St Radegund Pub

A few Sundays back, it was snowing and I didn’t fancy waiting for the last bus of the day to Stretham after an uneventful afternoon of mass spectrometry.  I popped into the St. Radegund, named for the patron saint of Jesus College and the “smallest pub in Cambridge” (although the smallest pub in England is over in Bury St. Edmunds). Locally brewed beers from the Milton Brewery are on tap and the whole place is decorated with rowing paraphenalia (the owner sponsors some teams).  It hasn’t been crowded either time I have been there, but it wouldn’t take many drinkers to make it quite claustrophobic.

On my first trip I noticed a posting for the ‘King Street Run’ and expressed interest.  The KSR is done once or twice a year (whenever the pubs can get organised around it) and participants start at the St Rad, drink a pint (remember that an English pint is 20 mortal ounces), then run the length of King St (about half a mile each way) stopping for a pint in each pub then finishing with one more at the St Radegund.  “That sounds like fun,” I said.  “Harder than it sounds, mate…that’s eight pints, that is.”  “And, you do this whilst running?  No, really, that sounds like fun. Does anyone ever actually finish?”

Also on the walls is a copied text about a Convent of St. Radegund, a nunnery closed in the 16th century.  The Bishop of Ely closed a number of convents and the Convent of Saint Radegund was targeted because it was down to 2 residents, one of whom had moved away and the other of whom was “known to be of questionable virtue.”

If you are here on a Monday night, the Cantabrigensis Hash House Harriers start their trail here at 7pm (I think it ends here, as well).  The King Street Run is their thing; makes you wonder how they might deal with something like this: (CNN coverage of 30-pack marathon July 2008)