The royal couple are expected to come to Cambridge on November 28th, where their four engagements will include opening a hospital in Peterborough and visiting a homeless shelter. After they arrive, they will be shown around the city’s Guildhall, where their planned balcony appearance will provide onlookers with fond memories of their royal wedding last year.

William and Catherine will also be attending a reception at the university’s Senate House with 400 guests, where they will meet the winners of the 2012 News Community Awards and high-profile members of the community including Cllr. Sheila Stuart, the Mayor of Cambridge. Prince William’s family already have close connections with the city, as his grandfather, the Duke of Edinburgh, served as Chancellor to Cambridge University until he was replaced by Lord Sainsbury last year.

The current itinerary that has been released for the occasion reveals the royal party’s plans to visit Jimmy’s Night Shelter after a walkabout in Market Square, where the Duke and Duchess will meet members of the public. The accommodation centre in East Road has helped to resettle homeless people in Cambridge since its opening in May 1995, and the growing problem of homelessness in the United Kingdom is said to be a cause that is important to both William and Catherine. In December 2009, Prince William spent a night sleeping under Blackfriars Bridge in London in order to raise awareness and funds for Centrepoint, a south London homeless shelter of which he is a patron.

After visiting Jimmy’s Night Shelter, the couple will also pay a visit to Peterborough City Hospital, where they will open the building in a royal ceremony almost two years after construction ended on the £289 million building. Catherine gave her first speech when she visited Milton, north of Cambridge, on a solo engagement in March this year as patron of East Anglia's Children's Hospices. The duke and duchess have also opened the Oak Centre, a new cancer unit, after carrying out an engagement at Surrey’s Royal Marsden Hospital in September 2011,

Sam Matthews, managing director of The Punting Company, said that it is “really exciting news they are coming at last. We really want them to go for a punt on the boat named after them.”

Jocelyn Butson, a second-year student at Homerton, added: “I’m really looking forward to the visit. I’m really glad that they’ve come to Cambridge, and hoping I will get a chance to see them when they are here.”