The world’s biggest crème brûlée, Edwardian luxury, books, books and more books — Annunciata Elwes explores the University Arms, Cambridge. I wouldn’t dream of judging anyone to whom it has never occurred that a ‘book butler’ is the person they are most missing in life. However, once you’ve met one, you can never go back to choosing your own books without wistfully remembering the butler that got away.
.. As befits the best hotel in a city that’s home to the highest-rated university in the UK (and only second in the world rankings), books and bookishness are a major theme at the University Arms.
The book butler is on hand to make recommendations, deliver reading material to your room from the downstairs library (stocked by Mayfair’s Heywood Hill) and ensure that your preferred audio book is playing on the loudspeaker during your spa treatment. Each of the University Arms’ 10 suites and two superior rooms are named for famous Cambridge alumni — and filled with their written works. All 192 rooms contain a copy of The Wind in the Willows — no one seems to know why, but we’re not complaining.
And Alan Bennet’s comforting tones can be heard narrating the Kenneth Grahame classic on repeat in the downstairs loos. Aside from being a place filled to the brim with stories, the University Arms has witnessed history from its prime city-centre location for the past 190 years. Behind a grand, classical facade, the best rooms have far-reaching views over Parke.