. Prospero’s Masque (£9.50), meanwhile, combines Crabbie’s eight-yearold single malt with ginger juice, lime and Fever-Tree ginger ale, while the Malvolio’s Folly (£10.50), offers a heady blend of Marylebone orange & geranium gin, Cointreau blood orange, cranberry and lime for a tasty tipple. It’s the perfect predrink before you head to one of the Shakespeare Fest performances. theivycambridgebrasserie.com
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My Favourite Table KATE HOLDEN, FOUNDER OF PROVENANCE KITCHEN, SHARES HER TOP EATING AND DRINKING TIPS FOR CAMBRIDGE l WHAT’S
YOUR FAVOURITE PLACE TO EAT IN CAMBRIDGESHIRE?
Mill Road is full of great places: Vanderlyle, The Sea Tree, Limoncello deli and 196 always deliver on fantastic service and flavours. l YOU’RE
HAVING A NIGHT IN: WHERE ARE YOU CALLING FOR TAKEAWAY?
My mum, for the vegetarian shepherd’s pie she cooks for me when I’m in need of comfort food! l WHERE
DO YOU LIKE TO SHOP FOR INGREDIENTS?
Local village shops are stocking more local produce, so I like to call in when I pass an interesting-looking one to check them out. l WHAT
DO YOU LOVE ABOUT THE LOCAL FOOD SCENE?
The way it changes constantly and the huge variety we are lucky to have in the city and surrounding area. l WHAT
WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE MORE OF?
Honestly, right now, with all the energy and hours being poured into our new restaurant, I’d like to see a little more of my family – and my bed!
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MAGIC OF THAILAND FESTIVAL If there’s nothing you love more than an authentic pad thai or green curry, turn your feet to Parker’s Piece on 3 and 4 August for the Magic of Thailand festival, an event teeming with delicious food. As well as loads of food stalls, there will be live cookery demonstrations where you can pick up tips, plus a Thai beer garden. Entertainment also includes an eating competition, Thai boxing displays and kid’s rides. It’s open from 10am to 7pm and tickets are £5. magicofthailand.co.uk
NEW SITE FOR TH E DUMPING T R EE The Dumpling Tree, previously found on Homerton Street, has pitched up at a new site on Perne Road. The new space is significantly larger, with capacity for 100 diners, as well as boasting a garden and ample parking. You can expect delicious dumplings and other Yunnanstyle delicacies, as well as traditional pub favourites. It’s also expanding the menu with some exotic new dishes, breakfasts and plantbased options. It’s due to open in early August. thedumplingtree.com
LO ’S CHE E SE CAKE EMPOR I UM If you’re in need of a sugar fix mid-shopping trip, pop along to The Grafton Centre’s newest trader: Lo’s Cheesecake Emporium. Shoppers can create their dream dessert, choosing between a huge selection of toppings including Love Hearts, meringue, biscuits, marshmallows, pretzels, popcorn and more. It’s the brainchild of Georgia Wills, who started the business around two and a half years ago as a side hobby. “I catered for friends and family,” she says. “My social life started to disappear, because this became my passion!” After recovering from a serious illness and lengthy hospital stay, Georgia decided to enter the Grow at The Grafton contest for free space at the centre for enterprising entrepreneurs. “Lo’s isn’t just about the delicious cheesecake,” explains Georgia. “It’s an exciting, fun and happy experience for everyone involved. Lo’s can offer a variety of choice which I’d like to think will please everyone’s taste buds.”
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SU M M ER TAPAS PARTY Head down to Cambridge Wine Merchants on Cherry Hinton Road for a summery Spanish fiesta with Qué Rico Tapas on Sunday 4 August. Taking place from 1pm to 4pm, you can expect a relaxed afternoon filled with delicious tapas, paella, sangria and cocktails, plus a few surprises. It’s £27.54, which includes three tapas dishes and an arrival drink. cambridgewine.com
F R E E COCK TAI L S AT PAR K E R’S TAV E R N It’s hard to believe that the University Arms and its in-house eatery, Parker’s Tavern, have only been open since this time last year. In the space of twelve months, this swish hotel – and especially its staggeringly good restaurant – have become jewels in the city’s crown. If you happen to have an August birthday, PT will treat you to a free cocktail with your dinner this month in celebration of its birthday and your birthday. The tipple up for grabs is the signature Bloomsbury Boozer, made from Botanist gin, elderflower cordial, lemon and raspberries, topped with a party hat of frothy raspberry foam. Throughout August, the hotel will also be offering rooms from a reduced rate of £111. parkerstavern.com
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CHARLES W ELLS BR EWERY EXPAND S INTO ST I V ES Local pub business Wells & Co (previously Charles Wells) has announced The Oliver Cromwell pub in St Ives as its latest acquisition. The family firm, which is on its way to becoming one of the best leased and tenanted pub companies in the whole country, owns and operates 174 pubs and 23 managed houses, including the Pizza, Pots & Pints outposts in Cambridge (the Salisbury and Carpenters’ Arms). Adding to the collection, the charming 18th-century Oliver Cromwell is tucked away by the River Ouse’s Quayside. “We are delighted to acquire this fantastic local pub and extend the business into this beautiful Cambridgeshire town,” says Peter Wells, commercial director at Wells & Co. “Our ambition is to become the best tenanted pub business in the UK, working with top operators to ensure the pubs in our estate have the support to reach their full potential.” Keep an eye on Wells & Co over the next year, as there are exciting plans underway for a new home for the brand in Bedford, which features a bar, restaurant, brewery and coffee roastery known as Brewpoint, which is due to open in summer 2020.
GOG CENTENARY PICNIC
A day of food, drink and merriment at deluxe local farm shop The Gog promises to be a fab day out. Its Centenary Family Picnic on the 31st starts at 12pm, complete with village fete-style attractions, a bar, DJ and music. The event marks big celebrations for the family on the site, near Wandlebury. The party atmosphere, complemented by great food and fizz, is completed by a kids’ silent disco from 4pm to 6pm, followed by the adult’s chance to show off their moves (silently as well) from 8pm to midnight. thegog.com
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A Gog’s Life CELEBRATING ITS 100TH ANNIVERSARY THIS YEAR, THE GOG FARM SHOP IS A LOCAL INSTITUTION THAT ONLY GETS BETTER WITH AGE. CHARLOTTE GRIFFITHS FINDS OUT MORE
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potato crop and as far as they could see were mushrooms – the whole field was literally covered with mushrooms. They ate them themselves, they gave them to friends and they started a little honesty box at the roadside by the gate – proper old-school farming,” Charles laughs. “And from the proceeds of that, Mum bought some chickens – and they got started.” In the late 70s, Charles’s father decided to start selling meat, and set about improving his own butchery skills. “My mum was particularly interested in making sausages: even back then, we were thinking the stuff that goes into sausages is absolutely awful,” Charles recalls. Adapting a family recipe, Lesley began selling her creations, which proved extremely popular and led to The Gog’s perma-famous scotch eggs – a recipe that hasn’t changed since its first incarnation, and which is well worth trying if you’ve already finished your scone. Thanks to Colin and Lesley’s hard work, supported by Colin’s sister Jean, ‘Bradford’s Farm Shop’ spent the next few decades building up a loyal base of customers from Cambridge and the surrounding villages.
