English hotel with an Aussie flavour

Cambridge has connections with more than a few Australians, notably Germaine Greer and Clive James, who both studied and taught at the university.

They auditioned together and joined Footlights, a student comedy sketch and acting society that endures to this day (and whose alumni includes members of Monty Python, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson and Miriam Margoyles).

The Aussie duo also settled (separately) in the local area and James, after a long battle with illness, died at his Cambridge home in 2019.

Australia continues to export some of its best and brightest minds to this ever-inspiring English city, and another recent antipodean arrival is apartment hotel specialist Adina.

Previously Medina, it was born in Australia in 1983 through Toga Hotels and is now part of TFE Hotels, which has driven the brand’s expansion across Europe over the past decade.

The Hobson Cambridge by Adina is one of two recent UK launches, welcoming its first guests in November (the Wellington Glasgow by Adina was unveiled in Scotland the following month).

If, like me, you’re travelling to Cambridge by train, the hotel is centrally located, a 10-minute taxi ride from the railway station — or a 20-minute walk via Hills Road, a busy strip lined with cosmopolitan food and drink spots.

This Adina has revived Hobson House, a Grade II heritage-listed building on a site formerly occupied by a charity founded by Thomas Hobson, a 17th century philanthropist.

Completed in 1901, these premises previously served as a workhouse, a police and fire station, and council offices, with lots of period features restored and retained. These include a stunning stone staircase with stained-glass windows and the flamboyant mosaic flooring that you’ll notice when entering the lobby.

This feeds into the brightly coloured and exuberantly scented reception area, where I check in and browse the framed walled illustrations portraying Australian flora and fauna, including a waratah and a laughing kookaburra.

The hotel has 56 studio-style rooms, suiting affluent students and grown-up tourists alike. They range from 18sqm options for solo travellers to 33sqm spaces with a king-size and a sofa bed. All have open-plan living and sleeping areas with dedicated work desks and wardrobes, ensuites with heated floors, and either a separate shower or bathtub, and kitchenettes with a fridge, crockery, cutlery, microwave, kettle and coffee machine.

If you’d prefer not to cater for yourself, there are numerous bars, pubs, cafes and restaurants within walking distance of the hotel, while Oz & Isle is The Hobson’s all-day restaurant.

Billed as “a drinks-led sanctuary where the rich landscapes of Australia and the quiet charm of the British Isles” meet, it sports a gorgeous conservatory-like space with high vaulted ceilings, soaring brick walls, contemporary furniture and coffee-table books.

Enticing you here for lunch or dinner is an array of sharing and sweet plates, meat, cheese and vegetable boards.

You can also savour Oz & Isle’s Instagrammable setting at breakfast, when there’s a continental-style buffet and a la carte menu listing the likes of a full English and smashed avocado on sourdough toast.

On a bright morning, when the sun is streaming in, you could almost pretend you’re back home in Australia. But a stone’s throw from the hotel, you have the quaint yet vibrant core of Cambridge and all those grand old university colleges.

+ Steve McKenna was a guest of Visit Britain and Cambridge tourism. They have not influenced this story, or read it before publication. fact file + The Hobson Cambridge by Adina has nightly rates from around £125 ($242). See thehobsoncambridge.com + To help plan a trip to Cambridge and Britain, see visitcambridge.org and visitbritain.com.