The claim
Opposite Magdalene College near the Cam, the Pickerel is one of Cambridge's oldest inns and a perennial student haunt. Behind its plain frontage are old beams, exposed brickwork and fireplaces from what was once a warren of small rooms, plus a sheltered courtyard. Claims of 15th-century fabric and a licence from 1608 fuel the city's oldest-pub debate.
What the records show
Greene King says the building is fifteenth-century and that it has served drinkers since the sixteenth; CAMRA notes the pub's own claim of a licence from 1608, and no earlier record of an inn here has been published. The national register disagrees with the fifteenth century and supports the sixteenth. Its entry, listed at grade II since 29 March 1962, reads the street front as early nineteenth-century gault brick under slate, three storeys with a tall carriageway to the right, and the rear wing as much older, of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, timber-framed and plastered, with some seventeenth-century panelling and many eighteenth-century fittings inside. So there is fabric of the century the house claims, standing behind a Georgian face, and the first date anyone publishes for drink sold here is still 1608. Read again on 29 September 2026, because Historic England's record disagrees with itself about the day. The summary at the head of entry 1101465 gives 23 March 1962, while the reference line printed above the description reads 29.3.62, and so do the neighbouring entries for numbers 20, 23, and 29 Magdalene Street, listed with it as one group — including number 29, whose summary also says 23 March. The entry stating its own date is the better authority, so 29 March stands here and the disagreement is said rather than tidied away.
| Year | What | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1500 | Claimed founding | The pub |
| 1608 | First record of a drinking house here | CAMRA, on a first licence in 1608 |
What to look for inside
- Contender for Cambridge's oldest pub
- Claimed licence from 1608
- Once a Victorian gin palace
- Designated an Asset of Community Value
Visiting
The Pickerel Inn is in Cambridge, England, at 30 Magdalene Street, Cambridge CB3 0AF. We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.
Sources
- camra.org.uk/pubs/pickerel-cambridge-131234
- www.greeneking.co.uk/pubs/cambridgeshire/pickerel-inn
- ratings.food.gov.uk/business/1473324
- historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1101465
- web.archive.org/web/20260924225523/https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1101465
Know something we don’t?Suggest a correctionLast checked Sept 2026
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