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f you love food and you live in Cambridge, then you know The Gog Farm Shop. And if you don’t, immediately fold this under your arm, hop on a bike or bus and make your way south of the city, past Addenbrooke’s, and start the long slow ascent up the rolling chalkland at the foot of the Gog Magog Hills. Turn into the farm’s driveway: crunch your way on the gravel past the railway sleeper beds of grasses, bee-loud flowers and the clutch of Big Green Eggs; smile at the collie sleeping in the shade, order a cheese scone and a flat white, find a space to sit and then carry on reading. Honestly – it’s worth it. We’ll wait. This year marks 100 years since the first of the Bradford family set foot on the heath’s chalky soil. “My great-grandfather, Fred, returned from the first world war in August 1919,” says Charles Bradford, sat in his neat office at the back of the farm, drinking a flat white. (See! They’re good.) “He came back and took over Heath Farm, and the Bradfords have been here ever since. That’s really what we’re celebrating this year. It’s kind of the essence of what we’re about. Then my grandfather, Charlie, who I’m named after, he took over farming here. And my dad, Colin, was actually born in the farmhouse.” It was the land that gave the Bradfords the unexpected opportunity to add to the farm’s offering. “One day in the late 60s, my parents came out to check on the
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“I can see some really exciting stuff for the future now” In 2004, Charles and his brother Marcus returned to the farm with the shared mission of helping their parents to retire, and seeing what they could accomplish with the space. Charles gave the project an arbitrary four-year deadline and set to work, with one of the main driving factors being his own personal journey with food. “I love going to restaurants, I love eating well – but I realised early on that there was a massive gap in my knowledge about food,” he says. “When I lived in London, I lived around the corner from an incredible cheese shop, an amazing deli, a great grocer and wine shop and butcher – all brilliant – but I wouldn’t go in any of them. I was terrified to have an interaction with somebody, to go and ask about wines, about meats and things – and I was a farmer’s son. And I just realised there was a big knowledge gap there.” For Charles, it was crucial the farm became a place where people could feel as comfortable as possible, and ask the sort of questions he’d been hesitant to ask in London. It was a slow start: the barns required a lot of building work and – crucially –
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more customers and staff, which were both in short supply in the early days. “I remember we’d look out the window of the kitchen and say, ‘Well, who’s going to serve this customer?’” Charles laughs. Implementing change in a business that’s so rich in family history and layered with stories would be a challenge for even the most deftly skilled CEO, but Charles and Marcus took on the task with relish – and the bravery to just experiment. Of course, it hasn’t always gone to plan. “I could give you a long list of the things that haven’t worked,” Charles laughs, “but, with all of it comes learning.” One of the best examples of this is the now much-loved cafe’s arrival at the farm. Previously, the deli and shop were all that tempted visitors up the hill, but Charles had a vision. “I’d been to Italy, and seen how the Italians stand very close to the coffee machine as you extract the espresso – they have their quick coffee, they drink it and they go about their business. I thought – we could do that here: it’d be perfect,” he grins. “But then, of course, customers turned round and said, ‘That’s great – but can we have it as a latte? And I’d like it
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with a sandwich. And we’re going to get all our mates to come round. And we’re going to take up car parking spaces for the day.’ So suddenly we were thrust into hospitality. And that’s been so challenging: it was a real experiment that took us down a different path.” Embracing hospitality and continuing to diversify the offering has seen the team grow in size to what’s now around 45 individuals, and has put the farm in a fantastic place for the years to come. “This is the best position this business has been in for a long time. We’ve got the bedrock, and we’ve got the infrastructure right. Don’t get me wrong: I can look around and see a million things I need to change – but now I can see how I’m going to do it,” Charles says. “I’m a very visual person: I remember in the early days when we just had a couple of old barns. And people say to me now: ‘Could you imagine it looking like this?’ And actually, I could. Once you’ve got a visualisation, you go toward that – and I can see some really exciting stuff for the future now.” Charles is keen to continue focusing on events at the farm, merging retail
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opportunities with experiences that’ll bring more visitors through the gates. “I’m trying not to use the word experiential, but…” he laughs. “We’ve been running cookery classes, which have been really popular – we had a cheese festival, which went down really well. You’re bringing customers closer with producers – and I think there are great opportunities for more of that.” The Gog’s annual cheese festival sees producers come from across the
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FO O D & D R I N K country to showcase their work and meet customers. The positive feedback Charles gets from the cheesemakers is testament to the quality of Cambridge consumers. “We have really well-informed customers who are very engaged – producers say they keep coming to this event year after year because the engagement of the customers is amazing: they’re really interested, they’re keen to understand, to learn more – it makes our jobs easier!” Charles enthuses. “We far from get everything right all the time – and our customers are very quick to feed back when we don’t get it right – but I think because they can see we’re honest, they can see it for what it is – they understand and forgive it.” One of Charles’s areas to tackle is the perception of The Gog as being an expensive place to shop. “I wanted to create a really pleasant environment – but doing so sets you up for the idea that everything’s going to be expensive,” Charles points out. “We don’t intentionally charge more, but you might find a product that’s really incredible, from some small producer, which has cost her loads of money to create, so it does cost more. We don’t stick a big margin on it, but we also don’t work to tell the story of why it’s so incredible as much as we should – and we’ve got to get better at that.” But there’s evidence of change throughout the farm: in the butchery, vegan items have found their way onto the shelves alongside The Gog’s everpopular sausages. “The vegan packs are selling really well,” Charles nods. “What’s been interesting for us about the whole vegan story is that people have definitely become more considered about what they’re eating. I as an individual don’t eat as much meat as I used to – I’m thinking about that a lot more – but what’s worked well for us is that when people are eating meat, they’re eating better quality meat. Here, you know where it’s come from, you can have sensible conversations with the butchers – that’s worked really well for us.” Creating a space where everyone can feel comfortable enough to ask questions about food means that consumers really trust The Gog. They trust the shop is selling the best product, and not just selling. Seasonality is at the heart of this, says Charles. “We, as an industry, have been so consumer-driven, in that we’re continually responding to the demands of consumers rather than... what’s actually good to eat at that time.” He concedes: “It’s a challenge, it goes against the grain, but it’s so important.” Charles admits that they’ve made missteps on this front, but have already taken action to correct it back towards what you’d expect to see on the shelves
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“People have definitely become more considered about what they’re eating” at The Gog. “You used to be able to come here, and we would have had fruit and veg that was out of season. We would have had this in stock,” he says. “We used to work with a very traditional greengrocer, and we didn’t have the ability to flex the order in the same way that we do now. We haven’t got it right yet, not by any stretch, but it’s so much better. We’re also reducing plastic – salads are tricky – but we’re doing it.” This drive toward seasonality extends into the butchery, where certain products appear briefly before disappearing for a year – salt marsh lamb, for example, will have already been and gone by the time this interview is published. Charles says: “It’s like – they understand that game’s in season. ‘Can I get this?’ No, it’s out of season. ‘Oh, ok then.’ And people understand that. The challenge is to explain that with other products.” This shift from supplying what people want, whenever they want it, to only selling the best of what’s available during the time it’s at its peak requires effort and explanation – but The Gog’s army of loyal customers are all too willing to listen, and
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new devotees are discovering the farm all the time. “Every day we get people coming down here saying, ‘I had no idea this was here!’” Charles laughs. “I had to help someone out the shop the other day who had never been here before, but was coming out with bags of food, and was just so excited to have found us.” A summer of celebration lies ahead: The Gog’s Sundowner Sessions, where the farm keeps its doors open for latenight food, drinks and music while guests enjoy the sunsets and rolling vistas, are returning for numerous weekends (check The Gog’s social media for updates). A huge family picnic is also planned for Saturday 31 August, with the Bradfords inviting all of Cambridge to come raise a glass to 100 years of family history. And what’s next on the horizon? Well, you’ll have to find Charles and ask him yourself, but what’s clear is that the entire team is raring to go for the next chapter in the life of the farm. “We’re a little family, just outside Cambridge. We set our sights on this goal and – it’s good,” Charles says. “And there’s plenty for us to do next.”
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Bold as brassica DURING HIS EXPERIMENTS WITH UNUSUAL INGREDIENTS, ALEX RUSHMER HAS FOUND HIMSELF FALLING IN LOVE WITH THE VERSATILE BUT UNDERAPPRECIATED ‘CABBAGE TURNIP’
ne of the benefits of spending my working week standing in front of a stovetop (albeit a sleek and cool induction cooker rather than a stainless steel, gas-powered furnace) is that I get to play around with a near endless supply of new ingredients and techniques. Not all make it beyond the development stage and onto the menu, no matter how hard we try. The parasol mushrooms may have been locally foraged, but that didn’t stop them from being unpalatably slimy. And despite cooking them for several hours, we couldn’t remove the final tannic dryness from the young green pine cones delivered to the kitchen a few weeks ago. (The resultant syrup, however, is delicious and is being used to enhance one of the offerings on our non-alcoholic drinks pairing.) But for every failure, there is a happy success. We’ve recently been utterly smitten with an oft-overlooked – and distinctly alien-looking – member of the brassica family. Kohlrabi has long been a staple ingredient in German kitchens and, consequently, in the parts of America that have enjoyed significant numbers of German émigrés over the last few centuries. Its etymology, too, is German, and in translation simply means ‘cabbage turnip’, which gives a fairly generous hint as to its flavour, although it is more subtle and refined than both. For years, I knew of it only by name, and from an intriguing non-recipe in Fergus Henderson’s Beyond Nose to Tail. More recently, Simon Rogan featured several (more detailed) recipes in his cookbook, and that was enough to pique my interest. What became clear very quickly is just how versatile it is as an ingredient. Raw, it has a subtle brassica flavour similar to broccoli stem, but with an underlying sweet acidity and gentle pepperiness, reminiscent (but not as assertive) of the playful heat of watercress. Thinly sliced, it makes an excellent addition to a salad or can happily play the central role in the production of a remoulade – an old-school French bistro classic where the lead is usually taken by
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“But for every failure, there is a happy success” celeriac dressed in mayonnaise pepped up with mustard and lemon. Cooking kohlrabi softens some of the vegetable’s sharper flavours and dulls the spikier notes, while accentuating some of the more cabbagey tones present in even the distant branches of the brassica family tree. That soft heat dissipates, and the texture transforms into something more yielding and giving – it would work well cooked with cream in the manner of a dauphinoise or covered in a cheesy white sauce and baked in a hot oven with nothing but a smattering of breadcrumbs for company. Our preferred method, though, is to peel the bulbous stems, cover them entirely in a crude salt dough, then bake them for 30 minutes at 180°C. The salt dough performs two functions. First, it seasons the kohlrabi and, second, concentrates the flavour by
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evaporating water from the vegetable. After cooling for half an hour, the salt dough is cracked open like a large dinosaur egg, the kohlrabi is rinsed under cold water and then sliced very thinly on a mandolin to form the base of our daily salad. Any leftover pieces get diced and tossed together with oil, vinegar, fresh herbs, nuts, seeds and a handful of raisins to make a simple salad. A word of caution though: despite our commitment to reducing food waste and trying to adopt a ‘root to tip’ approach, I’m yet to find a way to make use of the rather attractivelooking leaves of the plant. Any suggestions would be gratefully received.
