Capturing Cambridge
  • search
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
Territorial Army Drill Hall, East Road, in 1963, later demolished

Territorial Army Drill Hall

History of Territorial Army Drill Hall

Mary Burgess writes in East Road 1950 to now:

This was originally built in 1914 as the Drill Hall for three local territorial units, the Cambridge Squadron of the Loyal Suffolk Hussars, the 1st Battalion of the Cambridgeshire Regiment, and the First Eastern General Hospital  RAMC. After the war it was used as the home of the local army cadets as well.

The Post Office took it over in 1967 and it was used for administration. During the Christmas rush, it was often used as an overflow sorting space when they ran out of room in the main sorting office just round the corner in Mill Road, where Petersfield Mansions now stand. The new main sorting office opened in Clifton Road in August 1988.

The copper regimental crest on the outside of the building was removed when the Post Office moved to Clifton Road, restored and given to the local battalion of the territorial army at their new site in Cherry Hinton Road in October 1988.

The owners, Turnberry Holdings Ltd, knocked the hall down in 1993, and the plot stood empty for many years, before the County Court was built in 2006.

 

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.

Licence

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 and, if you do,  would consider making a donation today.

Capturing Cambridge makes accessible thousands of photos and memories of Cambridge and its surrounding villages and towns. It is run by the Museum of Cambridge which, though 90 years old, is one of the most poorly publicly funded local history museums in the UK. It receives no core funding from local or central government nor from the University of Cambridge.

As a result, we are facing a crisis; we have no financial cushion – unlike many other museums in Cambridge – and are facing the need to drastically cut back our operations which could affect our ability to continue to run and develop this groundbreaking local history website.

If Capturing Cambridge matters to you, then the survival of the Museum of the Cambridge should matter as well. If you won’t support the preservation of your heritage, no-one else will! Your support is critical.

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

Every donation makes a world of difference.

Thank you,
Roger Lilley, Chair of Trustees
Museum of Cambridge