Sidgwick Avenue is a road located in western Cambridge, England. [1] The avenue runs east-west and links Grange Road to the west with Queen's Road to the east. The line of the road continues northeast into central Cambridge as Silver Street. Sidgwick Avenue is flanked by Newnham College, Ridley Hall, Selwyn College, and the Sidgwick Site of the University of Cambridge.
The majority of the southern side of the avenue is occupied by Newnham College with Ridley Hall, a theological college affiliated with the University, to the east.
The Sidgwick Site, which is home to university faculties including Law, History, Economics and Politics, occupies much of the northern side of the road. Lady Mitchell Hall, the Museum of Classical Archaeology, and the Marshall Library of Economics are also located in the Sidgwick Site. [2] To the west is the main part of Selwyn College and east of the Sidgwick site is the Harvey Court site of Gonville and Caius College.
The avenue is quite narrow and recent proposals have considered turning it into a pedestrian thoroughfare with carve outs for cycle lanes. [3]
The origins of the Sidgwick Avenue are somewhat unclear, however remains from the Roman period have been found near the area near Selwyn and Newnham Colleges, suggesting some early human settlement and use of the area. [4]
The avenue was used under different names in the medieval and Tudor periods, with only sections of it near the City of Cambridge being paved with cobblestones. In the 19th century, the avenue became increasingly important and it was fully paved with cobbles and paving stones, some of which can be seen today. With the growth of Cambridge colleges during the 19th century, including Selwyn and Newnham, the avenue became more busy. Today, Sidgwick Avenue has become quite developed and serves as a link between the City of Cambridge and several colleges. [5]
According to the University of Cambridge, Sidgwick Avenue is named after Henry and Eleanor Sidgwick. The early progress of women's rights at Cambridge University owes much to Henry Sidgwick, a Philosophy fellow of Trinity College who championed the cause throughout his life. In 1871, with Anne Clough, the first Principal of Newnham College, and Eleanor Balfour (Sidgwick's future wife), Sidgwick oversaw the purchase of a house for five female students who wished to attend lectures but did not live near enough to the University to do so. The avenue was envisioned as home for several colleges of the university and as a cross-town route to connect the area. In 1875, the first building was built on Sidgwick Avenue site of Newnham College, now called Old Hall. In 1882, the Old Court of Selwyn College was built on the other side of Sidgwick Avenue. [6] [7]
The University of Cambridge is composed of 31 colleges in addition to the academic departments and administration of the central University. Until the mid-19th century, both Cambridge and Oxford comprised a group of colleges with a small central university administration, rather than universities in the common sense. Cambridge's colleges are communities of students, academics and staff – an environment in which generations and academic disciplines are able to mix, with both students and fellows experiencing "the breadth and excellence of a top University at an intimate level".
Selwyn College, Cambridge is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1882 by the Selwyn Memorial Committee in memory of George Augustus Selwyn (1809–1878), the first Bishop of New Zealand (1841–1868), and subsequently Bishop of Lichfield (1868–1878). It consists of three main courts built of stone and brick along with several secondary buildings, including adjacent townhouses and lodges serving as student hostels on Grange Road, West Road and Sidgwick Avenue. The college has some 60 Fellows and 110 non-academic staff.
Henry Sidgwick was an English utilitarian philosopher and economist. He was the Knightbridge Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Cambridge from 1883 until his death, and is best known in philosophy for his utilitarian treatise The Methods of Ethics. He was one of the founders and first president of the Society for Psychical Research and a member of the Metaphysical Society and promoted the higher education of women. His work in economics has also had a lasting influence. In 1875 he co-founded Newnham College, a women-only constituent college of the University of Cambridge. It was the second Cambridge college to admit women, after Girton College. Newnham College's co-founder was Millicent Garrett Fawcett. In 1856 Sidgwick joined the Cambridge Apostles intellectual secret society.
Robinson College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1977, Robinson is one of the newest Oxbridge colleges and is unique in having been intended, from its inception, for both undergraduate and graduate students of both sexes.
Newnham College is a women's constituent college of the University of Cambridge.
Ridley Hall is a theological college located on the corner of Sidgwick Avenue and Ridley Hall Road in Cambridge, which trains men and women intending to take Holy Orders as deacon or priest of the Church of England, and members of the laity working with children and young people as lay pioneers and within a pastoral capacity such as lay chaplaincy.
The Sidgwick Site is one of the largest sites within the University of Cambridge, England.
Newnham is a suburb of the city of Cambridge in England. Historically, the name refers to a hamlet centred on a mill on the River Cam, a short distance to the southwest of the city centre. The modern council ward of Newnham covers much of the west of the city. Several Cambridge University colleges are situated in this ward, including Newnham, Wolfson, Robinson, Selwyn and Darwin. In modern times Newnham has become one of the most affluent areas of Cambridge and sometimes features in national quality of life surveys.
Mary Marshall was an economist and one of the first women to take the Tripos examination at Cambridge University in 1874, although as a woman, she was excluded from receiving a degree. She was one of a group of five women who were the first to be admitted to study at Newnham College, which was the second women's college to be founded at Cambridge University.
The Backs is a picturesque area to the east of Queen's Road in the city of Cambridge, England, where several colleges of the University of Cambridge back on to the River Cam, their grounds covering both banks of the river.
William Graham Holford, Baron Holford was a British architect and town planner.
Eleanor Mildred Sidgwick, known as Nora to her family and friends, was a physics researcher assisting Lord Rayleigh, an activist for the higher education of women, Principal of Newnham College of the University of Cambridge, and a leading figure in the Society for Psychical Research.
Grange Road is a street in Cambridge, England. It stretches north–south, meeting Madingley Road (A1303) at a T-junction to the north and Barton Road (A603) to the south. It runs approximately parallel with the River Cam to the east. Grange Road is almost one mile long and its earliest origins date from the seventeenth century. It is home to several colleges belonging to the University of Cambridge and is closely associated with student life.
West Road is located in western Cambridge, England. It links Grange Road to the west with Queen's Road to the east. The road is north of Sidgwick Avenue and the Sidgwick Site, a major site of the University of Cambridge, currently under redevelopment. Facilities on West Road include the Cambridge University Faculty of Law, the Faculty of Music, the Faculty of English and the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, and the West Road Concert Hall.
Silver Street is located in the southwest of central Cambridge, England. It links Queen's Road to the west with Trumpington Street to the east. The road continues west out of central Cambridge as Sidgwick Avenue.
Queen's Road is a major road to the west of central Cambridge, England. It links with Madingley Road and Northampton Street to the north with Sidgwick Avenue, Newnham Road and Silver Street to the south.
Regent Street is an arterial street in southeast central Cambridge, England. It runs between St Andrew's Street, at the junction with Park Terrace, to the northwest and Hills Road at the junction with the A603 to the southeast. Regent Terrace runs in parallel immediately to the northeast. Beyond that is Parker's Piece, a large grassed area with footpaths.
The Casimir Lewy Library is the library of the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge. The library is located in the Raised Faculty building on the Sidgwick Site, Sidgwick Avenue, Cambridge. It is open to all members of the university.
Edith Sharpley (1859–1940) was a Classical Lecturer at Newnham College, Cambridge from 1884 to 1910.