Beer Lover Cam

Pub History & Heritage

Last Orders: The Vanished Alehouses That Made Cambridge's Drinking Soul

Cambridge is celebrated for its dreaming spires and Nobel laureates, but beneath the academic grandeur lies a grittier, hoppier story — one told in the timber beams and ghost signs of pubs that no longer exist. From boisterous student taverns to riverside locals swallowed by redevelopment, the city's vanished alehouses shaped not just its social fabric, but the very character of British pub culture itself.

Jul 4, 2026

Beer Culture & Opinion

Handpump vs. Font: Has Britain's Great Beer Civil War Finally Run Out of Steam?

For decades, the argument between cask ale traditionalists and keg craft enthusiasts has been one of British beer culture's most reliable punch-ups — part genuine philosophical disagreement, part tribal identity crisis. But something is shifting. Younger drinkers aren't picking sides the way their predecessors did, independent brewers are increasingly pouring from both, and even some CAMRA stalwarts are quietly softening their positions. So is the war over, or just being fought on new ground?

Jul 4, 2026