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© PHOTOS BY CHARLOTTE GRIFFITHS
RECIPE
Summer rolls with tofu and spicy fish sauce There is little actual cooking involved in this recipe, and even less work if you present each element separately in bowls on the table and allow everyone to assemble their own rolls. The dipping sauce is a classic Vietnamese sauce based on an interplay between chilli heat, saltiness, sweetness and refreshing acidity – it can be tweaked depending on your palate, just use the below recipe as a guideline. If you would prefer to make the whole dish vegan, replace the fish sauce with soy sauce. INGREDIENTS
STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE
• One block firm tofu, cut into 1cm strips • Cornflour for dusting • Cooking oil
• Coat the tofu in cornflour and fry gently in oil until crisp on all sides. • For the dipping sauce, combine the fish sauce, chillies, sugar and lime juice and leave to infuse. • Pour a kettle of boiling water over the rice noodles and leave to soften. • Use a julienne peeler to peel the carrots and cucumber into thin slices and place into separate bowls. Season with salt then add a teaspoon of sugar and two tablespoons of rice wine vinegar to each bowl. Leave to gently pickle for 15 minutes. • When ready to serve, soak a rice wrapper in warm water for five seconds, then place onto a plate. Layer a few rice noodles into the centre of the wrapper, then top with a slice of fried tofu, pickled carrot and cucumber, bean sprouts, crushed peanuts and fresh coriander. • Fold in the sides to stop the filling from spilling out, then roll into a tight sausage. Dip into the spicy, sweet fish sauce and eat immediately. Repeat until full, which may take a while...
FOR THE DIPPING SAUCE
• • • •
75ml fish sauce Three bird’s eye chillies, finely sliced Two teaspoons sugar Juice of one lime
FOR THE FILLING
• • • • • • • •
150g thin rice noodles Two carrots One cucumber Salt, to season Two teaspoons sugar Four tablespoons rice wine vinegar Eight summer roll wrappers Two handfuls of bean sprouts, washed and dried • 50g peanuts, crushed • Fresh coriander, roughly chopped
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RECIPE
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CA M B R I D G E O N A P L AT E
the second slice
DR SUE BAILEY TAKES A SECOND SLICE OF FOOD HISTORY WITH THE HELP OF MORE CAMBRIDGE-BASED FOOD WRITERS, EXPLORING PUDDINGS AND POTIONS here is a hot debate as to whether it was the famous Cambridge or Trinity burnt cream that came first, or the French dessert pretender, the crème brûlée. But what has the salamander lizard we mentioned last issue got to do with it, and why would you use one? There is a myth that salamander lizards can survive fire, which explains why, since the 1700s, a cast-iron, flameheated disk called a salamander has been used to brown the tops of such dishes. Now however, a more advanced technology has taken over. So, although both a crème brûlée and the Cambridge burnt cream have caramelised sugar tops, the jury is out as to whether they are the same and which
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came first. I spoke to Tristan Welsh – now head chef at Parker’s Tavern, who’s a longterm lover of this rich custard dish, and a passionate student of its history Tristan recounts: “College cooks were making a variant of this unctuous cooked cream dessert topped with scorched sugar long before French chefs ‘invented’ crème brûleé. But I love a bit of controversy, and I don’t mind a bit of disagreement with the French. I’ve been a passionate collector of antique recipe books since my youth and I’ve found references to this Cambridge recipe from 1740.” He agrees that to look forward, you always have to look back. “This is how a lot of these recipes came about in the first place – adapting to modern times. We now do a thin separate
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layer to create a windowpane of caramel on top for the perfect ratio of bitterness contrasted with the luxurious cream.” When asked about a cookery book, he says: “Watch this space…” Keen to further explore the truth of this Cambridge connection, I also spoke to food historian, author and broadcaster Dr Annie Gray. She gets a bit irritated about the almost fetishisation of recipe origins. She prefers the story recounted in Florence White’s 1932 book Good Things in England. Florence calls the dessert ‘caramel cream from Trinity College’ and suggests the recipe was originally offered to the college kitchens by an undergraduate and contemptuously rejected. But when he became a fellow in 1879, the recipe was offered again and suddenly found great favour. “Recipes go in and out of fashion”, comments Annie. “But I do have a recipe for burnt cream from 1691 that had quite a lot of candied lime peel.” Trinity College tries not to get drawn in, cleverly updating this dish for the college’s 700th anniversary last year,
with the pastry chef brigade developing a chelsea bun-style dessert with semidried and marinated cherries, crab apple and lime curd topped with lime zest and crystallised rose petals, injected with Trinity burnt cream. As a result of a global naming challenge won by Trinity alumnus Simon Willis, it gained the rotund name of Trinity Trindle. I also learnt the verb, ‘to trindle’ means to roll, to progress. When I spoke with Annie, she told me that since authoring her first book, The Greedy Queen, a culinary biography of Queen Victoria, she has been deep in the process of editing her biography of Georgina Landemare, called Victory in the Kitchen: The Story of Churchill’s Cook – which is due out next spring. As Annie says: “Georgina – that’s my next real book. It’s very close to my heart. It is also a book that really needed writing.” In addition, Annie mentions her Downton Abbey recipe book, written two years ago, will be released to coincide with the film in September. “Much more locally, I have also been advising at Audley End with English
“You can’t walk around Cambridge without having a feast for the eyes” CAMBSEDITION.CO.UK
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Heritage involving Kathy Hipperson as the character re-enacting the house cook Mrs Crocombe’s recipes.” Moving on from fashionable Victorian desserts: Cambridge food researcher Lesley Steinitz is more interested in Edwardian potions for virility than puddings. She is fascinated with Dr Tibbles’ Vi-Cocoa. This stimulating colabased Edwardian hot chocolate drink was designed to make men vital and strong, and was a triumph of early clever marketing as a health food. She explains: “It’s like British Coca-Cola – it was very high in caffeine. It was advertised as helping the workers to get through the day – helping you to be a new man.” Lesley is surrounded by delightful 19th-century advertising for her favourite cocoa, which “pulled in politics, nationalism and pride, how to be a real man as well as nutrition and gentlemanliness”. She is currently researching industrial health foods and culture during Britain’s decadent era, and writing up her PhD. Perhaps Lesley describes best why it is so brilliant being a researcher and writer in Cambridge. “It’s like a breath of fresh air. There are so many different people, influences and viewpoints. You can’t walk around Cambridge without having a feast for the eyes. Lovely independents and cafes – having lived in London all my life, it was a total revelation that you could have all these things in a city the size of a sixpence that you can walk across.” So, perhaps that’s why we have so many happy writers and foodies.
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A DV E RT I S E M E N T F E AT U R E
LOVE CAMBRIDGE OUTDOOR SCREENING
WHAT IS LOVE CAMBRIDGE?
For the last time this summer, Cambridge BID will be hosting an open-air cinema screening in the Market Square on 30 August. Run in partnership with the city council, these much-loved summer events animate a usually quiet space with an evening of fun. This month’s films are Early Man and Bohemian Rhapsody, with the event running from 6.30pm until 10.30pm alongside a night market selling artisan food, beverages, crafts and gifts. Around 200 seats are available on a first come, first served basis, though people are welcome to bring their own chairs and rugs.
