Where is it?
Exactly where you want to be for a mini-break in Cambridge – slap-bang in the middle of town, overlooking the River Cam, and with wonderful views of both dreaming spires and dreamy green spaces.
Magdalene College is directly opposite, the city’s oldest pub The Pickerel is a couple of minutes’ stroll up the street and quirky contemporary and modern art gallery, Kettle’s Yard (once the art-filled home of a retired Tate curator) is a few minutes further on. A new exhibition by Ai Weiwei has just launched there and runs until July 2022.
Style
Whoever interior-designed The Varsity really likes statement wallpaper. Both bedrooms and corridors are a riot of colour, print and pattern, courtesy of Colefax & Fowler and Osborne & Little. The one in our room was a lairy purple and topped with white sketches of string instruments. Sensibly they’ve kept things simple on the floors, with stylish oak parquet flooring throughout.
The seven-storey, 44 bedroom, modern building sits unobtrusively in a narrow residential lane just off the main thoroughfare Bridge Street. It’s not that exciting at street level – the lobby is small - but whizz up in the lift to the upper floors and the hotel’s wow factor becomes apparent. This place is all about the views. The airy, bustling sixth floor brasserie and the sprawling rooftop bar one floor above have panoramic vistas of Cambridge.
Our room, just below the action on the fifth floor, had floor to ceiling windows in both the bedroom and the bathroom. (Don’t be like us though and keep forgetting to close the blind when you use the loo – sorry you had to see that, neighbours of The Varsity).
The hotel’s other USP is its service. Every single staffer we interacted with was impeccably helpful and extremely knowledgeable about the hotel and the city. Special shout-out to veteran concierge Alan who went beyond the call of duty to help my friend fill up her car, when it was running on fumes.
Food & drink
That rooftop bar is a showstopper – time your visit for more clement months to make full use of it. Meanwhile brasserie Six has one of those gluttonously epic New York-style menus with everything from pizza to burgers to steaks to all manner of mains from the wood stone oven to ice cream sundaes to an indecently lengthy list of dessert cocktails. We’d recommend the tempura vegetables with ginger soy sauce, followed by grilled king prawns and chorizo skewers with cous-cous, topped off with a Nutella martini.
Breakfast is also served in Six. We were intrigued by the DIY pancake-making machine and boiled egg station (don’t forget to grab a timer) amid the standard buffet fare, but when in a nice hotel, let the chefs do the work, no? Our made-to-order hefty full Englishes were pitch perfect. Note to committed carnivores: there’s also a specialist steak restaurant on site - The River Bar Steakhouse & Grill.
Extracurricular
Just next door in a glorious 19th century listed building is The Glassworks health club and spa, to which guests get full access alongside local members. It’s certainly no bolted-on afterthought to make the hotel more marketable. The Conran design retains the exposed red brick and wooden beams, the gym is vast and well-equipped, there’s a clutch of serene treatment rooms (we had an Elemis massage and facial combo treatment), a sauna and a steam room. The best bit is the jacuzzi overlooking the Cam’s towpath, where you can kick back and watch punters glide by. Luckily the huge window is one-way glass.
Which room?
Our Fellows Super King Room, room 511, costs from £204 per night, which is good value – you get those jaw-dropping views, a modern four-poster bed and a vast bathroom. (The shower alone is big enough for six people. Not that we’re suggesting you try that.) At the top end, the Senior Fellows Suite is from £495, while a standard double is from £127. Those tend to be on the lower floors but it’s worth requesting one as high up as possible for optimal light and vistas.
Best for…
Couples on a romantic break, groups of pals catching up (there were lots of pairs of female friends, like us, in the spa), visiting parents of students.
How to get there
Trains are less than an hour from Kings Cross, then it’s a 5-10 minute taxi ride. There’s no hotel car park (Cambridge is tricky to drive around) but they can stash your car off site. The valet parking is £25 per night and extremely efficient – I’ve got an electric car and the charging infrastructure is patchy and problematic wherever I go, but here it was returned to me without fuss and on maximum charge.
