Shamebridge: why is Cambridge so embarrassed about its past?

Finding Cambridge’s ugly side isn’t easy, but a walking tour of the city promises to show you it. Uncomfortable Cambridge, which bills itself as the ‘perfect introductory tour’ of the city, suggests tourists are wrong to think this is a place of beauty. Rather, Cambridge is a place we should be ashamed of – or at least feel a bit awkward about.

The university is at the heart of the one-and-a-half hour tour, which costs £14 per person. Our guide begins by telling us that Cambridge isn’t as guilty as Oxford, which is good news – but it’s mostly downhill from there. St John’s College, where William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson studied, is the first target. Both men are commemorated with statues: Wilberforce’s is inside the chapel; Clarkson’s outside. Fair enough, you might think, given that these men helped to abolish the slave trade. But we’re asked whether we feel it’s right that the African anti-slavery activist Olaudah Equiano isn’t represented in marble.