4 Bridge Street, Hoop Inn, Cambridge

History of 4 Bridge Street

Pevsner notes, nos 3-4 (altered, formerly part of the Hoop Inn, are of 1729. Heads in the keystones of the upper floor.

See also Hoop Inn

1798 Map of Cambridge showing Hoop Inn

1959 Royal Commission on Historical Monuments Survey of Cambridge: it was built in 1729. In the 19th cent. the middle flights of the staircase were refashioned and the first floor windows to the street modified…. Nos. 3 and 4 together once formed part of the Hoop Inn, earlier than the Bell Inn.

A B Gray noted in 1921 in Cambridge Revisited:

The well-known house in Bridge Street (No.4) with iron rings under the eaves and grotesque masks above the windows was built, together with the adjoining house, in 1729, and has been known successively as Ye Bell Inn and The Hoop. Though the glories of the The Hoop are now past, its fame is immortalised by Wordsworth in his prelude:

Onward we drove beneath the castle; caught 

While crossing Magdalene Bridge, a glimpse of Cam;

And at the Hoop alighted, famous Inn.

Till well past the middle of the 19th century the Hoop was the headquarters of the Whig party, the eagle in Bene’t Street being that of the Tories.

1821

Norwich Union insurance policy register entry:

Hoop Inn 1821 insurance (courtesy of Aviva PLC)

1825

Norwich Union insurance policy register entry:

Hoop Inn 1825 insurance (courtesy of Aviva PLC)

1838

The Star coach ran every other day at 7am to Ludgate Hill London and returned at 4pm.

The Telegraph every morning at 10am via Royston and Ware to Charing Cross.

The Rocket every afternoon at 3pm via Royston and Ware to Fetter Lane, London.

The Wisbech Day coach passed through Cambridge on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, leaving at 12.30. On Tuesdays Thursdays and Saturdays it came from London and arrived at Cambridge at 2pm before going on to Chatteris, March and Wisbech.

The Alexander leaves at 8.30am every morning for Leicester via Huntingdon and Stamford.

The Blucher leaves every day for Huntingdon at 2pm

The Ipswich left every morning at 10am for Ipswich via Bury.

The Bury left everyday at 3pm for Bury.

The Oxford left every morning at 7.30 for Oxford via Northampton and Bicester.

The Rising Sun left for Birmingham every morning at 7 via Huntingdon, Northampton, Leamington and Coventry

The Surprise left Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays at 4am for Soham.

1913

Frank Dalton & Co, hunting boot makers

W P Hollis proprietor

Hoop Chambers:

1. Miss Jacobs
2. Mrs Girdlestone

1939-45

HQ 101Cambridgeshire ZAA Battery HG

1962

(3-7) King and Harper, motor agents

4 Bridge Street

Our Price Records
2000-2003 Ablegrand Ltd
2003-2009 White Stuff Ltd
2011-current Futuredog Ltd t/as Sevenwolves