‘Iconic’ Cambridge park where you can watch cows grazing minutes from city centre

The green has a fascinating history

A city park, described as “iconic” by previous visitors, offers a scenic area where you can look out for cows grazing. Laundress Green in Cambridge offers a beautiful green area to indulge in picnics, sunbathing, or a walk.

The city can be quite overwhelming at times, with all the hustle and bustle – particularly in the busy tourist season. Laundress Green offers a place to escape just a few minutes from the heart of the city.

Although today it is a beauty spot, it has a history of hard work – and the name ‘Laundress Green’ hints at its past. Local washerwomen would frequent the area to use the city council washing lines for the laundry staff at the Cambridge colleges.

According to Capturing Cambridge, on Mondays and Tuesdays the ground was free from grazing animals, so that women from Granta Place and Mill Lane could safely hang out their laundry there to dry. For this privilege, they likely had to pay a shilling a year and put up their own posts.

In those days, people used this part of the River Cam when the best source of water for washing was the river, long before the era of a much simpler method – a washing machine. Eventually, clean water was made available in homes throughout the city and this function at the river became no longer necessary.

Situated next to Lammas Land and near The Granta and The Anchor pubs, the green has become a popular place to visit throughout the year, but especially in the summer. A previous visitor to the park described it as “one of the most iconic” river places where “you can find cows grazing in the morning” from spring to autumn.

Another wrote on Google: “The banks of the river Cam and the grounds surrounding are a beautiful park to go for a walk, picnic or have some drinks on the pubs around the area. The pound mill is a very beautiful spot with swans and other birds and trees.”