To live in … as opposed to Oxford, say?

It’s nice. Used to live just outside it. Very very very flat.

Lots of bars, restaurants, decent museums.

far superior to Oxford.

Flat

So incredibly flat…

Used to live in Cambridge.

I liked it, but East Anglia is pretty flat and boring.
Good job opportunities
Expensive to live (& buy property)
Lots of tourists & students
Lots of kamikaze cyclists
Decent bars & restaurants
Traffic is rubbish
Good atmosphere in the summer and lots of places to wander around/chill out.

Was nice to have lived there, but wouldn’t rush back.

It’s a much smaller place than Oxford and therefore the University dominates it to a much greater extent. If you took away the University and all the associated stuff then it would be a town rather a city, whereas Oxford would still be a big place in its own right.

It’s a very nice place though, lots going on and has a nice buzz to it. You’d really notice the difference between term times and holidays, and it does get loads of tourists relative to its size, especially in summer. This probably all applies less to the suburbs than it does to the city centre, mind.

And yes, it is very flat, and the easterly wind in the winter is a killer.

Cambridge is nice. Head south a bit and you get out of the flatness into the more rolling countryside of Herts and Essex.

Is The Midland pub with the reggae club out the back still going? That brings back some hazy but good memories.

Troll.

Nice place to live, unique in the UK prob – although v expensive, a rail suburb of the City. University is omnipresent, with an oscillating population of whoppers cluttering up the place with their tragic bicycles.
A polarising place I would say – strong character to the place that you’ll either love or hate.

Thought the pub with the reggae club was the Devonshire

Cambridge itself is a great place to live as are some of the nearby villages like Grantchester, Barrington, Maddingly etc. Loads of culture, loads of pubs, safe streets and beautiful buildings. but that’s it – the surrounding area is probably the dullest in the UK and if you are into cycling and walking forget it – hardly any bridleways or footpaths, horrible clay soil which stays wet for ever and NO hills

Buy a road bike and get used to headwinds

I moved from Cambridge to a nowhere town in East Sussex and I really miss the ‘intelligence’ of Cambridge but being close to the sea and the South Downs more than makes up for that

It depends where you live now too – I used to live in Watford, which is a dump (no apologies to those living there now, it is). It was rapidly becoming a suburb of London and I really don’t miss it.

I now live in near enough real contryside (very different to growing up on St Albans road) – although there is a massive new town being built on a lot of the surrounding farmland (Northstowe). So I think one day I’ll look to move further out into the country.

Expect your MTB to get a good long rest round here, as others have said, it’s roadie land and even that is pretty flat and open largely.

Pros:
Pubs, food and shopping* are great. There’s always stuff going on, people are generally nice. Villages can be very quiet compared to city living and can be much cheaper. Crime here is low aside from bike theft of even the crappiest BSO’s.

Cons:
Very expensive to live in the city, a friend recently sold their house they paid sub £300k for less than 10 years ago for nearly £500k. It’s getting increasingly busy these days as the city is still growing at a great rate. No landscape and no local coastline. No MTB, very little in the way of good walking countryside.

I love parts of it and I’m not fussed about others, but I’ve been here for around 10 years and I show no signs of moving anytime soon.

Yeah, forget about buying in town unless you have a bag of money <——THIS BIG—–>. Lot’s of lovely little villages around though and the houses tend to be a bit nicer.

It’s got a lot of tech-related industry too, so if you are into that sort of thing (research, computers, biotech, etc) you’re in luck, assuming you are good enough to get a job. It’s got a lot of nice places to eat as well, quite a few hipster-style places that I’m beginning to think I am too old for as well as a couple of very nice restaurants (Midsummer House and Alimentum).

I like it, but get very frustrated by the bloody student cyclists. They are everywhere, use no lights and wear dark clothing. They also seem to think that because the Uni owns the city, they own the roads and can go anywhere when they want to. Idiots.

Anyway, in short, it’s nice but flat.

Shit for biking

Cambridge itself is a great place to live as are some of the nearby villages like Grantchester, Barrington, Maddingly etc. Loads of culture, loads of pubs, safe streets and beautiful buildings. but that’s it – the surrounding area is probably the dullest in the UK and if you are into cycling and walking forget it

I see a lot of good job in Cambrdge but this is just the killer for me. I hardly live in the most exciting of areas outdoors wise (Nr Bournemouth) but having nothing outdoors for such a large area around me just turns me right off otherwise I’d move there like a flash.

Thought the pub with the reggae club was the Devonshire

It was 10 years ago, but it’s since changed hands and now owned by a local brewery: https://www.individualpubs.co.uk/devonshire/

I live about 800yards from it….

As for biking, large road biking community with lots of good clubs and active race scene.

Ha! very good memories of that place, and the Live & Let Live

I guess students have been priced out of Mill Rd now and hence the poncyfication of the local pubs! Used to be the cheap and seedy end of town

Its nice enough but expensive, it is dominated by the uni.
Most importantly its flat, crap for MTB and a pita to get to real mountains from there,

I guess students have been priced out of Mill Rd now and hence the poncyfication of the local pubs! Used to be the cheap and seedy end of town

Well the average terraced house there now goes for £500k, but there are plenty of houses still let to students e.g. next door to us there are 6 students crammed into a 3 bedroom small terraced house….

I was a student in Cambridge and enjoyed he town. Used to enjoy the climbing wall an modified bridges for climbing. I enjoyed my only spell of group road riding. Good pubs an bands et. Not too far to the Peak district. If I lived there now I’d take up sailing again ideally on the Norfolk Broads which are ace

But really no off road riding that I could find. Not just because its flat Bridlways seemed to be boggey field edges

Oxford is no MTB paradise but at least its an option. Much better access to places with MTBing than Cambridge (Cotswolds, South Wales, Ridgeway) etc. I think I prefer Oxford as a town but maybe its because I’ve not lived there

I live 15 miles north of Cambridge in an raven flatter place. Cambridge is nice in a nice to visit kind of way but the house prices, students, and tourists are a pain. Cycling wise road riding isn’t that bad as long as you head south or east. North is flat, featureless, industrial farmland and is always windy. The is some nice gentle rolling countryside not to far away too even if the city it self is pan flat. For mtb Thetford is 30mins drive away, Woburn 45, 2.5 hours to peak district.
But yeah the countryside is not up to the standard of the West country where I was before.