Love Cambridge is the brand developed by Cambridge BID to deliver events and projects designed to animate and entertain our city. These include the Love Cambridge gift card, open-air cinema nights, Wimbledon screening, magazines, maps and much more. Follow us on social media to be kept up to date with what’s going on in Cambridge this summer. LoveCambridge_ lovecambridge_
Love Cambridge
love-cambridge.com
SPOTLIGHT ON BRIDGE STREET, MAGDALENE STREET & ALL SAINTS PASSAGE With historic colleges, riverside cafes, independent shops and lively pubs, the Bridge Street, Magdalene Street and All Saints Passage quarter of Cambridge is a must-visit. Favourite stop-offs include The Cambridge Cheese Company, which stocks a huge range of delicious farmhouse cheeses, and Lilac Rose, with its quirky gifts, clothing and jewellery. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, aka the Round Church, is one of the city’s most famous landmarks, and be sure to pop into Bould Brothers for a coffee after you’ve explored. For a pint in a traditional boozer, the Pickerel is hard to beat, while the Quayside across the road is the place to be in the summer: grab a seat outside one of the pubs and cafes and watch the world go by.
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A DV E RT I S E M E N T F E AT U R E
GET TO KNOW THE CITY AMBASSADORS AN ESTIMATED EIGHT MILLION PEOPLE VISIT CAMBRIDGE EACH YEAR TO ENJOY ITS MANY CHARMS. ENHANCING THEIR TRIPS ARE THE LOVE CAMBRIDGE AMBASSADORS: A TEAM OF SIX PROFESSIONALS TASKED WITH WELCOMING, HELPING, ADVISING AND GUIDING VISITORS TO THE CITY CENTRE. YOU'LL RECOGNISE THEM FROM THEIR BRIGHT BLUE TIES, WAISTCOATS AND HATS. TA J KHAN, AMBASSADOR SUPERVISOR, TELLS US MORE WHO ARE THE AMBASSADORS?
We are at the forefront of welcoming and imparting local knowledge to the visitors of Cambridge to help them navigate and enjoy the cityscape – giving them advice to help make the most of their time in Cambridge. Our ambassadors are a diverse, multilingual team trained in communication and customer services, and we work all year round, giving out free maps and making the city as accessible and enjoyable as possible for visitors and locals. WHAT’S THE JOB LIKE?
We ambassadors are part of the vibrant street life in Cambridge. Apart from knowledge about the best spots to visit, we are aware of which events are happening and always know about new offers and openings, sales that are going on and which creative and education projects people can participate in. Perhaps we could call ourselves (human) walkingpedias for Cambridge! Our multilingual ambassadors speak dozens of languages between them, making visitors from around the globe to feel at ease and safe while exploring the city. Yes, these days people have Google at their fingertips, but people prefer and need that vital human interaction to connect when they arrive in a city – no machine can replace that. HOW MANY PEOPLE DO THE CITY AMBASSADORS TALK TO?
On an average day, one ambassador interacts with 70 people – on a busy weekend day, it could be 120. In 2018 alone, we interacted with 59,248 people on the streets. People love engaging with us once they realise we are not selling anything and we’re just here to help! An interaction may be a quick enquiry, or it may last 20 minutes with one group or a person. It all depends on what people are looking for and how much information they want. DO YOU HAVE OTHER TASKS BESIDE VISITOR ENGAGEMENT IN THE CITY?
The second stream of our work is liaising with businesses in the BID zones. We regularly visit and interact with all business in the town, and it’s very important for us to know what services, products, events, festivals and activities are taking place in Cambridge, so we can inform potential customers or visitors about these services. In 2018, the ambassadors logged in 4,087 business visits, and we’ve been instrumental in promoting BID initiatives like the Love Cambridge gift card and Independents’ Week. We also support the council’s work in keeping the area safe and clean by sending out info on unattended commercial waste, illegal graffiti and broken paving slabs that could cause safety hazards to people, plus reporting things like antisocial behaviour to the authorities. HOW MUCH GROUND DO YOU COVER EACH DAY?
Mobility is our speciality! Each ambassador walks seven to nine miles each day – meaning that in the last six years we’ve covered around 80,600 miles! We can call this going the extra mile to deliver our friendly and approachable service to the visitors of the city.
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INDEPENDENT OF THE MONTH
Homemade @ the Barn I ND IE OF T HE MO NT H
SIOBHAN GODWOOD FINDS OUT HOW A LEAP INTO THE UNKNOWN HAS BECOME A THRIVING ARTS AND CRAFTS BUSINESS
ust over a year ago, Sally Stone was working as a teacher and bringing up her autistic son as a single mum. “I was finding it really stressful, and I ended up taking time off sick as it all got too much,” she explains. “My hobby over the last five years has been upcycling furniture I buy from charity shops, Facebook marketplace
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and car boot sales. I started selling what I’d made at craft fairs and in a few shops in the area. One day, I was chatting to the lady who ran a shop in Bassingbourn that stocked my things, and she told me she was moving out. Something made me say, ‘Can I have the shop, please?’ Five weeks later, on 23 June 2018, I opened my doors for the first time!” Sally had no experience of running a shop or a business, but what she did have was plenty of contacts from her weekends selling her furniture at craft fairs. “I made lots of friends over the years, so I invited
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everyone I’d ever met to come and sell their things in my shop. I also adopted some of the people who were already selling in the shop. Not everyone wanted to stay, but some did, and the things they make actually fit in really well with my furniture, so that worked out brilliantly.” Many of the craftspeople that Sally approached felt quite intimidated by the idea of selling in a shop, as it’s much more of a commitment than just going to the occasional weekend craft fair. So what was it that made Sally feel able to take on a whole new business of her own, starting
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INDEPENDENT OF THE MONTH
from nothing? “I’m just brave,” she laughs. “There have been so many times when I’ve felt my furniture isn’t good enough, that other people are more talented than I am and I don’t deserve to be trying to sell my things in a shop. But I’ve never let being scared stop me from doing anything. If I set my mind to something, I will achieve it.” Luckily, the shop was ready to move straight into for Sally and her colleagues. The building is a Grade II listed barn with an upstairs and a downstairs and, to begin with, she just took over the downstairs part, while the previous shopkeeper continued selling second hand children’s clothes and toys above. “That definitely helped,” explains Sally, “as she had been running the shop since 1986, and had an established business. People came in to see her, and I would make sure I spoke to everyone who came through the door and persuade them to look at my products, too. I also held a grand opening, and did lots of marketing to get things going.” Sally has now taken over the entire building for Homemade @ the Barn, and although some of the sellers that she started out with have moved on, she is now in the fortunate position of having a waiting list of people who want to sell their products in her shop. “If someone decides that selling in the shop is not for them, then I just call the next person on the list, so there’s never any panic about not having enough products for sale.” The barn currently has more than 40 unique sellers, offering a huge range of upcycled, vintage, retro and handmade goods, including furniture, jewellery, clothing and pressedglass items. Sally also held a Christmas shopping evening last November, which was a huge
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“For lots of our customers, it’s their happy place” success. “In the end, I had to persuade someone to act as a car park attendant because it was so popular, there wasn’t enough parking for everyone,” she says. “I’d planned for about 50 people, but we got more than 200 visitors. It was just unbelievable, and we are going to do it again on 9 November – watch this space!” The great thing about Homemade @ the Barn is that it’s as much a community as a workplace. “Everyone who sells here is so supportive,” says Sally. “We have a WhatsApp group, and I know that if something comes up, I can always ask the others and someone will help me out. And I’ve noticed that, for lots of our customers,
