Unfortunately Cambridge licensing magistrates and planners are behind the times on this and have been happy to grant permission for developments.

The developments we mean are listed below. They are all large bars in various trendy town-centre styles, all of which aim to make most of their money from young customers on Friday & Saturday nights.

As described in our key article, these are fine individually. It is the ensemble which is so threatening, especially when there's a lack of other types of nighttime venues in the area. These would broaden the appeal of the city centre to other age groups and interests, diluting the effect of so many youth bars.

Back in 1999 many of the big bar and pub chains announced plans to switch from their trendy themes to "community" ones - they've realised that's what works in the long term. The pace of development has indeed slowed down.

However as of 2001 there's no sign of any progress and indeed the public order problems have attracted a lot of media and government attention.

The young persons' venues and similar branded outlets

St Andrews Street area

Regent Street

Hogshead (Laurel Pub Co., formerly Whitbread)

(Prince Regent & Fountain already there)

Cambridge Pub Co. - converting former Pierre Victoire restaurant in Autumn 2001

The Yates Group were apparently interested in a site for a while

St Andrew's Street

The Regal (J.D. Wetherspoon)

All Bar One (Six Continents, formerly Bass)

Castle (Greene King redeveloped it in 2000 to fit the style)

(Dôme restaurant - Laurel)

Downing Street

2nd Rat & Parrot (Scottish & Newcastle)

(Quinns already there)

Market Square to King Street

Market Hill

(Starbucks opened in July 1999)

(Borders, with the 5th Starbucks, opened in June 2001)

Market Passage

Planned: the old Arts Cinema is to become a large McMullens Brewery continental-style bar. (See Pub News - Cambridge, Spring 2001.)

King Street

Cambridge Rattle & Hum (Greene King, converted from Cambridge Arms)

(King Street Run already there, as well as St Radegund, Champion of the Thames and Bun Shop)

Quayside, Bridge Street and Trinity Street area

Quayside (see pictures)

Henry's (Greenalls, now owned by S&N)

Quay Bar (Six Continents, formerly Bass)

(Starbucks opened in August 1999)

Thompson's Lane

Rat & Parrot (Scottish & Newcastle, converted from Spade & Becket). They seem likely to sell off or rebrand this due to its poor location (in terms of drinking circuits and expected sales). It was intended as a competitor to Henry's (see the 1997 review) but now they own both. Possible rebrands include their new "Bar 38" youth theme or the even newer "Football Crazy" or "Baroque" mediterranean cafe bar (young professionals & students) themes.

Bridge Street

Mitre (Six Continents, formerly Bass) - as part of the Allied Domecq pubs sale to Punch Taverns, Bass got the pick of the pubs. As predicted here, they bought this Festival Ale House (they bought all of them) but thankfully the they chose to convert the off-Circuit Fresher & Firkin (Chesterton Road) to a tacky "It's A Scream" student theme bar.

(Seattle Coffee Co., a subsidiary of Starbucks, inside Waterstones, as of 1999 - the franchise changed in 2000)

Trinity Street

Blue Boar (Yates Group)

Green Street

Slug & Lettuce (SFI Group; briefly a Parisa cafe-bar)

For the future

• Other large bar chains are likely to join in, as Cambridge is ten years behind in these developments (but catching up rapidly).
• The Grand Arcade scheme (between Lion Yard, St Andrew's Street and Downing Street) is due to be built between 2004-2007 and is planned to have cafe/bars.

Pictures

Articles & News

Dates

The sequence of events so far.

Circuits elsewhere

A collection of news items on drinking circuits elsewhere, to put the development of the Cambridge one in context.

ALE 283, More Pubs for the City?, Easter 1996

Back in the beginning

ALE 292, On The Circuit, Nov. 1998

What it's all about - why it's bad news for consumers.

ALE 293, Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush, Feb. 1999

A general review of the big pub chain business and examples of cities which are trying to get to grips with the problems.

ALE 294, Pubco News, May 1999

With statistics on the high cost of trendy theming for bars.

And finally... The Regal opens, September 1999

And, as feared, it's enormous, so it will establish a major drinking circuit in the area, with all the bad effects which follow.

Problems at The Regal & progress with the R&P II, October 1999

R&P II waffle, November 1999