40 Warkworth Street, Cambridge

History of 40 Warkworth Street

?1890:

Lodging house run by Mrs Sarah Wallis

Rev Willoughby Flower

Rev H Field Blackett

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1913

Mrs Ellwood, lodging house keeper

Sidney Frank Ellwood

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1939

R Jacobs

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1983

Charmian McCann, lodging house keeper

Hugh McCann, head chef at King’s College [for 17 years]

In 1983 Charmian told the CWN: Running a lodging house for undergraduates was particularly hard work in the pre-war days. Hot water had to be carried up to the rooms, boots had to be cleaned and fires lit. Lodging house keepers were expected to serve breakfasts and teas. It was a demanding job.

Hugh McCann’s job when he started as an apprentice in the kitchens at King’s at the age of 14 must have been equally demanding.”I actually started when I was 13. I used to get 9d a night when I waited on the undergraduates in my boy scout uniform,” he said. When he became an apprentice he earned 2s 6d for a 56 hour week.