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it’s their happy place; people just love to come and potter, looking at all the lovely things. It’s just a lovely place to be.” So, what does Sally think now, when she looks back at the impulsive decision to take on her own shop? “I’m just so glad I took a chance!” she laughs. “I know that Homemade @ the Barn is only a year young, but it has taken determination to get this far, and I did it. There’s no doubt in my mind now that it’s going to continue to be a huge success for me and all the people who sell their work here.” Homemade @ the Barn, Old North Road Bassingbourn, Cambridgeshire SG8 5JL 07730 496225, homemadeatthebarn.co.uk
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WEDDINGS
WORDS BY SIOBHAN GODWOOD
FROM WEDDING SHOWS AND PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS TO IDEAS FOR SAVING MONEY AND CHOOSING A DRESS, WE HAVE EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO PLAN THE PERFECT BIG DAY CAMBSEDITION.CO.UK
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WEDDINGS
Don’t bust the budget THE AVERAGE COST OF A WEDDING IN THE UK IS NOW JUST OVER £30,000, SO IT’S NOT SURPRISING THAT MANY COUPLES ARE LOOKING FOR WAYS TO SAVE MONEY WITHOUT COMPROMISING ON FABULOUSNESS
GO VINTAGE
A big expense for brides is the dress – but there are alternatives to shelling out a fortune. “Our vintage wedding dresses hail from the 20s through to the 80s and have only ever been worn once!” says Siobhan Mulholland-Cox from Cambridge Vintage Bridal. “The dresses are almost always bespoke, handmade and designed to last. From intricate boned structures to beautiful hand-stitched hems and hidden lipstick pockets, each dress has something compelling about it. Starting at around £200, a quality vintage wedding dress can cost way less than a new one and you will be wearing a one-of-akind piece. You are also choosing a dress that has no current impact on the environment – no new production, water usage, dubious chemical dumping or dire carbon footprint. Support slow fashion, save the planet and be unique!” Charity shops are also a great place to hunt for ‘pre-loved’ dresses or accessories: Oxfam has a section of its website with hundreds of wedding dresses available, as well as shoes and jewellery. cambridgevintagebridal.co.uk oxfam.org.uk/shop/bridal
DO IT YOURSE LF Save money by making some of your wedding decorations yourself, or make this a fun part of wedding prep by hosting evenings at home with friends, making flower crowns, bouquets or even arrangements for the ceremony and reception. The other bonus of getting crafty is you can be sure you’ll have something completely unique at your wedding that really represents you and your individual style. If you want to boost your floristry skills to make the whole thing look a bit more professional, take a wedding flowers course at The Cambridge Flower School, where the team can guide you through everything from sourcing flowers to making eye-catching displays. thecambridgeflowerschool.co.uk
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WEDDINGS
INVEST IN THE FUTURE OF YOUR DRESS PERHAPS YOU WANT TO MAKE SOME MONEY BACK ON YOUR WEDDING DRESS BY SELLING IT ON, OR YOU’VE BOUGHT A VINTAGE OR SECOND-HAND DRESS AND YOU WANT IT TO LOOK ITS ABSOLUTE BEST – EITHER WAY, WHAT YOU NEED IS A DEDICATED WEDDING DRESS CLEANING SERVICE, LIKE THE ONE OFFERED BY BRIDES BY SOLO IN NEWMARKET. OWNER ODETTE LISTER TELLS US MORE SPECIALISED SERVICE
Lots of brides take their dresses to a dry cleaner, where it gets put into a machine. This is not what we do; we don’t use third parties or machines to clean our dresses, and have found the perfect range of cleaning products to deal with any kind of stain over the 37 years we have been cleaning wedding dresses. There’s nothing we can’t get out – even mud or red wine! And we know how to manage delicate vintage fabrics, or those with beads, embroidery and jewels.
have bought a second-hand or vintage dress and want it freshened up, or brides who’ve bought a dress elsewhere that they want to sell on.
astonished and delighted when they see what we’ve achieved.
UNIQUE SERVICE
We charge a flat fee of £150 per dress, whatever the condition. Even if we have to work on it for days, or it’s a very delicate and complex job, you won’t be charged any more and it won’t add a huge cost to what you’ve spent on your dress.
THE PRICE IS RIGHT
We’re the only bridal shop in the area to offer wedding dress cleaning, and are perfectly placed between Cambridge and Newmarket, with plenty of parking, so brides can just drop in their dresses and pick them up with no hassle at all.
PERFECTLY PRESERVED LABOUR OF LOVE
ANY DRESS
We don’t just clean dresses that have been bought from our store – we’ll clean any dress. This means the service is perfect for brides who
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It might sound odd, but we are genuinely passionate about cleaning dresses! It’s an amazing feeling to see the transformation after we’ve worked our magic – and brides are always so
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We sell special acid-free boxes to store your dress. If you just stick it in the wardrobe, it will yellow over time, but these boxes keep your special dress in perfect condition for years to come. bridesbysolo.co.uk
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WEDDINGS
Yes to the dress BECKY CLIFFORD FROM CLIFFORD BURR BRIDAL IN BISHOP’S STORTFORD OFFERS HER ADVICE FOR BRIDES LOOKING FOR THE PERFECT DRESS KEEP THE NUMBERS DOWN
We wouldn’t turn anyone away, but we advise no more than three people with you, as too many opinions can be unhelpful and stressful. Choose someone to be honest and not just tell you what you want to hear! THINK ABOUT UNDERWEAR
It’s best to go for neutral underwear as dark colours can sometime show through, and not too much lace, as it can catch and make it hard to get in and out of the dresses. COME WITH IDEAS
Our appointments are an hour and a half, and there are a lot of dresses, so it can help if you’ve had a look online in advance to get an idea of what you do and don’t like – although many brides end up with something different to what they expected! DON’T WORRY ABOUT SHOES
All dresses are a standard size, so you don’t need to worry about shoes until the seamstress appointment, which is 6 to 8 weeks before the wedding – at that point, you’ll need to know what length you need the dress to be. cliffordburr.co.uk; 01279 357357
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IMAGES (Top to bottom, clockwise) Halter neckline dress, Martina Liana; Fallen Angel dress, Jean Fox; Fire & Ice dress, Jean Fox; scalloped train dress, Martina Liana, all available at Clifford Burr Bridal
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WEDDINGS
Capturing your big day
CHOOSING A PHOTOGRAPHER MIGHT SEEM LIKE JUST ONE MORE THING TO TICK OFF YOUR LONG LIST OF WEDDING TASKS. BUT YOU’LL BE LOOKING AT YOUR PHOTOS FOR YEARS TO COME – AND YOUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN MIGHT BE, TOO! WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER THOMAS ELLWOOD SHARES HIS TIPS FOR GETTING IT RIGHT
TALK THE TALK
Some people book a photographer online or over email without having a conversation. But your wedding photographer will be a big part of your day, there for some of the most special moments of your life. You should meet them face to face, or at least have a telephone conversation, to make sure you have the right rapport. EXPERT TOUCH
Taking photographs at a wedding is a particular
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skill – you need to be good with people and have a knack for capturing a range of special, spontaneous moments, as well as some good formal shots. Don’t just assume that your mate who takes nice photos of trees is going to be the right person to shoot your wedding. DON’T BE AFRAID TO HAVE IDEAS
Photographers don’t mind when a bride or groom has their own ideas and suggestions. If it’s something they don’t think will work, they’ll
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usually find a way around it so everyone is happy. It’s nice for it to be a collaboration. SEE A PRINT
Of course, you’ll want to look at a photographer’s website to see a range of shots, but you should really ask to see some prints, too, in all their colours and glory, as they can look very different and you’ll want to ensure your finished photos or albums will look perfect. thomasellwoodphotography.com
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© BEN DAVIS
WEDDINGS
WHAT’S NEW IN WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY? WE ASKED WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER BEN DAVIS, BASED IN PETERBOROUGH, WHAT KIND OF PHOTOS COUPLES ARE ASKING FOR IN 2019 THE NATURAL LOOK
Lots of couples ask for natural pictures; they don’t like the idea of posing and they don’t want to spend long on formal group photographs. Whether you call it documentary, reportage, storytelling, candid, natural – it all means the same thing: real photographs of real emotions. DON’T FORGET THE GROUPS
However, group photos are still important, as most couples realise that family members often want to frame them. But the list of groups tends to be short and they are less formal than in the past. Time is precious on a wedding day and I haven’t met anyone who would rather stand for hours for photos than celebrate with their family and friends.
IT’S A SNAP!
