Old Cavendish Laboratory

The Old Cavendish Laboratory on Free School Lane is marked by a stone-arched gateway topped with ornate heraldic carvings and the Latin motto, Cavendo Tutus, meaning safety through caution. Opened in eighteen seventy-four, it was the first purpose-built physics laboratory at the University of Cambridge. Before its arrival, experimental physics was not formally taught at the university; science students typically learned by observing models and specimens in museums. James Clerk Maxwell, the laboratory's first director, pushed for a space where students could conduct their own experiments, directly challenging the prevailing view that a student should merely accept what a master told them.