Straight ahead, you’ll spot The Backs-a sweeping stretch of green lawns rolling down to the River Cam, with grand college buildings on one side and a scattering of grazing cows and willowy trees on the other; just follow the river and let your eyes drift across the landscape for this postcard-perfect view.
Welcome to The Backs! Right now, you stand at one of England’s most picture-perfect places-so much so, it made the top ten views in the country, handpicked by none other than the chairman of the National Trust. Not too shabby for a bunch of college backyards, right? That’s actually where the name comes from: these are literally the “backs” of Cambridge’s world-famous colleges, unfurling their grassy arms to embrace the River Cam.
Imagine, if you will, that it's the 16th century. Things smell a little bit earthier, and the landscape looks nothing like a manicured park. You’d be standing in the middle of pastures dotted with colleges’ fruit trees, and perhaps dodging the odd cow! Cattle are still part of the picture here today-just peek behind King’s College and you might spot their spotted friends munching away, carrying on a tradition hundreds of years old.
The tranquility of the river, with the dreamy colleges on one bank and wild meadows on the other, has inspired poets, artists, and daydreamers for centuries. But look a bit deeper, and you’ll uncover some drama simmering beneath that calm surface. In the 1700s, St John’s College called on England’s most famous landscape architect with the grandest nickname, Lancelot “Capability” Brown. His mission? To transform this area into sweeping parkland, complete with lakes and clever clusters of trees. His plan was so epic, it would have meant tearing down old tree-lined avenues, erasing historic boundaries, and even removing three of those beloved bridges. But Cambridge had other ideas-Brown’s grand vision was politely stamped with a big British “no thank you,” preserving the colleges’ quirks and their crisscross of bridges. It’s probably for the best, or Cambridge would have lost its charming jumble of footbridges, from Trinity’s ornate crossing to the Mathematical Bridge at Queens’-each with its own secret story.
Now listen closely for the gentle clack of oars and the soft laughter drifting by. The Backs have long been the perfect place for punting-a sort of English gondola ride with less singing and more chance of falling in.
But it hasn’t all been smooth sailing, either for punters or for the trees. In the late 20th century, disease swept through those elegant elms lining the water. Suddenly, the beauty of these historic landscapes seemed at risk. Enter the “Backs Committee”-a superhero squad of college gardeners! They banded together, rolled up their sleeves, and started a replanting blitz to keep the scenery lush and leafy. The committee’s work lives on, and so does the endless debate over how The Backs should look in future generations. Should new avenues be planted? More “wilderness” left untouched? Do you want your trees tidy or tangled? Cambridge likes to make its decisions very, very carefully-sometimes over centuries!
And the story’s not finished yet. Plans by former Girton College student and landscape architect Robert Myers have mapped out The Backs for the next 50 years: more trees, more wildlife, more gentle screening from passing cars, and fresh green “rungs” to the neat ladder of tree-lined avenues that run across the landscape. It’s a living, breathing, evolving view that’s always checking itself in the mirror and asking how it could look just a little bit better.
So, as you take in The Backs with colleges on one side and fields on the other, remember you’re enjoying a view shaped over centuries-by monarchs, gardeners, grumpy cows, and more than a few strong opinions. Sometimes a “back” is really the best side of all!
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