Capturing Cambridge
  • search
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

1 Trinity Street (29 Market Hill)

History of 1 Trinity Street

Trinity Street south end

1581

Bookshop started by William Scarlett

……………………………………….

House rebuilt with three storeys, cellar and attic early in 19th century with shop and dwelling. Inside, on the ground floor are cast-iron columns with lotus-leaf capitals. On the first floor are original plaster cornices with lotus and acanthus foliage.

1 Trinity Street and surrounds circa 1840

……………………………………….

1851

Alexander Macmillan, 32, bookseller and publisher, b Scotland

Ebenezer Budden, visitor, 24, bookbinder, b Hammersmith

Thomas G Davis, 16, bookseller apprentice, b London

Robert Bowes, bookseller apprentice, b Scotland

Ellen Steed, 31, servant, b Suffolk

[See Daniel Macmillan in Regent Street]

See Mill Road Cemetery entry

…………

1861: 29 Market Hill

Alexander Macmillan, 42, bookseller and publisher, b Scotland

Caroline, 37, b Cambridge

Malcomb Kingsley, 8, b Cambridge

George Augustine, 5, b Cambridge

Margrett Ann, 3, b Cambridge

Olive, 2, b Cambridge

Frances Eliza, 39, sister in law, bookseller and publisher, b Cambridge

Frederick Orridge, 9, nephew, b Cambridge

Maurice Crawford, 7, nephew, b Cambridge

Arthur Daniel, 3, nephew, b Cambridge

John Brown, 34, visitor, farmer, b Scotland

Sarah Poster, 28, cook, b Burwell

Emma Petit, 38, house servant, b Impington

Emily Stearn, 21, house servant, b Grantchester

Mary Ann Coxall, 29, house servant, b Cambridge

Harriett Curtis, 22, house servant, b Chesterton

[Robert Bowes is living in Westminster at the time of the census described as bookseller’s clerk]

…………….

1871

occupied as shop

1881

1891

1901

1907

Named Bowes and Bowes

1911

1913

Bowes and Bowes (formerly Macmillan and Bowes) : Robert Bowes and G Brimley Bowes MA, booksellers, publishers and stationers

1936, Blue Book

14/3/1953: The site of England’s oldest bookshop has just changed hands for the 14th time in more than 350 years. Messrs W.H. Smith have acquired Bowes and Bowes’ shop on the corner of Trinity Street which has a heritage of bookselling, publishing and binding that goes back as far as 1581. In 1807 it belonged to John Nicholson, son of the celebrated ‘Maps’ who went his rounds of the University with a moveable stall laden with textbooks and called out “Maps and pictures”. Later Kingsley and other literary men held ‘tobacco parliaments’ on religion and politics, Wordsworth reclined there, Thackeray dined there and Tennyson first read “Maud” in the Long Room, now the Foreign Department. (Cam.News)

16/10/1986: Bowes and Bowes, Cambridge’s oldest bookshop, marked the end of an era and the beginning of a new. The building on the corner of Trinity Street started as a bookshop under William Scarlett in 1581. It was acquired by Daniel and Alexander Macmillan who in 1845 laid the foundations for one of the largest publishing firms in the world. It became a literary centre where figures like Thackeray and Charles Kingsley were frequent visitors. Now it has been completely redesigned and reopened under its new name of Sherratt and Hughes. (Cam.News)

………………………………………………..

1992 occupied by Cambridge University Press, just as with the neighbouring address, 28 St Mary’s Street.

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.

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