Parker’s Piece is a 25-acre square of flat parkland, located to the south-east of the university campus. Local residents consider the park to mark the boundary between the campus and the city outside – so much so that the park’s central lamppost has been sarcastically nicknamed ‘Reality Checkpoint’, as it marks the point where students leave the bubble of university life and enter reality again.

The park was once the property of Trinity College, but was sold in 1613 to the city council, in exchange for land closer to the college site. A college cook, Edward Parker, retained the right to farm on the land – hence the name Parker’s Piece. The park’s heyday was in the 19th century, when it was used for first class cricket matches, Varsity sports games between Oxford and Cambridge Universities, and a coronation feast for Queen Victoria attended by 15,000 people.

Nowadays, the park is used more casually by students and local residents for picnics and games of football. Football has particular significance on this plot of parkland, as this was where the Cambridge Rules of football were first drawn up. The creation of these rules, which encouraged skill and passing and outlawed handball, are seen by many as the birth of association football, or soccer – England’s most watched and played sport.

Our Lady and the English Martyrs Church, known as OLEM Church for short, is situated on the corner of Lensfield and Hills Road in the southern part of the city centre. The church spire is a major city landmark, towering over the popular Parker’s Piece area of parkland, and visible for miles around the city centre. An ornate, imposing building designed in the Gothic Revival style, OLEM Church is a relatively new addition to the canon of great architecture in Cambridge. It was completed just over a century ago, in 1890, and is largest Catholic church in Cambridge, and one of the largest in the entire UK.

Cambridge is credited as the cradle of the English Reformation, and is dominated by Anglican churches. Catholic ministers struggled to raise funds for a new church in the late 19th century, until being gifted £70,000 by an unlikely source - Yolande Lynn-Stephens, a French former ballerina and local philanthropist. The church was designed by architects Dunn and Hansom, but building works were dogged by controversy, as the University and local Anglican churches protested the creation of such a large Catholic place of worship.

The ill feeling was made worse by the church’s choice of name – a reference to forty English Catholics that were executed at the time of the English Reformation and subsequent purge of Catholicism. Despite this controversy, the church was successful upon opening, and is still active, holding mass each morning and services throughout the day.

The Globe Ale House is a simple and old pub on Hills Road that attracts customers due to its quiet and relaxed atmosphere. The basic wooden tables and chairs, as well as the bookshelves that decorate the pub make it one of the most sought after in the entire country.

The Cambridge International Book Centre is a store dedicated to international customers. The book store features excellent service, as well as a wide range of books and other materials for all reading levels. The Cambridge International book Centre is especially cherished by students from the local university.

The Cambridge Coffee Company is a delightful coffee house near central Cambridge that welcomes people who pass by. The Cambridge Coffee Company is a really exciting bar that serves special fair-trade coffee and organic milk, as well as delicious cakes, sandwiches, and salads.

The Cambridge War Memorial on Hills Road was built in 1922 by the architect Robert Tait McKenzie. The memorial represents a brave soldier returning home from war. A lot of people from Cambridgeshire gave their lives in the cause of freedom, most of them in the World War I or II, and consequently this memoriam was built to honor their sacrifice.