Clocks and Colleges

 A Cambridge walking-tour of Ann-Marie Howell's 'The House of One Hundred Clocks'

The 'real-life' inspiration for
The House of One Hundred Clocks!

Ann-Marie Howell's first novel 'The Garden of Lost Secrets' met with critical acclaim when published in 2019 and now, only a few months later, we are gifted the wonderful second novel, 'The House of One Hundred Clocks'. 
Mixing modern sensibilities with the classic feel of the works of Philippa Pearce and Helen Cresswell in particular, Ann-Marie's tales immediately draw you into their closed-off worlds. Her first novel, in fact was was walled-off with only a few scenes stepping out of the intense gardens and hothouses; in 'One Hundred Clocks', the oppressive atmosphere of a house haunted by the past and the terrible secrets of its owner, Mr Westcott, helps to create an enthralling story that grips to its very end. 
Ann-Marie is clearly an author who loves to take a germ of an idea and twist it almost endlessly, layering mystery upon mystery, to present the reader with what at first seems completely baffling but which eventually unravels towards satisfying revelations.
In 'One Hundred Clocks', the 'outside' world of Cambridge in 1905 is quietly but deliberately observed: along with the ever bustling tick-tock of students, the streets begin to chime the hour for women's rights too. 
Although there is sadly no 'Clock-House' quite like Mr Westcott's to visit in Cambridge today (once you've read the novel, you would desperately want to see what it looked like inside!), Ann-Marie has taken inspiration from the narrow streets and glorious buildings of the city. I hope that this walking guide will hopefully introduce you to some of the secrets of the city and enrich your reading experience of the novel. 

Please note that the tour includes busy roads. Cars, buses and bikes (!) get very close to pavements in Cambridge, so do take extra care. 

The Map

All the best books begin with a map and this is no exception. The lovely picture-plan of Cambridge drawn by Saara Katariina Soderlund shows the city centre in 1905. All of the places on the map - even if slightly fictionalised, like Mr Fox's establishment - are easily found in the city today.

Map illustration © Saara Katariina Soderlund; used by permission of Usborne Books

Peterhouse College

Peterhouse College (from Trumpington Street)

We start the tour at Peterhouse, on Trumpington Street. Peterhouse is the oldest college in the University of Cambridge; it dates back to 1285 so that makes it nearly 750 years old! Today the college, like all the others which make up part of the University, is home to lots of students and 'Fellows' - the men and women who study and teach. In 1905, the University of Cambridge had two colleges which allowed women: Girton and Newnham. Peterhouse began to admit women from 1984 and in 2016 the college elected their first female Master (Head of the College), Bridget Kendall. According to Ann-Marie Howell, the Master's Lodge (pictured at the start of the blog) was the inspiration for Mr Westcott's house itself.

Silver Street Bridge

Silver Street Bridge plus punts

With the Peterhouse main gate behind you, facing the Master's Lodge opposite, turn left and walk along the street into the town. Soon you will come to the corner of Silver Street on your left. If you follow this road down a little way you will come to the Silver Street Bridge, the site of Chapter 19, where you can stand and watch the punts floating up and down the river Cam. This bridge would not have looked like this in Helena's day: it would have been the iron bridge that was built there in 1843. The current stone bridge was designed by the famous architect, Sir Edmund Lutyens, and replaced the old one in 1958. 

Walk back the way you came, up to Trumpington Street again, and continue left. You might see the magnificent spires of King's College ahead of you...but don't rush ahead just yet! On your right, just as you enter King's Parade, there is a peculiar and rather special clock to see - not in Ann-Marie's book, but Helena's father would have loved it: this is...

The Cambridge Chronophage

The Chronophage

The Chronophage (a.k.a. the 'Grasshopper Clock', or 'Time-Eater') works by a mechanism invented by John Harrison (the great clockmaker mentioned in 'One Hundred Clocks') called a grasshopper escapement. If you spend some time watching the clock you will see the creature on top pull and push the mechanisms and open and shut its jaws, as though eating the seconds that pass. Occasionally it will blink - watch closely! - and on the hour a special mini-light show occurs. Can you see how the lights on the clock face tell the time? This clock is quite incredible - it needs no winding, is operated by a simple electrical motor...and it is estimated that it will run for 200 years!  

King's College

King's College (with the Chapel behind the gate)

Kings College is the next place to stop. Look at all the grand spires and architecture! This is probably Cambridge's most iconic building. The College was founded in 1441 by Henry VI but the famous chapel (where you can hear one of the world's finest choirs sing services almost daily) was not completed until the reign of Henry VIII. Many famous people have been associated with the College, including the famous ghost story writer M.R. James, who held his first spooky storytelling session here in his rooms in the 1890s. James would have been resident at Kings during the time of Ann-Marie's novel and indeed had only just published his first collection, 'Ghost Stories of an Antiquary' (1904).  I wonder if any of the characters in Ann-Marie's novel bumped into him on his way to a reading of one of his ghostly tales..!  

