Harvey Road Campus

Amidst the academic heart of Cambridge, the Harvey Road Campus of Gonville & Caius College has witnessed a fascinating evolution. The Harvey Road Campus, built around 1882, originally provided much-needed housing for newly married dons. Before 1882, Fellows of Cambridge colleges were not permitted to marry. After the restrictions were relaxed, a wave of new homes, like those on Harvey Road, sprang up across the city. These houses, including those on Harvey Road Campus, offered a domestic haven for academics starting families. Eight large semi-detached houses graced the south side of Harvey Road, mirroring similar structures on the north side. Notably, number 6 Harvey Road, now part of the Harvey Road Campus, was the birthplace and childhood home of renowned economist John Maynard Keynes, born in 1883. His father, also an economist and Fellow of Pembroke College, belonged to the first generation of college Fellows allowed to marry. The houses on the south side of Harvey Road Campus now belong to Gonville & Caius College. They serve as student accommodation. The area surrounding Harvey Road Campus, once considered “open fields,” housed grazing cattle destined for the Monday market. Children living on Harvey Road, like the young Keynes, would have witnessed this rural scene from their nursery windows, a stark contrast to the bustling academic hub it is today. Ada Keynes, writing in “By-Ways of Cambridge History” in 1947 from her Harvey Road home, provides a glimpse into this past. She noted that the road was named after William Harvey. Harvey Road Campus stands as a testament to the changing landscape of Cambridge. It transitioned from open fields to a residential area for married dons, and now accommodates students within the prestigious Gonville & Caius College.