Cambridge hides its best seats. The good outdoor tables are usually behind the pub, down an alley, over a wall, or facing a stretch of river you cannot see from the street. Walk past the front door and you would never know. Discovering outdoor seating in Cambridge is a hidden gem worth exploring.
When looking for outdoor seating in Cambridge, here are the ones worth knowing, from the river to the back streets off Mill Road. Everything below is in town or a short walk from it.
Here are the ones worth knowing, from the river to the back streets off Mill Road. Everything below is in town or a short walk from it.
By the river
The Engineer’s House, Riverside. Calverley’s took this on in 2022 and it has become the best riverside garden in Cambridge. The views face west across the Cam, which is the whole point of it in the evening. Wood-fired pizza, unfiltered keg beer, dogs and children both fine. The outdoor bar and kitchen units were replaced with a new structure at the start of 2026. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays, card only, and the hours shift with the seasons. About twenty minutes east of the centre and worth every one of them.
Byron’s Bear, 3 Thompson’s Lane. Twenty years as La Mimosa, and before that the Spade & Beckett. It reopened as a pub in spring 2025 with a large patio garden and an outdoor hatch serving pizza, keg beer and a breakfast menu from nine until noon. Five handpumps, free of tie, dogs and families welcome. Central, but tucked away enough that most visitors walk straight past the end of the lane.
The Anchor, Silver Street. The riverside terrace off the split-level bar looks straight at the Mathematical Bridge and the punt traffic, which is either the attraction or the problem depending on your mood. The building goes back to 1843 and the cellar bar ran a jazz club that Syd Barrett played. Busy, touristy, card only. Still, that view.
Granta, 14 Newnham Road. A verandah and a patio, both over the Mill Pond, with the punt station next door. Named Most Improved City Pub for 2026 by the local CAMRA branch, and it shows. Good for families, good for a long afternoon, occasional barbecues in summer.
Fort St George, Midsummer Common. Parts of it are sixteenth century and it was originally built on an island, which explains the shape of the place. The large patio at the front looks over the common and the river. This is the one for a big group on a warm evening, and it fills up accordingly.
The Boathouse, 14 Chesterton Road. The terrace steps down in stages to the water. Quiz on Tuesdays, open mic on Wednesdays, comedy on the last Thursday of the month.
The Waterman, 32 Chesterton Road. A split-level patio with decking at the back, leading to a function room they call the potting shed. Opens at eight in the morning for breakfast, which few people seem to know.
Green Dragon, 5 Water Street, Chesterton. Two outdoor spaces, which is rare: a beer garden by the river across the road, and a walled garden at the back with no smoking. Recorded as an ancient victualling house in 1630, so one of the oldest buildings in the city still doing its original job. Lebanese street food from Shawarma. Closed Mondays. The walk out along the towpath is half the pleasure.
Old Spring, 1 Ferry Path. A conservatory extension and a decent decked area beside it, near Jesus Green and the river. More of an eatery than a drinking pub, food on all sessions.
Café Foy, Quayside. A riverside café-bar right by Magdalene Bridge, sixty covers including the outside tables. Two minutes from the middle of town and the best place to sit and watch other people fail to steer a punt.
The Millworks, Newnham Road. They claim some of the best outside seating in Cambridge, on the water’s edge at the old mill, and they are not far wrong. The outdoor tables cannot be booked, and the area is no smoking. Very dog-friendly, step-free access down the side.
Roof Terrace, The Varsity Hotel, Thompson’s Lane. Astroturf and a full circle of rooftops. Warmer months only and weather dependent, so ring ahead rather than turn up hopefully. Nothing else in the city gives you the whole skyline at once.
The Mill, 14 Mill Lane. Worth being honest about this one. The Mill has no garden of its own. What it has is Laundress Green across the lane, which is public open ground, and on a warm evening half of Cambridge is sitting on it with a pint. That is the appeal, and it is a real one, but do not go expecting a terrace.
In the middle of town
Pint Shop, 10 Peas Hill. A terraced patio garden at the back, properly separated from the smokers’ alley, with its own bar and garden menu. Roman-style pizza, scotch eggs, four changing cask ales, seventeen keg lines and more gin than anyone needs. The building is a Georgian townhouse from 1830 where E. M. Forster lived. Dogs are welcome in the bar and garden but not the restaurant.