THE NEW DIGITAL
As a fun addition to professional photography, photo booths at the reception venue are a great idea. The Snap Booth is a Cambridge-based company offering a unique experience with their open-air photo booth, handcrafted from real oak. It has professional beauty-dish lighting, so every guest in every photo will look their best. Guests can share the images straight to social media, or text and email the images directly from the booth. And Snap Booth provides fun props and a range of backdrops to make the pictures look extra fab. snap-booth.co.uk
Recently, there’s been a shift away from USBs and towards downloads. With a password-protected online gallery, the couple can access their photos any time, anywhere and from any device – and can also share their photos with family and friends. Albums remain popular, though. They’re a great way to showcase your favourites, and albums never go out of date. UNPLUGGED WEDDINGS
These are now common, where guests are asked to not to take any pictures or video – at least during the ceremony, if not the whole day. Phones stay in pockets and guests can be in the moment rather than experiencing it through a screen. It also makes the professional photos better, as none of the guests are holding a phone in front of their faces, so you can see everyone and their emotions – and there are no arms sticking out in the aisle blocking the photographer’s view. cambridgeshireweddingphotography.com
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WEDDINGS
Dates for your diary LOCAL WEDDING SHOWS HELD AT SPECIFIC VENUES – HOTELS OR STATELY HOMES, FOR EXAMPLE – OFFER THE CHANCE TO HAVE A GOOD LOOK AROUND POTENTIAL WEDDING VENUES, AND ARE A GREAT WAY TO MEET LOCAL SUPPLIERS OF EVERYTHING FROM DRESSES AND JEWELLERY TO FAVOURS AND STRING QUARTETS 7 AUGUST
8 SEPTEMBER
10 NOVEMBER
WEDDING FAIR
SUMMER WEDDING FAIR
THE CAMBRIDGE WEDDING FAIR Anstey Hall, Trumpington, 11am – 3.30pm eventbrite.co.uk
Ravenwood Hall Hotel, Bury St Edmunds, 11am-3pm eventbrite.co.uk
1 SEPTEMBER
20 OCTOBER
17 NOVEMBER
Madingley Hall, 5.30pm-9.30pm eventbrite.co.uk
AUTUMN WEDDING FAIR Holiday Inn Peterborough, 11am-3pm eventbrite.co.uk
WEDDING FAIR
Quy Mill Hotel & Spa, 11am-3pm cambridgequymill.co.uk/weddings
WEDDING SHOW
Swynford Manor, Six Mile Bottom, 12-4pm mainweddingsandevents.co.uk
WEDDI NG S HOW BY AUGUS TA HOP E Augusta Hope, florist and event designer, is holding a wedding fair at Cambridge County Polo Club. It will feature lots of local suppliers from Cambridge, Essex, Norfolk and Sussex – from flowers and food to photographers, cake makers, stationery designers and make-up artists. The show takes place in a clear marquee, while all around the buzz of the Indian Summer Polo Tournament will offer you the exciting opportunity to experience the Sport of Kings first-hand. Take in the club’s serene beauty while considering your special day. It’s the ideal environment to look around, meet people, discuss ideas and plan your wedding. 8 September, 11am-4pm, Cambridge County Polo Club, Frolic Farm, Lode CB25 9HF The event is free, but you can register on Eventbrite or email info@augustahope.co.uk
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FAS H I O N
ORANGE WOODEN SANDALS £40 Oasis, Market Hill
NEON CITRUS PLEAT SKIRT £34 Next, Sidney Street
J BY JASPER CONRAN SWING DRESS £69 Debenhams
BEADED BAG £14 Matalan RED FIESTA PRINT SWIMSUIT £35 Accessorize, Petty Cury
DWOODLY TOTE BAG now £36, Dune London
FROM STATEMENT SWIMSUITS TO DREAMY DRESSES: WE’VE GOT YOUR HOLIDAY WARDROBE SORTED
VIOLETTE DRESS £189 Hobbs, Grand Arcade
OLA ORIENTAL PRINT KIMONO £60 Monsoon, Sidney Street
NEUTRAL/BLACK ROUND WICKER BAG £40 Oasis, Market Hill
SWAROVSKI X MARCOLIN SUNGLASSES £170, Swarovski, Grand Arcade
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FRANKLY MULE £52 Office, Grand Arcade
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FAS H I O N SWIMSUIT £29.50 Marks & Spencer, Sidney Street
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B E AU T Y
WORDS BY DAISY DICKINSON
hen we smell something, information is passed around the brain by our limbic system, which plays a major role in controlling mood, memory, behaviour and emotion (bear with me). This primitive part of the brain is so powerful for evoking memories, and for me, the aroma of coconut takes some beating. It takes me back to sunny holidays, pina coladas and Malibu sunscreen. But coconut isn’t just a heavenly scent, it’s also an incredible superfood for health and beauty. It promotes hydration with antioxidant properties, is super-nourishing for skin and can even offer natural protection to the hair from the sun. I keep a big jar of organic, virgin coconut oil at home, and use it for a multitude of things. It goes on damp skin to nourish and moisturise, through the ends of my hair, I cook with it, and even pop a blob on to my dog’s nose to keep it soft! But aside from taking it straight from the source, there are tonnes of products packing this hydration hero, and one of my favourites has to be the Too Faced Hangover range. New to the collection are a number of skincare items, including the Hangover Good to Go (£27, Debenhams), a lightweight moisturiser with SPF25. Enriched with coconut water, it hydrates as it protects. The Good in Bed Hydrating Serum (£29, Debenhams) is a fast-absorbing formula for plumping and reviving skin, and finally the Major Hangover (£40, Debenhams) is a supersized version of the classic Hangover primer, which smells good enough to eat and gives life to tired skin, while providing the perfect base for make-up. Also in skincare, Time Bomb Peace & Quiet Coconut Cleansing Oil (£25, timebombco.com) is a beautiful option for melting away make-up and dirt and leaving skin supple. The Hand-to-Hand Combat Cream (£15) is fab for keeping hardworking
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hands nourished and smelling as good as a Bounty bar. A super-interesting product, well worth opting for if you’re feeling flush or looking to indulge, is Algenist Power Recharging Night Pressed Serum (£68, space.nk). Enhanced with alguronic acid for its anti-ageing properties and algae protein, with nutrient-rich coconut water, this blend aims to reduce fine lines and wrinkles, and energises tired skin. For the bod, Dr. Bronner’s Lavender Coconut Organic Hand & Body Lotion (£10.49, drbronner.co.uk) is an organic, fair trade and vegan lotion including jojoba oil to heal and soothe, and coconut, hemp and avocado oils to keep skin smooth and supple; it comes in a handy pump bottle. Nivea’s new Body Soufflé Coconut & Monoi Oil (£7.99, Boots) pairs a tropical coconut scent with luxurious monoi oil which is quickly absorbed into skin with no greasy feeling. For tan fans, Leighton Denny Sun Believable Cream Me (£16, ld-boutique.com) is a total secret weapon for perfecting your base and avoiding streaks. Harnessing the hydrating properties of the mighty coconut, this sweetly-scented lotion helps moisturise dry areas before applying tan. If you need to shed hairs before this, Nair can help, with Coconut Wax Strips (£6.99, Superdrug) which – if you’re brave enough – are ideal for sensitive skin!
THE ONE THAT I WANT I’m a big fan of an ‘everything balm’, and Africology Coconut & Pineapple Balm (£30, uk.africologyspa.com) had everyone in my office cooing over the luxuriously tropical scent. Natural, ethically sourced and cruelty-free, Africology’s balms are formulated with plant waxes instead of beeswax, making them vegan-friendly too! Dab this onto elbows, cuticles and the ends of your hair – shut your eyes and think of the beach!
