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Picture Source: Ann Wells

The Little Rose was situated at 37 Trumpington Street. Established before 1830 it is now used as a Loch Fyne restaurant. The publican in 1916 was Ada Buckworth.

Back in the 1960s Frank was the owner and it was a Green King Pub, my mother was called Paula (came from Germany) and was his girlfriend, I was about 8 or 9 and we lived here. It was a old pub then but it was so very nice. As a kid I remember when the Queen Mum visited Fitzwilliam Museum and I watched her from the bathroom window on the first floor. Lots of students came in on lunch time because there was a cold buffet, relatively cheap but very good. It was also B & B so that when we had nice customers Frank had special hours!!!!

Veronica Reincke (February 2014)

My Grandfather, Harry Bond, was the landlord of The Little Rose, 37 Trumpington Street, Cambridge. I am going back to between 1943 and 1960. Grandfather was a feisty landlord, and would tolerate no nonsense from the students. If there was trouble, he would squirt them with the soda syphon. My mother embroidered a tapestry of signatures .

Susan Gaisford (February 2019)

I lived in Cambridge in the mid/late 1970’s (aged about 25). The Little Rose was one of the places to be, and was very popular. The bars were choc a bloc with queues 10 deep to get to the bar. Social distancing then was about 5mm !!!

Jeremy Hopkins (April 2021)

From: An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the County of Cambridgeshire, 1968

The Little Rose Inn, nearly opposite the Fellow's Garden of Peterhouse, is of 2 storeys with attics and has walls of plastered timber framing and brick and tile covered roofs. The long rectangular range bordering the street was built in the 16th century; the structure includes a gabled N. bay now in separate occupation and a gabled S. bay containing an open carriage-way. In the following century the N.E. wing was built and in modern times the free length of the original range has been nearly doubled in width by a low addition on the W. Towards the street the ground floor has been faced with brick and contains 19th century doorway and windows towards the middle and a modern shop front under the N. gable. The first floor is plastered and contains 18th century windows. On the roof are two hipped dormer windows and rising at the ridge is a great central chimney stack with weathered offset. To the W. are three gables, two behind those on the E. and one near the middle to give headroom over the staircase against the E. side of the chimney stack. The rest of the wall is masked and the wing is without features of note. Inside there are a number of ceiling and structural timbers that are exposed. Some reset fragments of panelling c1600 remain.

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Name Dates Comments Nanette Schell 1962/1963 I worked at The Little Rose in 1962/63 Frank was my boss I worked in the kitchen preparing meals. Frank was very kind and allowed me to have afternoons off. My room was on the top floor, and very tiny. In 1963 as a young 23yr old girl I Immigrated to America by myself. I remember Frank had a black and white cat called Endless as he had a short tail. I still have pictures holding the cat and of my last days in Cambridge. Alcuin Edwards 1978/1982 I am sad that the Little Rose has closed down. I was a regular customer in the Little Rose for most of 1979 and much of 1980 and an occasional visitor from 1978 to 1982. It was a lovely pub and I used to visit several times a week, walking there from the YMCA, drinking whatever real ales were available, and then walking back to the YMCA, pausing only to get Egg Fouyong at the Mayflower on the way. I was 18 when I first went and 22 when I left.

Other Photos

Picture Source: Stephen Harris