Cambridge in the Nineteenth Century
Eighteenth Century <- Time Thread -> Twentieth Century
1801-1810
- 1801-7: Enclosure Acts allowed the town to expand rapidly, to the south and east particularly.
Each Act established a commission which in due course made an Award
- 1801: Act allowing Downing College to be founded, having been Willed in 1717 by Sir George Downing (d. 1749).
This also provided for Chairs in the Laws of England and Medicine
- 1801: Enclosure Act for Pembroke Leys
- 1802: St Giles Enclosure Act
- 1802: County Gaol built, replacing the castle gatehouse as prison
- 1805: St Giles Enclosure Award
- 1807: Barnwell Enclosure Act
- 1808: Enclosure Award for Pembroke Leys
- 1808: Chair in Mineralogy endowed by the University
1811-1820
- 1811: Barnwell Enclosure Award - this particularly affected
Midsummer Common
- 1811: A Bill for a canal from Bishop's Stortford via Saffron Walden to Cambridge was defeated
- 1814: The Copyright Act allowed the University Library to claim a copy of every publication
- 1815: Cambridge Union Society founded
- 1819: Cambridge Philosophical Society founded
- 1820: Cambridge Conversazione Society (the Apostles) founded
- 1820: King George IV
1821-1830
- 1823: Magdalene Bridge was rebuilt in iron, funded mainly by public subscription
- 1823: The University Observatory, by John Clement Mead, was completed
- 1825: An Act for the Better Preservation of Peace and Good Order in the Universities of England
- 1827: First May Bumps on the Cam
- 1827: Act authorising a new town Gaol on
Donkey's Common
- 1828: Charles Babbage elected Lucasian Professor
- 1829: First Oxford v. Cambridge Boat Race, at Henley,
watched by the undergraduate Charles Darwin
- 1829: First balloon ascent in Cambridge, from the Seven Sisters Brewery in Newmarket Road. This became an annual event
- 1830: King William IV
1831-1840
- 1831: An Act authorized the sale by Trinity Hall of land for a new
Botanic Garden, opened in 1844
- 1831: Construction of the Pitt C.U. Press building started, using surplus
funds from Pitt's Hanover Square statue
- 1832: The Reform Act
- 1835: Municipal Corporation Act, Highways Act, Weights & Measures Act
- 1835: The High Steward (later Chancellor), the Duke of Northumberland, funded the telescope
and building which still bear his name, thought to be the oldest working telescope in the world
- 1836: The Cambridge Police Force was formed
- 1836: Supposedly the Cambridge
racing colours were chosen just before the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race
- 1837: Queen Victoria
- 1837: Building of the Fitzwilliam Museum began.
By 1847 enough had been built to permit the 1816 bequest from the Viscount to
be moved in
- 1838: The town workhouse was opened in Mill Road
(later to become the Maternity Hospital and then Ditchburn Place)
1841-1850
- 1841: The wooden Silver Street bridge was replaced by a cast-iron one
- 1842: Shire Hall was moved out of the town centre next to the County Gaol,
removing the last stones of the castle gatehouse
- 1844: Railway Act for Cambridge
and an Act prohibiting theatres
- 1844: The new Botanic Garden opened on its present site,
though only the western part was used at first - the rest was rented for allotments until the 1950s
- 1846: Fenner's cricket ground opened
- 1847: Prince Albert elected Chancellor; he initiated reforms such
as an emphasis on the modern sciences
1851-1860
- 1851: First examinations for the (as yet postgraduate) Moral and Natural Sciences Triposes
- 1851: The River Cam Navigation Act reformed the Cam Conservators of 1703 to control the river from the King's Mill
to Clayhithe. (Five conservators from the county, three from the University, three from the town.)
- 1855: The Amateur Dramatic Club was founded
- 1855/6: The Market was redeveloped
- 1856: Cambridge Award Act - some of the University's privileges are removed
to be present to take degrees, declarations of faith were no
longer needed for degrees except for Divinity)
- 1857: A syndicate was established to organise examinations for schoolchildren - part of a movement to improve school standards
- 1858: Cambridge School of Art founded
- 1860: Fellows of colleges were allowed to marry, though this
wasn't taken up much for some years (from about 1880 it was
a spur to rapid housebuilding in West Chesterton and East & West Cambridge)
1861-1870
- 1866: First May Ball, held by Trinity First Boat
- 1869: What was to become Girton College started in a house in Hitchin, moving to the present site in 1873
- 1869: Fitzwilliam Hall (later House) founded for non-collegiate students of the University, following an authorizing Act which also established the Board for Non-Collegiate Students. Life in colleges was too expensive for the poorest students
1871-1880
- 1871: What was to become Newnham College started in a house on Regent Street, later moving to Merton Hall
(a house on Northampton Street owned by Merton College Oxford)
and then to its present site in 1875
- 1871: An Act removed religious restrictions on University officers, lecturers and fellowships (apart form various special cases)
- 1871: Cambridge University & Town Waterworks Act
- 1872/3: The Duke of Devonshire funded the construction of the Cavendish Laboratory
- 1873: County College, renamed to Cavendish College, was founded but it ran out of money 20 years later and the buildings were taken over as Homerton College
- 1874: Another Commission reported on college and
university finances, following on from one the previous
year for scientific instruction
- 1874: Development of the Sturton Street district began and by 1890
Mill Road and Romsey were essentially as they are now
- 1875: The new Corn Exchange was completed,
replacing the 1842 one
at the other end of Corn Exchange Street (then Slaughterhouse Lane)
- 1876: Heffer's opened
- 1878: Town Gaol closed by the Home Secretary
- 1878: London University began admitting women to degrees
- 1879: Another Statutory Commission, set up in 1877,
enforced changes after the University failed to act in time
A General Board of Studies, a Financial Board, Readers and Doctors of
Science and of Letters were established. Most significantly,
colleges were now taxed by the University, providing
secure funding for future developments (e.g. for Departments
and for centralised teaching)
- 1879: A teachers' Training Syndicate was established,
leading to initial and postgraduate teacher training
1881-1890
- 1881: Cambridge Scientific Instrument Co. founded by Horace Darwin
- 1881: Women admitted to CU exams
- 1882: Selwyn College founded in memory of Bishop George Selwyn, dedicated to the needs of the Church of England
- 1882: The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge Act revised the Statutes again
- 1882: Married Women's Property Act allows women incomes independent of their husbands
- 1882: Tripos exams were moved from January to late May, causing the May Bumps to move to June
- 1883: Footlights Dramatic Club founded
- 1885: Hughes Hall founded for training women graduates as teachers
- 1887: Senate voted against giving degrees to women
- 1888: Cambridge Daily News founded
- 1889: Local Government Act
- 1889: Cam Bridges Act authorising what were to be Victoria and Elizabeth Bridges
- 1890: Victoria Avenue and Bridge built to try to integrate Chesterton with Cambridge
1891-1900
Eighteenth Century <- Time Thread -> Twentieth Century
Cambridge
: History