Cambridge Fact File: The Civic Restaurant

Picture by Peter Soar

DID YOU KNOW?



The Civic Restaurant which was found in Petty Cury until the early 1970s was originally located in the Pitt Club in Jesus Lane.

Remembering Snowy Farr

Snowy Farr by Feggy Art

Snowy Farr lived in Oakington and was a well known fundraiser for blind charities.

He was born Walter Farr in Longstanton in 1919 and worked as a road mender and sweeper for the City Council in the area he lived.

When Snowy retired he decided he wanted to help raise money for charity, so he stood on Market Hill collecting with his flowing white beard and dressed himself in a antique military uniform with an eccentric looking stripped top hat.

He became a instant success and decided to carry on doing more fundraising, but started to bring some friends with him which included a cat and some white mice.

Snowy Farr sculpture 

As the years went by his companions grew to include a cockerel, a duck, pigeons, rabbits, guinea pigs and a goat.

Snowy trained his cat to sit on the top of his hat and the mice would run around the rim.

His charity efforts helped him to obtain twenty-two guide dogs in 1995 and in November of the same year he received a MBE.

By the end of 1999 he had raised over £46,000 for Guide Dogs for the Blind and over £23,000 for Cam Sight . He also helped many more blind charities locally and nationally.

Snowy sadly died on the 8th March 2007.

On the 3rd March 2009 the Cambridge City Council announced a statue would be erected in his memory.

The sculpture was designed by Gary Webb and unveiled on Market Hill by the Mayor on the 7th August 2012.

Cambridge Fact File: The Eagle and the Secret of Life

The Eagle - 1937

DID YOU KNOW?


On the 28th February 1953 Francis Crick and James Watson announced their discovery of how DNA carries genetic information in The Eagle Public House on Bene't Street.