King Street Cellar, 99 King Street. An independent wine merchant that now puts seating outside, which makes it one of the more civilised stops on King Street. Dog-friendly and step-free. Buy a good bottle, sit out with it, watch King Street do its thing.
The Eagle, 8 Bene’t Street. The galleried courtyard is the reason to come, not an afterthought to the bar. Wartime aircrew burned their squadron numbers into the ceiling of the back bar, and Watson and Crick announced the structure of DNA here one lunchtime in 1953. Tourist-heavy at all hours, and it earns it.
The Pickerel, 30 Magdalene Street. A courtyard garden behind a pub first licensed in 1608, which is the basis of its claim to be the oldest in Cambridge. Six to eight changing beers, more in summer. Right by Magdalene Bridge.
The Punter, 3 Pound Hill. A sunny courtyard plus tables at the roadside, and old stables converted into dining rooms. A short walk from the Backs and considerably calmer than anything on King’s Parade.
Castle Inn, 38 Castle Street. A genuine suntrap garden at the back, sitting beside the mound of the castle that is no longer there. The building dates from the 1740s. Ten minutes uphill from Magdalene Bridge, and the climb thins the crowd out nicely.
Fitzbillies, 36 Bridge Street and 15 King’s Parade. Both have outdoor seating and both are dog-friendly. The King’s Parade pavement tables sit opposite the chapel, which is either the finest coffee view in England or too much traffic noise, depending on the hour. Note that the Trumpington Street branch has no outside seating, whatever you may have read elsewhere.
Kettle’s Yard, Castle Street. The best free outdoor sitting in Cambridge, and hardly anyone uses it. The Garden Kitchen café gives you three separate options: the courtyard, the house garden, and Northampton Green outside. Reaching the café costs nothing and the exhibitions are free too, with only the house itself ticketed. Closed Mondays, including bank holidays. Worth knowing that the house and café are not fully wheelchair accessible, and wheelchair users are asked to email ahead.
The Fitzwilliam Museum, Trumpington Street. In summer the Kiosk opens on the front lawn with deckchairs, picnic blankets and parasols. Museum entry is free, the lawn is free, and you are sitting in front of one of the great Victorian facades in the country. Roughly eleven to three, Tuesday to Saturday, and midday to three on Sundays, weather permitting. Dogs on leads are fine in the grounds. The kiosk itself is not wheelchair accessible.
Mill Road and the back streets
This is where the locals drink, and where the gardens are bigger and cheaper.
Cambridge Blue, 85–87 Gwydir Street. A large garden off the back extension, with a heated marquee in winter so it works all year. Up to twelve changing beers and ten ciders, plus a summer beer festival. Dog-friendly. Fifteen minutes from the middle of town and a different city entirely.
Kingston Arms, 33 Kingston Street. A walled garden with canopies and heaters, busy in every season. Cambridgeshire Pub of the Year for 2025, and the first city pub registered as an Asset of Community Value. No kitchen, but you are welcome to order food in, which tells you what sort of place it is.
Free Press, 7 Prospect Row. A walled garden at the back with an added press room, and benches out front. A pub since 1834, near Parker’s Piece, and one of the quietest pints in Cambridge. Closed Mondays.
Geldart, 1 Ainsworth Street. An enclosed patio garden behind a two-bar corner pub full of film and music memorabilia, including a glass piano and handpumps made from instruments. Closed Mondays.
Alexandra Arms, 22 Gwydir Street. An enclosed garden at the back with a purpose-built garden room that doubles as a function space, so it survives bad weather and works for a private group. Home-made burgers and Sunday roasts.
Six Bells, 11 Covent Garden. A small enclosed garden at the back and a few tables on the street. Quiet, dog-friendly, properly local. Opens at four on weekdays.
The Petersfield, 2 Sturton Street. A terrace with separate smoking and non-smoking areas, on the corner opposite Petersfield itself. The pub changed hands in April 2026, so it may have changed character with it.
One more, if you will pay to sit down
The Garden Café, Cambridge University Botanic Garden, Bateman Street. Terrace seating with parasols, backing onto the borders. You need a garden admission ticket to reach it and they take card only, but forty acres of planting is a reasonable trade for the price of entry. Fifteen minutes from the centre.
