Notes from a small city
Wednesday, April 13, 2016 at 13:55 
I don't normally post pictures like this but I like to be reminded how lucky I am to have an office in Cambridge.
I took it an hour ago, standing on Magdalene Bridge, a five minute walk from said office.
You can tell it's spring because the tourists are beginning to arrive in ever larger numbers.
They stand with their cameras, gesticulating at the local architecture.
The punts are being dusted down and in a few weeks the river will be alive with boats, laughter and excited chatter.
Whatever the season there's something special about Cambridge.
I love the scale. (For a city it's quite small.)
I love the colleges, the cobbled streets, the markets, the absence of traffic.
I love the independent cafes and sandwich shops.
I love the Arts Picturehouse where you can pop in for lunch and occasionally see a classic movie.
The only thing I don't like are the crowds, especially in summer and at weekends.
On a different note, here's another picture. It's currently a sweet shop a few hundreds yards from Magdalene Bridge but for many years the premises were occupied by a specialist tobacconist.
Here's hoping that in the current climate sugar emporiums like this don't go the same way.
Reader Comments (6)
Colin Lunn's old place, no? Used to buy my B&H unfiltered Turkish ovals there, in their beautiful mottled light-blue box.
No doubt you've seen the former Bacon Bros. premises with the Ode To Tobacco plaque on it in the Market Square.
Expect there is no specialist in Cambridge now. A shame.
No, I haven't seen the Ode to Tobacco plaque. I'll look next time I'm there.
Sneak preview. Corner of Rose Crescent and the square
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/630622
Thanks!
I recently bought a place in Patras (3rd largest city in Greece, but still quite small, with a population of 168,000), and to my delight, I've found that it hosts several specialist tobacconists. Some of them sell e-cig paraphernalia also.
I have memories of living in London in the late 60s when there were many proper tobacconists. The smell of the various tobaccos, the displays with all manner of cigarettes, cheroots and pipe tobacco (in porcelain jars) from far-flung corners of the globe; the glass cases with Meerschaum and Briar pipes; the glass fronted humidors with eye-wateringly expensive cigars... It was wonderful; an Aladdin's cave, a cornucopia for smokers. But mostly it was the smell. I could have just stood there and inhaled those wonderful aromas for hours if there wasn't a good chance I'd have been turfed out for loitering with intent!
The puritans and fanatics in Tobacco Control have a lot to answer for. They have destroyed something culturally priceless and replaced it with grim and boring homogeneity. To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, they know the cost of everything and the value of nothing. Ignorant, insensitive Philistines, all.
I love that Ode to Tobacco so thanks for posting a link. I must take a picture of a beautiful cottage in my village which has a sign above the door saying "Licensed to sell tobacco". I seem to recall from my childhood that the cottage was a shop in years past.