Over the top.

Frequently spotted around Cambridge: a gaggle of camera-toting tourists (us included) huddled over these kinda-cool relief maps of the city centre trying to work out how to get from where they are to their favourite coffee shop the epidemically-omnipresent Starbucks. These relief maps are great reproductions though and very realistic - the most recognisable bits being King's College chapel top right and Trinity College Great Court (a la the race in Chariots of Fire, although the film actually used Eton College school) in the foreground. The only innacuracy as far as I can tell is that, unlike the actual city centre buildings, this isn't covered in pigeon poop.

Of course, the true beauty of this map is that, whilst any photoblogger can snap a city's best bits, only a really lazy one can give you the whole city centre, to scale, in one shot. Voila!

Albeit, unconventionally... The infamous cult book  The Night Climbers of Cambridge describes the best routes around the colleges, the quietest spots for reflection, the best views to be had in the whole city. Of course, this is only if you happen to be a skilled climber - and happy to wait until the middle of the night to avoid the authorities...

Luckily - and amazingly, considering the paraphernalia needed in those days - they took pictures of their 1937 feats and included them in this incredible book, along with details of their nocturnal adventures. Republished in 2007 by The Oleander Press - it's now available everywhere because...

They've eventually moved into the future with ol' Whip and made him available on Amazon's Kindle.

Here's showing how the authorities went just slightly / wildly overboard:


Mail  &  Sunday Telegraph

The Night Climbers regularly swoop along the roofline of the city, mischief on their minds and happiness in their hearts. Their actions may confound the university but to residents past and present, of the colleges and the city, they are outriders of optimism and evoke a time when opportunities were boundless and the term PC, was a mere twitch in the dreams of tomorrow.


“Lest others should attempt the ascent of this terrible climb and perish, they swore themselves to secrecy and went off to try Everest instead.”