Silver Street is located in the southwest of central Cambridge

Cambridge

The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It links Queen's Road

Queen's Road, Cambridge

Queen's Road is a major road to the west of central Cambridge, England. It links with Madingley Road and Northampton Street to the north with Sidgwick Avenue, Newnham Road and Silver Street to the south....

 to the west with Trumpington Street

Trumpington Street

Trumpington Street is a major historic street in central Cambridge, England. At the north end it continues as King's Parade where King's College is located...

 to the east. The road continues west out of central Cambridge as Sidgwick Avenue

Sidgwick Avenue

Sidgwick Avenue is located in western Cambridge, England. It links Grange Road to the west with Queen's Road to the east. The road continues northeast into central Cambridge as Silver Street....

.

At the southwestern end to the south is Darwin College

Darwin College, Cambridge

Darwin College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge.Founded in 1964, Darwin was Cambridge University's first graduate-only college, and also the first to admit both men and women. The college is named after the family of one of the university's most famous graduates, Charles Darwin...

. Halfway along to the north where the street straddles the River Cam

River Cam

The River Cam is a tributary of the River Great Ouse in the east of England. The two rivers join to the south of Ely at Pope's Corner. The Great Ouse connects the Cam to England's canal system and to the North Sea at King's Lynn...

 on the Silver Street Bridge (built in 1958) is Queens' College

Queens' College, Cambridge

Queens' College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou , and refounded in 1465 by Elizabeth Woodville...

. At the eastern end to the north fronting onto Trumpington Street is St Catharine's College

St Catharine's College, Cambridge

St. Catharine’s College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1473, the college is often referred to informally by the nickname "Catz".-History:...

.

To the north are The Backs

The Backs

The Backs is an area to the east of Queen's Road in the city of Cambridge, England, where several colleges of the University of Cambridge back on to the River Cam, their grounds covering both banks of the river. The name "the Backs" refers to the backs of the colleges...

 along the river, providing one of the best views in Cambridge of the backs of some of the most historic and prestigious Cambridge University colleges.

To the south, on the east side of the Cam, is the Silver Street/Mill Lane Site, one of the University of Cambridge sites. This is bounded by Silver Street to the north, Trumpington Street to the east, Little St Mary' Lane to the south, and Granta Place / Laundress Lane on the Cam to the west. Mill Lane runs east–west through the middle of the site. Various University departments, other University facilities, and the University Centre, are located here.

Since 2003, access to motor vehicles without an appropriate transponder

Transponder

In telecommunication, the term transponder has the following meanings:...

 has been controlled by rising bollards. It allows eastward traffic flow from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. and westward flow from 4 p.m. to 12 midnight, daily.

Notable former residents

Gwen Raverat

Gwen Raverat

Gwendolen Mary "Gwen" Raverat née Darwin was a celebrated English wood engraving artist who co-founded the Society of Wood Engravers in England.- Biography :...

 (1885–1957, née Darwin, granddaughter of the naturalist Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin

Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...

) was a wood engraver, artist, and illustrator, who co-founded the Society of Wood Engravers

Society of Wood Engravers

The Society of Wood Engravers was co-founded in 1920 by British wood engraving artist Gwendoline Raverat, wife of French painter Jacques Raverat.The Society was revived in 1984 by Hilary Paynter. It publishes a bulletin called Multiples....

. She was the daughter of Sir George Darwin

George Darwin

Sir George Howard Darwin, FRS was an English astronomer and mathematician.-Biography:Darwin was born at Down House, Kent, the second son and fifth child of Charles and Emma Darwin...

 FRS, astronomer and mathematician, and his wife Maud du Puy. During her childhood, she lived in Newnham Grange on Silver Street in a house that now forms part of Darwin College. She was born and died in the house. Gwen Raverat married the French painter Jacques Raverat

Jacques Raverat

Jacques Pierre Raverat was a French painter.He married the English painter Gwen Darwin, in 1911, the daughter of George Darwin and granddaughter of Charles Darwin. They had two daughters, Elisabeth , who married the Norwegian politician Edvard Hambro and Sophie who married the Cambridge scholar...

 and moved to southern France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. On her husband's death in 1925, she settled back in Cambridge, where she published her childhood memoir Period Piece

Period Piece (book)

Period Piece: A Cambridge Childhood is an autobiographical work by Gwendoline Mary "Gwen" Raverat.Gwen Raverat was the daughter of George Howard Darwin and was an artist. She married the French artist Jacques Raverat in 1911 and had daughters Elizabeth Hambro and Sophie Pryor...

in 1952.