while looking around for something to say about Cambridge’s chimneys, I found an online reproduction of The Night Climbers of Cambridge by “Whipplesnaith”, a 1953 book about climbing the various structures in Cambridge (at night, of course) — complete with photos. While it doesn’t appear the night climbers actually tackled chimneys (the term refers to a particular climbing technique), the book is also not just about recklessly scaling old buildings:
We ourselves have loved Cambridge. Many hundreds of young men must go through the same experience every year, for the undergraduate is at an emotionally susceptible age. To each it comes in its own way, each accepts it according to his character. Memories of Cambridge may conjure up old friends, weeks and months of hard work followed by successful exams, thrills on the football field, morning coffee in the cafés, convivial evenings of beer-drinking, hilarious twenty-first birthday parties. But not to us. Cambridge brings back a jumble of pipes and chimneys and pinnacles, leading up from security to adventure. We think of those nights spent with one or more friends, nights when we merged with the shadows and could see the world with eyes that were not our own.
(from the poignant Saying Good-bye chapter)
