Ye Olde Castle Hotel 38 St Andrew’s Street (MoC308.63)

38 St Andrew’s Street, Castel, Ye Olde Castle Hotel, The Castle Inn, Rudd’s Hostel

History of 38 St Andrew's Street

Outside the Barnwell Gate (1915) states that this is the site of a building which in 1283 was given by Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely, to St John’s Hospital as part of the compensation for the loss suffered by the removal of his scholars to the newly-founded Peterhouse. In the foundation deed of Peterhouse the tenement is described as “hospicium contra fratres predicatores.” Elsewhere it has been described as ‘established before 1243, and was reconstructed c.1620.’

Richard Hopkins Leach painted the castle sign circa 1830s. There is a keep with four turrets looking over the sea. He had seen many coastal fortification when he had visited the south west of England. But the gate is very reminiscent of the entrance to Christ’s College.

Caius in his history of Cambridge, writing 300 years later, calls the building ‘Rudd’s Hostel’ and says it stood a little beyond the church of the Friars Preachers but on the other side of the street. Richard Parker, writing in 1622, says that ‘it is now become the Castle Inn’.  In 1915 it was the property of Corpus Christi College.

According to ‘Fenner’s Men’ by Willie Sugg, the Union was one of the earliest Cambridge pub clubs dating from around 1820 . Being within easy reach of Midsummer Common it was sometimes known as the “Common Club” to distinguish it from its competitors who played on Parker’s Piece. The Union, Fountain and Castle [clubs] played relatively low key matches between themselves. As the Cambridge Cricket  Club folded, they became the crucial factor in maintaining and rebuilding the town’s cricketing structure.

This was the last of the pub cricket clubs to fold, in 1837, after an innings defeat of March.

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1913

Ye Olde Castle Hotel, James Hammond proprietor

Headquarters of the Vincent Ramblers Cycling Club, Cambridge Town Football Club, Cambs Cricket Assoc, 99 Rowing Club, Cambridge Butchers’ Association and Cambridge Horse Club

Albert Percy Hammond

William Walden Hammond

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1934

The hotel was seriously damaged by fire and not rebuilt.

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1937 Regal Cinema built on the site

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1962

Castle Public House

Sidney G Bateman

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2018 (37)

Castle Bar

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