Date/Time
Date(s) - 5 December 2020 - 20 December 2020
All Day

A Lantern Trail and Online Fair replace the traditional Mill Road Winter Fair

From 5th December, the Mill Road Lantern Trail will light up shops and cafés along the street, while an accompanying history trail will provide fascinating stories about a number of Mill Road’s best-loved buildings.

As lockdown ends, you can follow the Mill Road Lantern Trail in person to explore Cambridge’s most diverse, vibrant and independent shopping street. Ten beautifully crafted community lanterns, inspired by ideas and images gathered from residents in the streets off Mill Road, will be displayed in ten shops and businesses along the road. The lanterns, created by local illustrator, designer and artist Penny Sobr, will be illuminated over 15 days from Saturday 5th December, the day when the Mill Road Winter Fair would have taken place. Artist-in-resident, Hilary Cox Condron, has been collaborating to create a special lantern about the Ironworks site as part of the trail. The Ironworks lantern can be seen at the Penguin Dry Cleaners on Mill Road. Further lanterns for other streets and shops are planned for next year, which will all be brought together within community lantern parades at future Winter Fairs.

A stunning illustrated map of the Lantern Trail by Anna Betts brings Mill Road to life, marking the location of each lantern and highlighting some of the fascinating and unknown history of buildings and places along the road. It can be seen at www.millroadwinterfair.org/mill-road-trail/

The Mill Road Lantern Trail is the first project funded through the support of a new charity, Love Mill Road, which has been set up to provide a secure, sustainable channel for donations that support the Mill Road Winter Fair and other community projects in the Mill Road area. Visit www.lovemillroad.org to find out more and donate to support future projects. Cambridge City Council and Anglia Ruskin University have provided additional sponsorship for the Lantern Trail.

The Ironworks lantern will then be moving to the Museum of Cambridge as part of the Forge exhibition curated by Hilary Cox Condron and running from the 1pm on the 17th December 2020 – 8th February 2021 www.resonance-cambridge.co.uk/forge