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CHARLOTTE PHILLIPS FINDS OUT ABOUT CONFERENCES IN CAMBRIDGE, FROM NEW TRENDS TO THE BEST LOCATIONS
hey might not be for everyone, but unconferences are on the rise. They take the conventional meeting format and deconstruct it. Advance agenda? Absolutely not. It’s created on the day, with participants suggesting and then voting on topics for discussion. And organiser angst over no-shows is so over. Now, the zen-like approach is that the people who show up are the right people for that event. You may even end up designing your own name badge or making a Lego model and, using the medium of little plastic bricks, express the highs (or lows) of your role or industry. That said, the traditional conference format – a massed gathering of delegates, formal agenda, presentations to a rapt
audience followed by questions and answers – isn’t going to disappear any time soon. Nor is the after-show party, when contacts are made, relationships forged and the shoots of new networks planted or extended by a tentacle or two. Regardless of whether event formats are new-look or run on more familiar lines, one thing’s for certain. Conferences remain hugely popular. The word conference – and its meaning – haven’t changed that much over the centuries. Stemming from the Latin word ‘conferre’ – or bring together – it was being used to describe formal meetings back in the 1580s. The enduring popularity of conferences is down to the fact that
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– however good we get at virtual collaboration, from down-the-line or over-internet conversations and meetings, to online collaborative document editing – there’s something about face-to-face meetings that inspires creativity. It seems to reach the synapses that nothing else can, however snazzy the technology or brilliant the participants. It’s certainly an antidote to the sense of separation that can be a part of many working lives, says chartered psychologist Dr Michael Hymans. “I guess there may be some people who are using conferences for their socialisation and networks, and don’t want to feel as if they’re out on a limb, because their work can be quite isolating.” Whatever sort of meeting you have in mind, our city is the place to hold it. Though there are plenty of geniuses here (if there aren’t more per square mile here than anywhere else in the world, it’s got to be close) you don’t, in fact, need to be a brainbox to appreciate the qualities that make it a natural conference destination. It’s a win-win combination that brings substantial financial benefits
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to the area. Perhaps predictably, a high volume of conferences reflect the business orientation of our area and are dominated by medical science and technology, with many run by international associations. So popular is the region that in 2018, according to figures from Meet Cambridge (the conference and events bureau for many venues in our area), our city was among the top ten in the UK, based on the number of international association events it hosted. According to Meet Cambridge, international conferences taking place over the next two years are estimated to bring in over 3,000 delegates and add over three million pounds to the local economy. It’s not just the venues themselves that benefit. International delegates, in particular, make a substantial contribution to other businesses, spending on average £124 in local shops and £135 on food and drink. And who could blame them for splashing out? You could, being only slightly hyperbolic, describe the city itself as being like a particularly luscious chocolate; the centre tightly packed with the most tempting and beautiful of buildings, many dating back hundreds of years, others ultra modern. And it’s all easily accessible, not just from other parts of the UK, but from other countries as well. All of this enrobed in an ever more effective infrastructure that makes travel an increasingly stress-free experience. One reason for the success of our area’s venues is their ability to predict event managers’ changing priorities and adapt accordingly. Take sustainability. Increasingly, it matters. According to research by Eventbrite (a platform that lets anyone create and share events), it’s ranked as either somewhat or very important by over 70% of event organisers. Venue managers are taking note. At Madingley Hall, “we have switched fully to refillable bottled water, so we don’t use any plastic there at
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“You just know there is lots of progress being made” all,” says conference and sales manager Rebecca Barnes. It’s one of the initiatives, together with others, including 100% recycling of food waste, that’s resulted in Madingley Hall receiving a coveted Cambridge University Green Impact platinum award. And sustainability is just one of the ways in which venues chime with event organisers’ priorities. Increasingly, organisers also want new, different conferences offering something out of the
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ordinary, according to Meet Cambridge. Once again, our area is unlikely to disappoint, not least because of venues’ willingness not just to think outside the box, but to reconfigure it first, so organisers can have it dressed up, down or completely transformed in the way that suits them best. Take the Granta Centre. “The spaces we have can be many things, but what we do well is corporate day meetings and training – it by far makes up the core of
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AL L IA FUTURE BUSINESS CENT RE Allia really is a venue with a difference. Inside, there are three meeting spaces, one of which holds up to 80 people, while the natural light of its stunning atrium space can, quite literally, illuminate any conversation. There’s also an on-site cafe and roof terrace, as well as car parking. Add thoughtful details like state-of-the-art technology for presenters and even charging points for electric vehicles, and it’s easy to see why Allia is so popular. As a not-for-profit organisation, it’s also helping to create positive change. Book an event here, and you’re supporting innovative start-ups that aim to be a force for good in the world. So far, Allia Centres have supported over 1,300 business, helped to create more than 300 jobs and raised in excess of £57m. futurebusinesscentre.co.uk
what we do,” says Andrew Bell, Granta Centre manager. “But we like it this way. When more unconventional solutions are required, it makes them all the more special and exciting.” For those opting for a purpose-built, modern venue that is also a force for positive change: consider Allia Future Business Centre, with its roof terrace, bright, light atrium and three immaculately equipped meeting rooms, one of which can host up to 80 people. Book an event there, and you could also – indirectly – be making the world a better place, as the funds raised are used to support start-ups and social ventures. Historic Madingley Hall also offers something out of the ordinary. As inspiring backdrops go, its stunning architecture and fabulous grounds – most of its bedrooms look out on to its formal gardens – are hard to beat. That sense of tradition
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complements, rather than conflicts with, even the most forward-thinking conferences and events. And what’s the next big thing in conferences? There’s likely to be a whole meeting room full of them. According to research by Eventbrite, one increasingly important aspect is the clever use of social media and online tools to promote meetings and get-togethers. The most commonly used tool is social media, followed by content marketing and then emails. But personal recommendation remains the most effective technique of the lot, according to Eventbrite. Meet Cambridge is predicting that, while large-scale events will still feature in years to come, there will be a growing trend for smaller, more informal gatherings, which work brilliantly in terms of forging connections with other attendees. Increasingly, events will also incorporate
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an element of mindfulness, something that could even see exercise appearing on the conference agenda together with more scheduled downtime, as well as a growing emphasis on healthy catering. Will our area’s venues be ready for the challenge? It’s something that, unlike so many aspects of the economy in these uncertain times, you can absolutely guarantee. Bells and whistles aside, the bottom line when it comes to making an event work, according Andrew Bell at Granta, is down to doing the simple things really well. “It’s amazing when organisers walk in and everything is just as they have asked. Everything happens just as promised,” he says. You can tell things are going well, he says, when you can sense the energy emanating from a meeting. “You just know there is lots of progress being made, normally accompanied by more Post-it notes than there are walls!”
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MADINGLEY HALL For the ultimate in traditional looks and atmosphere, it’s hard to beat the quintessential appeal of Madingley Hall. When meeting room features include stone-mullion leaded windows, 17th-century tapestries or an Italianate plaster ceiling, you know you’re somewhere pretty special. There’s considerable flexibility, too, when it comes to planning events. While the fittings are definitely permanent, the furniture isn’t, ensuring the rooms, which can cater for between three and 100, can be laid out in more or less any
configuration. Add the 62 bedrooms, including 21 double and five twin (freshly decorated and every room now has an iron), and you’ve got a venue that provides a stunning backdrop to enhance the most forward-thinking conferences and events. Four miles from the centre of Cambridge, but within easy reach of good transport links, Madingley Hall’s stunning architecture is matched by grounds that include a two-acre meadow and an 18th-century courtyard. madingleyhall.co.uk/conferences
G R AN TA CE N T R E The Granta Centre prides itself on offering almost limitless possibilities and whatever the size of the meeting, there’s plenty of space for inspirational thinking that creates a sense of energy that’s almost tangible. Lit by natural daylight, the flexible spaces – offering integrated AV and video conferencing – consist of eight rooms that work for anything from intimate meetings for three delegates to large scale conferences for 300 people. In a park setting just seven miles from Cambridge (and a mere 45 minutes from London and within easy reach of the M11, A14 and A11), it’s also ultra-accessible from many UK and international locations. As a result, it’s an understandably popular venue for a wide range of organisations, both local and from further afield. grantacentre.co.uk
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E D I T I O N LO V E S • H O L I DAY GA R D E N I N G • ST Y L I N G T I PS FO R K I D S ’ RO O MS
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ANNA TAYLOR, OWNER OF ANNA’S FLOWER FARM IN AUDLEY END, SHARES WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE GARDEN THIS MONTH ne of those tipping points of the year, August gives us a moment to pause; the still, close days naturally entice one to loll on the grass and simply take it all in. The garden and hedgerow growth hangs still, beginning to dry and turning from verdant green to golden yellow. Traditionally, with school holidays, there is a suspension of activity. Berries are ripening and foragers start to rub their hands with glee, with flowering plants, nuts and seeds abundant. In the flower and vegetable garden, we must pick as often as possible to prolong the fruiting, and then spend the rest of the day lazily enjoying our hard work and efforts up until this point in the year. The first Harvest Festival is Lammas Day on 1 August – a Celtic cross quarter day in between the summer equinox and solstice that used to mark the farming year. This one is for the wheat harvest and first of the berries. Lammas Land in the city is a perfect space for a summer picnic; splash in the free swimming and paddling pools or stroll under the willow trees to Grantchester, originally common land that would have had grazing rights after Lammas Day once the first wheat had been harvested.
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Continue the good work of last month and keep up the essential garden tasks by eating and drinking outside as often as possible, picking off edible flowers and herbs and adding them to salads, drinks and puddings. The air is hot and dusty, if not awash with ozone after a summer shower, and I enjoy every minute I can. Do a little housekeeping before a holiday; give pots outside a big water and cluster in the shade to reduce water evaporation. Indoors, a neat trick is to lay a piece of capillary matting on the draining board with the other half in a sink of water. Move houseplants onto the mat and the pots will wick up moisture as and when they require. Ask a friendly neighbour to pick any fruit or veg to prevent plants running to seed.
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Tie in climbers and stake tall plants, as heavy August downpours flatten growth. At Docwra’s Manor in Shepreth (open every Wednesday and Friday), Faith Raven takes inspiration from her daughter Sarah’s Kentish home and uses mini chestnut gates to hold up tall plants. On our plots we use 1x2in stakes along the length of the beds and criss cross between them with twine, upholding the flowers at several points as they rise. This gives the best stability whilst allowing access to cut tall flowers, like dahlias, easily. Finally, before you go away, cut all the flowers that will be over by the time you return, and make up a bunch for a friend. Not only will they be admired rather than the blooming going unobserved, new stems will replace them to welcome you home.