Continue past the College with the Chapel on your left and head past Senate House and Gonville and Caius College straight on into Trinity Street. Walk a little way further and you will see Rose Crescent on your right. 

Rose Crescent

As you head up Rose Crescent, you will notice the unusual curved walls. The street is dark and confined and Ann-Marie's selection of this, one of Cambridge's dark, tucked-away streets, was the perfect choice to become the site of the rather mysterious shop belonging to the clock-master Mr Fox. There is no such building  here today, unfortunately, but Mappin and Webb just on the around the corner of Rose Crescent on Market Street does sell watches!

Walk through the Crescent to the other end. 

Market Square

The Clock at Market Square

As you emerge from Rose Crescent, you will find yourself in the busy Market Square. Here there are lots of different stalls selling everything from old records and books, to delicious curries, cakes and breads. There has been a market here since the middle ages and has always been a busy place. It used to be the site of the public punishments and the jail. It's easy to get lost among all the stalls but look up at the big building that towers over the square and you will see another famous Cambridge clock at the top of the Town Hall. In 'The House of 100 Clocks', Mr Westcott owns many well-decorated timepieces and mention is made of some with symbolic paintings of the moon and sun on the faces.  If you look closely at the clock above the Market Square, there are two birds (but not parrots!) carved on either side of the clock-face: a cockerel and an owl. Why have these two particular birds settled there, do you think..? 

Cross to the other side of the Market from Rose Crescent, towards the Town Hall clock, and turn left into Petty Cury.
At the end of Petty Cury, turn right and follow the road round past the taxi bay and the main gate of Christ's College. If you walk up this road for about five to ten minutes you will soon see...

The University Arms Hotel, Regent Street

The University Arms Hotel

This grand building with its great columns and elaborate architecture is certainly impressive. In 1905, it may have been the place where Katherine Westcott resided (so as to get away from the noise of the ticking clocks in her brother's house) but over 100 years later, Time Magazine still named it one of the 'Top 100 places to visit in the world' in 2019.  The hotel was redesigned in 2018 and the interior is a modern recreation of the Edwardian style with which Mr Westcott's sister would have been familiar: Katherine certainly knew luxury when she saw it! 

The Hotel, from Parker's Piece

 The hotel has always been at the cutting-edge: it was one of the very first hotels to have electricity and lavatories on every floor. In 1904, just before 'The House of 100 Clocks' takes place, the owner of the hotel turned the stable block into a garage: times were changing then and the motorcar was becoming the more fashionable way to get around rather than the horse and carriage. (You can see drawings of early motorcars on the map from 'One Hundred Clocks'.) I wonder how Katherine made her way to Cambridge: by horse or by car? 

If you continue a little way on, past the Hotel, you will see a large grassy park open out on the left, just behind the Pizza Hut on the corner!  This is...

Parker's Piece 

Barr Ellisons

The site of a banquet in 1838 for 15,000 people to celebrate the coronation of Queen Victoria (Ralph Fox mentions in Chapter 29 how his grandfather remembered being present), and - perhaps even more famously - the place where the 'Cambridge Rules' of the game of football were originally decided,  Parker's Piece is today a place for picnics, walks and playing sports and games.

On the far side of Parker's Piece, where there are now a series of bus-bays, you will notice a long terrace of tall town houses. This is where Harriet, Florence and Ralph pay a visit to Marchington and Sons, Mr Westcott's lawyers, and indeed there is a law firm here today - Barr Ellisons - the name of which echoes very faintly the sound of the company in 'One Hundred Clocks'. 

I won't include any spoilers in this tour, but if you continue up the road where you found Ellisons, away from the town, past the Fire Station and onto Mill Road, you will soon come to...

..which is a building that holds special importance to a few of the characters at the end of 'The House of One Hundred Clocks'. 

This site ends our tour of some of the main locations in Ann-Marie's wonderful novel, but I would very much recommend that you go back into town now and just a little further along from Rose Crescent, in Trinity Street, you will find Heffers bookshop - my favourite bookshop of all! - and perhaps pick up one of the following exciting books, which you are sure to love if you enjoyed Ann-Marie's novel. Happy reading!


Moondial (Helen Cresswell): Mysterious goings-on, centering around a peculiar kind of clock in the gardens of a stately home.

Clockwork (Philip Pullman): Good stories work like oiled clockwork, says Pullman: find out what happens when a story-mechanism is set off in this Faustian tale of clocks and devils! 

Tom's Midnight Garden (Philippa Pearce): the classic time-slip story where a clock strikes thirteen and Tom opens the back door into another world... 

The House with a Clock in the Walls (John Bellairs): the creepy - but fun! - adventure story of a cursed house and a  demonic time-piece that causes problems for the hero, Lewis Barnavelt.

And not forgetting, of course...

The Garden of Lost Secrets (Ann-Marie Howell) - more mysteries in this, Ann-Marie's first novel, inspired by the real-life unearthing of a kitchen diary at Ickworth House. 


Huge thanks to Fritha Linqvist, Usborne Books and Ann-Marie Howell herself in the preparation of this blog.