Capturing Cambridge
  • search
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
Pyotr Kapitsa (Wikipedia)

173 Huntingdon Road, Kapitza House

History of 173 Huntingdon Road

Pyotr Kapitsa was a Russian physicist.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyotr_Kapitsa

Kapitza House Huntingdon Road (Cambridge2000)

The house was built in the 1930s, architect H C Hughes.

According to the Cambridge2000 web site:

Kapitza was a talented Russian physicist who worked in Cambridge for thirteen years. On a trip back to the Soviet Union in 1934 the government there decided not to let him return. Over the years he protected many physicists, such as Landau, from death at the hands of that government and was in some ways lucky himself not to be killed, although he was under house arrest for many years. Kapitza was eventually allowed to visit Cambridge again in 1966.

The house is odd looking, with different colours of brick layers, and a door frame which is unusual. It was double glazed from the beginning, unusual for that time.

Kapitza allowed the house to be used by the Soviet Academy of Sciences for visiting scientists, and it still is being used for that purpose.

Contribute

Do you have any information about the people or places in this article? If so, then please let us know using the Contact page or by emailing capturingcambridge@museumofcambridge.org.uk.

License

This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Dear Visitor,

 

Thank you for exploring historical Cambridgeshire! We hope you enjoy your visit.

 

Did you know that we are a small, independent Museum and that we rely on donations from people like you to survive?

 

If you love Capturing Cambridge, and you are able to, we’d appreciate your support today.

 

Every donation makes a world of difference.

 

Thank you,

The Museum of Cambridge