Appeal to save ‘Pink Floyd’ Flying Pig pub in Cambridge

An appeal has been launched to save the Flying Pig pub on Hills Road from demolition. 

The pub is said to be the location where Pink Floyd member Syd Barrett met the band’s guitarist, David Gilmour, in the 1950s.

In 2007, the council approved plans for the pub to be demolished and replaced by 156 residential units, offices and retail units. However, nearly 14,000 people signed a petition asking for the pub to be saved in 2019. 

Pace Limited, the company behind the proposed developments, appealed to the city council to keep parts of the pub and build two more office blocks, but in March this year the council refused. 

Pace Limited are now appealing the council’s decision.

In a statement, Pace said: “The plans would have seen the Flying Pig preserved and enhanced with greater accessibility so that everyone in Cambridge and further afield could visit this popular free house, and live music venue.

"A successful appeal will protect and preserve the Flying Pig," 

A decision regarding the fate of the Flying Pig is expected to be made next year.

9,500 take part in TTP Cambridge Half Marathon

The TTP Cambridge Half Marathon took place last Sunday (17/10) as part of Cambridge’s ‘Festival of Running’,

The marathon was a sell-out event, with around 9,500 runners taking part. 

The route began and ended on Midsummer Common, passing through King’s College, the Backs, the Fitzwilliam Museum and Jesus College. 

The event raised thousands of pounds for various charities, including the headline charity partner, Cancer Research UK. 

The Charlie Walker Trust, a mental health charity, had 50 runners taking part, including Rick, a Cambridge University graduate and Chair of Trustees for the charity. 

“Cambridge holds a very special place in my heart and I can’t think of a better and more inspiring setting to run a half marathon.” he said.

“We are incredibly grateful for the support we get from the whole Cambridge community in this fantastic event which has become a really important fundraiser for the Charlie Waller Trust.”

Pre-registration for next years’ marathon has already opened.

7-inch ‘spider’ found in Cambridge home

A Cambridge resident was shocked to find a 7-inch long ‘spider’ on her kitchen wall.

Alina gained lots of social media attention after posting a picture of the daddy long legs online.

Users described it as “daddy long legs on steroids” and “daddy very very long legs.”

However, according to spider expert Professor Adam Hart, the arachnid is “not actually a spider”, but part of the “Opiliones” group, more commonly known as Harvestmen,

Harvestmen are “totally harmless” and “usually look like raisins with long spindly legs,” he said. 

“Unlike spiders that have that big chunky ‘back end’ and the front part where the legs are, they don’t have two sections to their body.”

The animal has now been released back into the wild.

AI ranks Cambridge as one of the happiest spots in the UK

Cambridge is the seventh happiest city in the UK, according to new research. 

The ranking was determined by the Microsoft Azure facial recognition tool, which analysed over 300,000 Instagram geotagged photos to find out how happy people are in different locations across the world.

The tool works by scanning geotagged Instagram photos with the hashtag “selfie”, and detecting different emotions, including happiness, anger, surprise, sadness and neutral. 

It then provides a score based on the relative prevalence of these facial expressions in each photo, and from this researchers can find the average score for each location in the UK. These scores were compared across the country to demonstrate which locations are the happiest.

The photos of people in Cambridge were assessed as being 59.6% happier than the national average, meaning that the city ranked first in the East of England category.

Cambridge University is one of the best for creative students, says new research

A study has found that the University of Cambridge produces some of the best paid graduates from creative courses.

Students undertaking creative courses at Cambridge can expect to earn an annual salary of £26,500 on average after graduating. 

Cambridge ranked joint-third for best-paid graduate salaries, alongside Royal Holloway and the University of Surrey.

Despite this, Cambridge only came 26th in the overall rankings, which took other factors into account. These factors include the number of students enrolled in creative arts and design courses, as well as the percentage of students taking creative courses.