Whether falling leaves tempt you outdoors or lure you in, our concierge has found the best seasonal treats for mind and matter
1. Rubbish Cooks: The Parker’s Tavern Supper Club
Pumpkins aren’t just for Halloween, as Chef Tristan Welch demonstrates at our monthly supper club, Rubbish Cooks. Not only a Michelin-star winner but a leading culinary activist on a mission to reduce food waste, Chef Tristan turns his talents to ingredients that would otherwise be destined for the grave due to sell-by dates, haunted packaging or a spooky appearance.
Parker’s Tavern, Monday 31st October, 6pm. Tickets, £30 per person, include a donation to our local charity, Jimmy’s Night Shelter. Book now at parkerstavern.com.
2. A Meeting of Minds: Our New Salon Series, “A Conversation With…”
Hotel guests and visitors are welcome to drop in at our ongoing series of free talks held in our cosy and comfortable library on the ground floor, where speakers include biographers, scientists, novelists, thinkers, do-ers and generally fascinating individuals. You’ll be welcomed with a complimentary glass of fizz from British winemaker Saffron Grange – why not make an evening of it and enjoy an evening at the Parker’s Tavern Bar or Restaurant afterwards?October’s highlights include:
Monday 17th October, 6:30-7:30pm, the Library at University Arms
The Conservation Manager of Holkham in Norfolk, one of the largest and oldest country estates in the UK, Jake Fiennes has won plaudits from farmers, conservationists and governments for his habitat restoration and agricultural work, which increases crop yields while benefitting the environment by bringing back wetlands, hedgerows, birds, butterflies and other species.
Ha-Joon Chang: Edible Economics
Monday 17th October, 8:30-9:30pm, the Library at University Arms.
Known for writing light-hearted books with a serious purpose that regularly hit the best-seller lists, Ha-Joon Chang’s “day job” is teaching Economics at Cambridge University. In his new book, Edible Economics, Chang tells food stories from around the world to illustrate how shows navigating the economy is like learning a recipe: when we understand it, we can change it.
For more upcoming hotel events, read our hotel gazette, The Journal, at universityarms.com.
3. Mind & Mood: The University Arms Spa Treatment & Tea
Discover our quiet, relaxing treatment rooms this Autumn, using one of the UK’s first and best essential-oil practitioners, Aromatherapy Associates. Indulge yourself in a choice of 60 or 90-minute treatments, designed to enhance the state of people’s physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. Once you are suitably limber, relaxed and uplifted, you can head to Parker’s Tavern where you can enjoy our whimsical Winnie the Pooh Afternoon Tea – the essential way to enjoy the UA/PT experience.
Package available Monday-Friday, 12-5pm.
For reservations, visituniversityarms.com.
4. All That Jazz – Friday’s at Parker’s Tavern Bar
From Friday 28th October, the bar at Parker’s Tavern will host top jazz talents playing foot-tapping tunes while you sit back and enjoy a glass with friends. First up to the stage, the award-winning Sussex saxophonist Sam Miles with the Sam Miles Trio, and Cambridge virtuosi, the Andy Bowie Quartet.
Every Friday from 7.30-10.30pm, no cover charge. For more details, visit parkerstavern.com.
5. An Apple a Day: The Botanic Garden
Summer may be a distant memory, but at the Cambridge UniversityBotanic Garden you will be greeted by a riot of uplifting colour, shape, texture and, on Sunday 23rd October, the region’s biggest celebration of its kind: Apple Day. Visitors can taste and buy more than 25 heritage varieties and learn from apple experts from the East of England Apples and Orchards Project.
Sunday 23rd October, 10am-4pm.For tickets (£10.80 per adult over 18), visit botanic.cam.ac.uk
6. City Spectres: Ghost Tour by Cambridge Tour Guides
When a city is more than three millennia old and so beautiful, it’s little wonder that some residents choose never to leave. Discover Cambridge’s haunted pubs, colleges, shops and alleyways with the wonderfully informed guides at Cambridge Walking Tours.
Every Friday and Saturday at 6pm, £20 per person; cambridgetourguide.co.uk.
7. Singing Stones: The King’s College Tour
Step back in time and tour one of the oldest and most beautiful of the city’s 31 colleges, King’s, founded in 1441. The King’s College Choir is world-renowned (its carol service has been broadcast on the BBC since 1928), and its chapel is considered one of the finest examples of English Gothic architecture, having the world’s largest fan-vaulted ceiling with stone carved into exquisite pleats that provide the perfect backdrop to Rubens’ masterpiece, Adoration of the Magi.)
For further details, visit kings.cam.ac.uk.
8. Books and Spooks: Sarah Key Books aka “The Haunted Bookshop”
As autumn nights darken and Halloween looms, you may want to make a pilgrimage to Sarah Key’s Haunted Bookshop, in an 18th-century building down St. Edward’s Passage in the heart of the city, near the ancient church of St Edward King and Martyr and seconds away from King’s College Chapel. Today it is a cheerful space that specialises in children’s and illustrated books, but successive owners of the building have encountered the ghost of an elderly, peaceful gentleman in the basement, who gingerly makes his way up the stairs only to vanish into the ether.
Monday-Saturday, 10am-5pm; sarahkeybooks.co.uk.
9. Soul Cycle: On a University Arms Bike
Hop on one of our famous University Arms bikes for a spin along the River Cam or to the picturesque village of Grantchester, just outside the city, where tea-gardens, country pubs, and riverside paths await. Inhabited since the 9th century, Grantchester’s thatched cottages and traditional British rural landscape are the setting of the popular TV detective series of the same name, set in the 1950s. You could even take The Grantchester Tour, a unique walking tour of the filming locations. Whether on foot or wheels, it’s a lovely way to enjoy the great outdoors as a family.
Please ask our concierge for further details or to arrange your trip.
10. Bottoms Up! Cambridge Wine Merchants
With views of Magdalene College and Quayside, you can savour each sip and watch the world go by at Cambridge Wine, a shop and wine bar voted one of the Top 25 in the UK by The Sunday Times. The shop is world-renowned for its well-stocked cellars of wine, beer, spirits, whiskies and Havana cigars and is perfect for sourcing accompaniments to that special dinner for two or festive feasts with friends.
Discover more about the Bridge Street and King’s Parade branches at cambridgewine.com.