There is no single nicest part of Cambridge. The right area depends on what you need: how close to the centre you want to be, whether you want a Victorian terrace, a large detached house or a new-build flat, which station you will use and what you can afford. This guide sets out the facts for the main neighbourhoods so you can compare them on your own terms.
Distances are straight-line measurements from Market Square. House prices are HM Land Registry sales from October 2024 to August 2026, grouped by Cambridge City Council ward. Our Cambridge city area guide covers the city's wards, schools and transport in more detail.
The historic centre is covered by the council's Historic Core conservation area, one of 18 conservation areas in the city, and lies in Market ward. Homes here are mostly terraced houses and flats: of the 92 sales Land Registry recorded in Market ward, 54 were terraced and 34 were flats or maisonettes, at a median price of £644,000.
Jesus Green, north of the centre beside the River Cam, has a lido, grass tennis courts and a skate park. Midsummer Common, also on the river, is grazed by Red Poll cattle from April to October and hosts the Midsummer Fair and Strawberry Fair.
The West Cambridge conservation area, designated in 1972, developed rapidly after 1882, when a change in the law allowed college fellows to marry. The council's appraisal describes spacious streets of large, mainly detached late 19th and early 20th-century houses, many in red brick in the Arts and Crafts style, and virtually no commercial buildings.
Newnham Croft, under a mile south-west of the centre, was built largely as artisan housing between the late 19th century and the First World War, with high-density two-storey Victorian and Edwardian terraces, small front gardens and long, thin back gardens. More than half of the conservation area is parkland, fields or woodland, including Lammas Land (with a pool, play area, tennis court and bowling green), the Paradise Nature Reserve and Grantchester Meadows.
Chesterton, about a mile north-east of the centre, was a separate village until it was incorporated into the borough of Cambridge in 1912. Its conservation area keeps the old village around St Andrew's Church, and its High Street still provides local services. From the 1930s the City Council built large numbers of houses north of the old village.
Closer to the river, the De Freville area mixes small mid 19th-century terraced workers' cottages around Trafalgar Road and Ferry Path with the larger houses of the De Freville Estate, laid out from 1890. Midsummer Common is reached across the river by foot and road bridges, and Stourbridge Common lies across the river from the Ferry Lane area.
Cherry Hinton, a little over two and a half miles east-south-east of the centre, has been part of the city since 1934. Its housing ranges from 16th-century timber-framed buildings in the old village to council estates from the 1960s and private housing from the 1970s and 1980s. The Cherry Hinton Chalk Pits nature reserve covers 11 hectares, and Cherry Hinton Hall's grounds host the Cambridge Folk Festival. See our Cherry Hinton area guide for more.
Eddington, a little under two miles north-west of the centre, is the first phase of the University of Cambridge's North West Cambridge Development. Phase 1 includes 700 homes for qualifying University and college staff, 700 open-market homes, a primary school, a community centre, a health centre and a supermarket. The first residents arrived in 2017. The Universal bus links Eddington with the city centre and Cambridge station.
Trumpington, about two miles south of the centre, has an old village core that is a conservation area, with a church dating from about 1200, two manor houses and cottages from the 16th century. Trumpington Meadows Country Park and Byron's Pool lie on its edge.
Around it, the council's Southern Fringe sites include Clay Farm (up to 2,300 homes, 40% affordable) and Glebe Farm (286 homes), which the developer Countryside marketed together as Great Kneighton, Trumpington Meadows (1,200 homes split between the city and South Cambridgeshire) and the Bell School site. The Clay Farm Centre houses a community centre, library and medical centre. In Trumpington ward, 76 of 218 sales were flats or maisonettes.
Cambridge now has three railway stations, all managed by Greater Anglia:
The Guided Busway runs south from Trumpington Park and Ride to Cambridge station, with a spur to Addenbrooke's, and north from Cambridge North towards St Ives. Five Park and Ride sites, at Babraham Road, Madingley Road, Milton, Newmarket Road and Trumpington, offer free parking for up to 18 hours.
Mill Road runs east from the centre through Petersfield and, beyond the railway bridge, Romsey. The area was mainly fields until the 1860s and 1870s, when a grid of streets was laid out at right angles to the road. The council's 2011 conservation area appraisal describes Mill Road as a multicultural mix of uses, with mostly independent shops, cafes and pubs. Most houses in the Romsey section are narrow two-storey brick terraces built between 1880 and 1910. Open spaces include the Victorian Mill Road Cemetery and Romsey Recreation Ground.
Terraced houses were the largest group of sales in both wards. In Romsey ward, just over a mile east of the centre, 137 of 216 sales were terraced houses, at a median of £477,500. In Petersfield ward, 101 of 210 sales were terraced and 85 were flats or maisonettes, at a median of £467,500.
Across all Cambridge City Council wards, the median sale price between October 2024 and August 2026 was £490,000. Ward medians, in alphabetical order, were:
A median reflects the mix of homes that sold, so a ward with many flats will look cheaper than one with many detached houses. For a figure on a specific home, book a free valuation with our team.
These South Cambridgeshire villages are within four miles of the centre:
By Land Registry median sale price between October 2024 and August 2026, Newnham ward was highest at £1,000,000, followed by Queen Edith's at £762,500. Detached houses made up about three in ten sales in Newnham and a third in Queen Edith's, against about one in eight across the city.
The lowest ward medians over the same period were King's Hedges (£365,000), Abbey (£423,500) and Arbury (£440,000).
It depends on where you will travel from. Cambridge station is about a mile from the centre, Cambridge North serves the north-east and Cambridge South, opened in June 2026, serves Trumpington and the Biomedical Campus, with direct trains to London including Liverpool Street.
Two large areas of new housing are Eddington in the north-west and the Southern Fringe around Trumpington, including Great Kneighton (Clay Farm and Glebe Farm) and Trumpington Meadows.
Victorian and Edwardian terraces are typical of Mill Road, Romsey, Petersfield and Newnham Croft. Large late Victorian and Edwardian detached houses are typical of the West Cambridge conservation area.
