About St Radegund
The “St Radegund” name
In the late 1130s, Cambridge was home to a Benedictine nunnery dedicated both to St. Mary and St. Radegund (a Frankish saint). This site is where Jesus College (whose full name is “The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge“) was later constructed. The pub is located just a few hundred yards from Jesus College and took its name from one of its saints.
Over time, the pub has also been known as The Rhadegund, but confusingly there was another pub on nearby James Street with the same name (over time also using both Radegund and Rhadegund in its name).
History of the pub
The St Radegund pub is at the end of King Street, next to the building that today overlooks the Four Lamps Roundabout. It was The Garrick Inn that originally overlooked the Four Lamps junction before this was demolished in the very early 1900s.
The first record of a St Radegund pub is a little vague, but seems to originate around the time when The Garrick Inn was demolished. The pub’s first site opened onto Jesus Lane (rather than King Street), but it was only a few years before the St Radegund changed to its current site (just behind the old site) on King Street.
The substantial renovation work undertaken in 2023 revealed bell wiring coming into the St Radegund basement, which may indicate that the current pub was in the location of the old kitchens for The Garrick Inn.
King Street Run
The St Radegund is locally known as the start and finish of the King Street Run, a decades old, timed, pub crawl down King Street. This pub crawl was born from a 1955 debate between two groups of undergraduates who disagreed on whether or not a gallon (8 pints) of beer could be consumed without any bodily leakages (i.e., no peeing or puking).
At the King Street Run’s conception there were 7 pubs on the street (although history records 12 pubs at one point in time). The event was top and tailed with a pint at the St Radegund pub, making the challenge 8 pints in total. These days, with fewer pubs on King Street, it is acceptable to double up on drinks in one or two pubs.
Drinkers completing the challenge were entitled to wear a special navy blue tie decorated with the image of a tankard surmounted by a crown. One of these ties is on display at the St Radegund pub.
The rules followed by participants over the years have varied, e.g., complete within 1 hour, start at one end of the street and finish at the other, breach the leakage rules and repeat the previous drink etc.
Just completing the challenge has not been sufficient for some. Indeed participants have recorded their times, aiming to be the quickest. The fastest completion time was by John Phillips in 1994 with a time of 14 mins (starting at one end of the street, doubling up at a couple of pubs and finishing at the St Radegund).
One particularly notable finisher was a gentleman named Dexter in the late 1990s who completed the challenge in 27 mins and, after finishing the 8th pint in the St Radegund, paused whilst finding his wallet before thirstily asking the bar man for another pint.
Indicative of how popular the pub crawl has been is that the second pub, The Horse and Groom, was renamed to be The King Street Run in its honour.