11 King’s Parade

History of 11 King's Parade

Arthur Gray in Cambridge Revisited notes that over the entrance is a red tablet recording that : “Charles Lamb lodged here in August, 1819.” Here Lamb and his sister Mary met the little orphan daughter of Charles Isola, one of the Esquire Bedells of the University. They were afterwards to adopt her.

11 King’s Parade

1804 –

James Bays, hatter
Frances, wife
Charles, son, b 1804

See Mill Road Cemetery entry

Charles married Mary Bradshaw. He died in 1877 and by 1881 Mary had moved to 3 Bay Terrace Norwich Street where she died in 1882.

1851

Charles bays, 46, hatter

1871

Charles Bays, 66, hatter, b Cambridge
Mary, 59, b Huntingdon
William, 35, hatter, b Cambridge
Agnes, 32, b Cambridge
Edwin, 27, architect, b Cambridge
Henrietta, 23, b Cambridge
Emily, 19, b Cambridge
Agatha, 8, granddaughter, b London
Celia Barton, servant, 19, b Weston Colville
Emma Goodman, 16, servant, b Lincoln

1913

Bays and Son, hatters and hosiers

Walter Edward Bays

1962

Bays & Son, hatters, hosiers and shirt makers

James W Bays

2017

Fudge Kitchen

Bays & Son

Jeremy Bays sent us this recollection of living at 11 King’s Parade.

My father was the last of the family business, Bays and Son, Hatters and Hosiers of 11 King’s Parade, and we lived above the shop. The business was sold to a London firm in the mid 60s, New and Lingwood, though my Father was fortunate in being offered the managership of the Cambridge branch which he held until he retired in the mid 80s and it remained the family home until then (it’s now the Fudge Kitchen).

I was born in 1949, and of course did not know the shops but remember the family talking about the humour of the trio of the three shops Greef, Sad and Pain.

I also recall my Great Grandmother Emmeline, widow of William Bays who died in 1885. They had 3 children, Charles, Walter and Katie. Walter b.1883 would take over the shop in 1914 at his mother’s death but in the intervening 29 years, Emmeline took on the mantle of running the business, though presumably with Walter when he came of suitable age.

I attach a picture of the shop, uncertain of the date, but Edwardian. I think the figure in the doorway is an assistant who Emmeline employed, Charles is at the balcony, he moved to London and had nothing to do with the business.