The Cambridge Night Climbers

There is a legend of a secret society of Cambridge University students who scale the buildings of Cambridge University under the cover of darkness. The Cambridge Night climbers often get a mention on a punting tour, because many of the buildings which feature in the tour were scaled by the night climbers.

A history of the Cambridge Night Climbers

This was first documented in 1895 by a student named Geoffrey Winthrop. He wrote a guide to climbing the buildings of Trinity College. In 1921, a group of students wrote a similar guide to climbing St. Johns College. In 1937, the most famous book, “The Night Climbers of Cambridge” was written. It was authored under the pseudonym “Whipplesnaith” because climbing the colleges at night was not permitted.

A few examples of legendary feats

Legend has it that the night climbers placed a traffic cone upon one of the spires of King’s College Chapel. This was visible from the river if you were punting in Cambridge. The college ordered that scaffolding was erected to remove the cone. The scaffolding took several days to construct, by which time the night climbers had replaced the cone onto another spire.

Another popular story is that the night climbers suspended a car from the Bridge of Sighs at St. John’s College. To this day, it is not clear how they achieved this. The car sat just above the waterline, blocking the path of the Cambridge punts.