2 Kneighton Brae c1943

Kneighton Brae, Hills Road, Cambridge

History of Kneighton Brae

According to MB (2023) his parents Egon and Hanni Bretscher lived at no. 2 Kneighton Brae and owned the road. They had bought it around 1939 with the intention of retiring there. After WWII Otto and Ursula Frisch rented it. In 1960 Otto Frisch bought a house in Wort’s Causeway (no.22) and no.2 was rented by Malcolm Clarke (of Caius). A few years later Malcolm Clarke moved to Warwick Univ. and the local authority decided that the site was needed for the new Addenbrookes ambulance station. It was served a compulsory purchase order and demolished in 1965; no.1 was probably demolished about the same time.

Egon Bretscher was a pioneer of nuclear fission and worked in the Tube Alloys project and then on the Manhattan project.

Otto Frisch was a nuclear physicist who worked Niels Bohr, Rudolf Peierls and later on the Manhattan Project..

These photos date from around 1943.