The Old Spring is the local pub close to me in the center of Cambridge. I was invited to this pub by my friend Paul about 3 years ago. It is quite up market (as they say here)
It is very nice inside with a fireplace and lovely space outside. For me the attraction are the people, regulars as they are called.
REGULARS come sometimes every night, three times a week, or just on Friday nights, which is check in night to see how everyone is doing.
They are from all walks of life, business, educators, property owners, college employees, professors, social workers, health professionals, writers, artists, skilled workers etc, from all the strands of the Cambridge Community, even the Mayor shows up once in a while! Also the older gentleman that gets on the bus every day for the company.
Some regulars have known one another since school days and others like myself are newbies.
When I was in St Neots, I found the community bus. This pub to me has the same sense of community and the people care about one another and watch one another’s back. An example of this is where I stay. The landlady has 2 children, both grownup with their own children, one has cancer and the other was in serious car accident and now has a brain injury. One of the regulars picked her every morning and took her to the train station so she could go to London to see her daughter in the hospital for weeks.
The friendships have survived through, marriages, divorces, affairs, deaths and illness.
They celebrate everything and arrange their own birthdays etc. Usually the person who has something to celebrate arranges the party for themselves, invites who they want, has some food (not elaborate), and people come buy their own drinks. I think the pub throws in a cake, I’m not sure.
As they say no fuss, no bother. The down side is food here is very expensive, even by Cambridge standards, so many regulars come to drink, but not eat.
I seem to be part of this community, which is excellent.
The Nomadic Intern 
awesome!
Hi Betty Thanks for this one! Always delighted to hear from you and so glad that all is going well. All is well here, thank God and we are enjoying a relaxed summer with no major travel plans right now. I love where we live and we have been travelling enough for it to be good to stick around here for a while! Let me know when you free and in town and we will fix a date to meet up for dinner. Meantime love as always Prue >