Mill Road was originally a quiet country lane leading to the southeast out of the city of Cambridge, named after the windmill that stood at what is now the corner of Covent Garden. The coming of the railways in the mid-19th century brought about a rapid development of the eastern part of the city after the University of Cambridge repeatedly blocked attempts to build a more central station. The population of the Mill Road area was listed as 252 in 1801, 6,651 in 1831, 11,848 in 1861 and 25,091 in 1891. Petersfield and Romsey Town, the areas of Mill Road to either side of the railway bridge, developed in markedly different ways. Petersfield, to the west of the railway, was originally developed by Gonville and Caius and Corpus Christicolleges. In 1838 the Cambridge Union Workhouse was opened, a building subsequently to become the Mill Road Maternity Hospital and finally a sheltered housing scheme. Romsey Town, east of the railway, started to be developed after the inclosure acts of the middle 19th century. Expansion of the railway network drove the building of housing for railway workers and the majority of the houses were built in the ten years after 1885. Historically Petersfield has always been thought of by local residents as being on the 'Gown' side of the town and gown divide, with many of the residents having been employed by the University. Romsey, on the other hand, remained predominantly working class with a socialist tradition in its local politics, becoming known locally as 'Red Romsey' or 'Little Russia'.
Mill Road Winter Fair
The Mill Road Winter Fair is an annual fair on the first Saturday in December. Attendance grew from 10,000 at the first fair in 2005 to at least 20,000 in 2009. Since 2009 part of Mill Road, including the bridge, has been closed to traffic for the duration of the fair. Regular activities include a shop window display competition, live music, folk dancing, a local history walk and open days at the road's churches, temple and mosque.
Notable residents
The following live or have lived in the Mill Road area:
Douglas Adams — author. Born at Mill Road Maternity Hospital, 1952.
Syd Barrett — musician. Born at 60 Glisson Road, 1946. Attended Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology with David Gilmour, 1962–64. Worked as a postman at Mill Road Sorting Office.
Robert Carpenter — cricketer. Born 18 November 1830 in Mill Road.
Susanna Clarke — author.
Rajani Palme Dutt — communist ideologue and vice-chairman of the British Communist Party. Born 1896 in 25 Mill Road, where his father Upendra Krishna Dutt had founded a medical practice around 1890. The building now houses the .
Gordon Fraser — publisher. Lived at 274a Mill Road during the late 1930s. Dylan Thomas attended a notorious week-long drunken party there in 1937 after coming to Cambridge to give a reading.
David Gilmour — musician. Lived in a flat on Mill Road while playing in Joker's Wild, his first band.
Mary Kingsley — Ethnographist, writer and explorer. Lived at 7, Mortimer Road.
F. R. Leavis — notable British literary critic. Born above his father's music shop at 68 Mill Road, 1895.
Tom Robinson — Singer-songwriter and radio presenter. Born at Mill Road Maternity Hospital, 1950.
Ronald Searle — Artist and satirical cartoonist. Creator of St Trinian's School. Lived at 6, Petersfield as a child and then at 29 Collier Road while studying at The Cambridge School of Art.
Tom Sharpe — author. Lived on Mill Road while lecturing in History at CCAT between 1963 and 1972.