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places PETITE
WHEN IT COMES TO DECORATING, A CHILD’S ROOM IS THE IDEAL SPACE TO GET YOUR CREATIVE JUICES FLOWING. WHETHER IT’S A ROOM FOR TOTS OR A DEN FOR TEENAGERS, ANGELINA VILLA-CLARKE UNEARTHS THE LATEST HOME BUYS TO SPARK THEIR IMAGINATIONS
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he possibilities are endless when it comes to designing a room for little ones. Neutral schemes enhance a peaceful ambience and allow for that essential good night’s sleep, while bold and bright palettes give a sense of adventure and develop a creative mind. Teenagers need a grown-up haven that won’t feel juvenile, while younger children will want a sense of fun in their room. Experts in children’s decor, Dragons of Walton Street, reveals there has been an increase in demand for a more sophisticated look when it comes to colourways, with muted colours being on-trend. Creative director, Lucinda Croft, says: “We still use shades children find stimulating, like pinks, blues and oranges, but mute them slightly to create a calm room conducive to sleep. Pairing these with warm oatmeal shades or light greys makes a space parents can really enjoy, too, and ensures longevity of the design.” Long gone are the days when blue was for just boys and pink for girls, with children being increasingly sophisticated in their choices, as well as leaning towards typically adult colourways. Consider soft sage, turquoise blue or an all-white palette for walls, enhanced with pops of colour with accessories. Charlotte Cosby, head of creative at Farrow & Ball, gives her expertise: “Neutral shades are an excellent choice for a nursery – as well as creating
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“We still use shades children find stimulating, like pinks, blues and oranges” a calming environment, they make a versatile backdrop for changing interests. A great way to introduce nuances of colour to an otherwise neutral scheme is to use a bold shade on the woodwork. As well as adding a decorative element to a room, it makes the walls feel lighter.” Using wallpaper on a statement wall is an easy way to add personality to a room and can easily be updated as the child grows. From the huge map wall murals from Wall Sauce (ideal for study areas in bedrooms) to the modern, monochrome line-drawing wallpapers from Bobby Rabbit, the latest designs are unisex and appeal to youngsters and older kids, alike. Teenage boys are often short-changed when it comes to choices for room decor, but no doubt many will like the urban appeal of the black-and-white illustrated designs available at Goga Goga.
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Previous page Solid yellow shutters, prices vary, California Shutters Top Map mural, from £27 per m², Wall Sauce Above Black Panther wallpaper, £75 per roll, Bobby Rabbit Right De Nimes, £46.50 per 2.5L, Farrow & Ball Far right, top Story Time Up, Up & Away fabric, £25 per m, Iliv Far right, bottom Flamingo wallpaper, £99 per roll, Goga Goga
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THE FABRIC OF OUR LIVES DEBBIE LEIGH, DESIGN MANAGER AT TEXTILE COMPANY ILIV, GIVES HER TOP TIPS Start with a blank canvas – it can be adapted as kids grow up and also encourages creativity. Add colour with bunting, wall art and coordinating pillows. Add blackout lining to curtains. It will keep the early sunrises out, the warm temperatures in and prevent the carpets and furniture from bleaching. Design a cosy reading corner by draping fabric to create a mini den, or stitch triangles together to build a more adventurous tepee and add bean bags and pillows.
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ROOMS TO INSPIRE DRAGONS OF WALTON STREET REVEALS ITS TOP TIPS FOR BABY ROOMS
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Whether it is a colourful picture or a mural on the wall, invest in something bright and interesting for babies to look at while they are in their cots to encourage their imagination.
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A good cot mattress is essential, because they will use it for around three and a half years.
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A nursing chair. This precious time together transitions from breastfeeding into storytelling, so it’s a practical investment.
Top left Regency furniture, prices vary, Dragons of Walton Street X Juliet Travers Top right Studio Ditte Airplanes duvet set, from £47.95, Lime Lace Right Tier-on-tier yellow shutters, prices vary, Shutterly Fabulous Far right Solid white shutters, prices vary, California Shutters Above Mountains Sunrise wallpaper, £72 per roll, MissPrint
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MissPrint’s wallpapers, available at John Lewis, have designs that are handillustrated by co-founder Rebecca Drury. She says: “When selecting wallpaper for a child’s bedroom, it’s important to consider the longevity of the design you’re choosing. You want to inject some colour, pattern and playful character into the room, but also don’t want something that will date instantly. Don’t forget, you can also use wallpaper for hidden extras: behind books on bookshelves, on a piece of furniture or even as drawer liners – these are all great ways of adding a little extra colour and pattern to a room.” Bright bed coverings, such as the graphic printed duvet covers from Lime Lace and folk-inspired bedspreads from Made.com, can inject a sense of fun,
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while window coverings, such as primarycoloured window shutters, uplift a room. Chrissie Harper, operations manager at California Shutters, agrees that vibrant hues are ideal to create a focal point: “Painted shutters make a great alternative to a feature wall, and bold hues, such as yellow, blue, orange and pink, are ideal for making a real impact.” Meanwhile, Mark Carter, director at Shutterly Fabulous, says: “Incorporating vibrant shades into a child’s bedroom will add character and interest to the room without dominating the overall scheme. While adding to the aesthetic of the space, shutters also have practical benefits such as privacy, safety and light control.” Storage is all-important in rooms for youngsters, so invest in a variety of
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“When styling kid’s rooms, let your imagination run wild!” chests, baskets and tubs to keep the clutter at bay. Box shelving, in which you can hide toys and games in neat baskets, works well for all ages, while a large, practical desk will always be utilised. When it comes to beds and furniture, choose styles that won’t fall out of favour. The French Bedroom Company has a range of Provençal-style beds and armoires that are perfect for girls’ rooms, while the Scandi-cool feel of the Linus bunk bed and the grown-up look of the Ritchi mini armchair, both from Made.com, give a contemporary, grown-up twist on furniture for youngsters. A good mattress is also a wise investment, ensuring a good night’s sleep for all. A spokesperson for Button & Sprung suggests the Drysdale mattress, which is completely natural and contains no synthetic materials. Made with wool, it has anti-microbial, anti-bacterial and anti-fungal qualities, which means it works well for any child with asthma or allergy sufferers. “The wool in the Drysdale provides the softness children need at early childhood,” explains the representative. “As they reach adolescence,
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the generous amount of springs helps support their body as it changes.” Finally, says Morgan Meredith from Aria, when it comes to adding a feeling of enchantment, it’s all about the little details. From unicorn wall art to elephant lamps, you can add a touch of magic to any room with a few choice accessories. “When it comes to styling kid’s rooms, let your imagination run wild!” she says. “We love bold, bright designs and unique accessories that will keep them entertained for hours on end.”
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Far left, top Pearl Grey Ritchie armchair, £349, Made.com Far left, bottom Unicorn trophy head, £42, Aria Main image Provençal Louis XV White bed, from £795, The French Bedroom Company Above Burdock divan bed, from £495, Button & Sprung
STOCK I STS Aria 020 7704 6222 ariashop.co.uk Bobby Rabbit 01143 217 000 bobbyrabbit.co.uk Button & Sprung 03333 201 801 buttonandsprung.com California Shutters 0800 1950 196 californiashutters.co.uk Dragons of Walton Street 020 3544 2000 dragonsofwaltonstreet.com Farrow & Ball Cambridge 01223 367771 farrow-ball.com Goga Goga goga-goga.com Iliv 01772 651199 i-liv.co.uk John Lewis Cambridge 01223 361292 johnlewis.com Lime Lace 03300 584 158 limelace.co.uk Made.com 03442 571 888 made.com MissPrint 01277 350 581 missprint.co.uk Shutterly Fabulous 0800 970 0800 shutterlyfabulous.com The French Bedroom Company 01444 415 430 frenchbedroomcompany.co.uk Wall Sauce 01772 284 110 wallsauce.com
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INTERIORS FOLK BEDSPREAD £39, made.com
PINEAPPLE WALLPAPER £99 a roll, goga-goga.com
E DI T ION RAINBOW TOY BOX £21.95, hurnandhurn.com
ELEPHANT LAMP £220, ariashop.co.uk VELVET CAT CUSHION £25, bobbyrabbit.co.uk
POLAR BEAR SIDE TABLE £135, frenchbedroomcompany.co.uk
FERM LIVING APPLE STORAGE BASKET £75, cloudberryliving.co.uk
CHARLIE CRANE KUMI CRIB £329, cuckooland.com
RAINBOW RUG £40, beaumonde.co.uk
LION WALL DECOR £59, beaumonde.co.uk
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