The Backs

The Backs are a stretch of open parkland where the city of Cambridge meets the River Cam. Each college along this bank maintains its own private bridge and meticulously manicured lawn, creating a sequence of stone arches and weeping willows. In the early nineteenth century, the poet William Wordsworth walked here and famously claimed the view of King's College Chapel from these meadows was the most beautiful in England. Students still use the grassy banks to study, just as they did centuries ago.