Guide To: Cambridge After Hours

It’s an all too familiar scene… (but a completely new and exciting article)

There’s no one else in the library. Your drawn face peers through the window surveying the quad…The post-grad’s party over the lawn looks terrifying, especially as their ‘decadence’ theme has opened up a time-warp of Wildean men drinking absinthe in smoking jackets and women flouncing around in cocktail dresses as jazz oozes out of the windows. It smacks of sophistication; you’re wearing comfortable clothes and your best conversation currently consists of summarising the main arguments for and against the idea of [insert essay title]. You are most definitely not welcome.

So, the essay is done, or at least you are done with said essay, but the caffeine induced insomnia will not let your ruined mind fall into unconsciousness… What to do? – Hit a club I hear you say? Slow dance to Celine Dion with some greasy guy/ girl in Cindies? Perhaps that is not what your poor intellectually exhausted self needs. No, you tired soul. You require some other form of late night activity. A late night activity that does not involve franticly preparing for a deadline or drinking until you cannot see anymore. I hear you gasp in wonderment at the thought that these sorts of activities could possibly exist in Cambridge. Well, after extensive research, this is what Cambridge holds for you, after hours:

In case of Late-Night Munchies:

The Domino’s Pizza on 27 Hills Road is open 24 hours, 7 days a week. Sometimes all it takes is an overload of sugar, salt and carbs to send your body into shutdown mode as it tries to digest a yummy pizza and a tub of Ben & Jerry’s Baked Alaska.  Alternatively, if you’re up for a little (slightly dangerous) walk, the Esso Service Station down Histon Road (good option for Hill Colleges) is open 24/7 and sells sweets, tobacco and everything you’d expect to be sold at a service station. Another 24 hour establishment is the Cambridge Train Station (useful for Homertonians). It describes itself as boasting a “nice selection of waiting rooms and restaurants”, and it’s true that the first train to London normally leaves around 5:30am so if everything really has become unbearable you could always escape to the Big Smoke and rant about the spiritual woes of academia on a soapbox in Hyde Park.

24 hour decadence (and petrol)

In case of Late Night Loneliness:

If you haven’t got the kind of friends that you can phone up late at night and force to come and see you because you’re ‘lonely’, and if Linkline’s not an option because you need to see a friendly human face to curb that lonely ache, worry not my friend, because there is another option. I am, of course, referring to the all-singing, all-dancing, omniscient, omnipotent Porters. It doesn’t matter what is coursing through your veins at the time (caffeine/ alcohol…etc.), Porters are more than happy to have a little natter when they’re on their night shifts – because those nights can be long! Be interested and ask them about their lives – they’re interesting people. Not to mention that once one of them has got your back you’re sorted for the rest of college life.

In case of Late Night Rebelliousness:

Perhaps you are feeling that the balance must be restored? It does not feel right to be awake at this time of night and you blame the confinements of this pressurised bubble. It’s time to break out of these chains and rebel.

There is no other option left to you: take a deep breath, close your eyes and take one step forward…on to the grass!!! Two fingers up to you authority!

Take a walk on the wild side

To increase the level of rebellion you could also make use of Frank’s 24 hours Late Night Alcohol Delivery Service (http://www.franks24.co.uk/).  He delivers to most central areas of Cambridge at any time of the night and offers a selection of wines, lagers, ciders, tobacco, products, sprits and mixers. He also sells champagne. What could be better than strolling nonchalantly across the grass with a glass of champagne in one hand and a cigarette in the other?

For an afterhours activity in Cambridge, it tops the table. 

Featured image courtesy of Tom Porteous.