Turney & Associates is located on Covent Garden, off the busy, proudly independent and cosmopolitan Mill Road in Cambridge. Mill Road is one of the main arterial roads into the historical city centre of Cambridge and Covent Garden is situated nearer to the area of Mill Road known locally as Petersfield.
History says that Covent Garden is Mill Road’s oldest side street[i]. On the corner of Mill Road and Covent Garden originally stood the windmill that gave Mill Road its name. A map of Cambridge from 1830 shows Covent Garden as the only side street off Mill Road[ii].
The site of 5 and 7 Covent Garden were originally two houses. Walter George Clark lived at no. 5 from 1912-1936 and was a Brewer. Ralph S. Slingsby lived at no. 7 from 1929-1936. As a Builder, Mr Slingsby demolished both houses to use the space as a builders yard. Here at Turney & Associates, we proudly display the Blue Plaque in our window to detail the history of our building (photo below). The work of local historians created a blue plaque for each property down our street.
Our offices are located behind Sally Ann’s charity shop at 44a Mill Road; the site of which was Cambridge’s first purpose built Cinema, ‘The Playhouse’[iii], which opened in 1913[iv]. The Playhouse closed its doors in 1956 (due to the entertainment tax) and then re-opened as Cambridge’s first supermarket, Fine Fare, in 1963. The supermarket closed in the mid-1980’s and then became Sally Ann’s charity shop[v].
Even today when you walk down Covent Garden from Mill Road towards our offices, the carvings on the wall of the former Playhouse remain. These were thought to have been made by people queuing along the wall to enter the Playhouse building[vi]. Photo below.
[i] http://www.capturingcambridge.org/projects/covent-garden/
[ii] http://www.capturingcambridge.org/mill-road-area/mill-road-life/mill-road-name/
[iii] http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/pictures/Forgotten-Cambridge-Nostalgia-pictures-old/pictures-26729093-detail/pictures.html
[iv] http://www.capturingcambridge.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Sally_Ann-_Report_3rd_edn.pdf
[v] http://www.capturingcambridge.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Sally_Ann-_Report_3rd_edn.pdf
[vi] http://therealcambridge.com/2012/03/02/the-lost-cinematic-palaces-of-cambridge/
