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Cambridge pub where DNA announcement was made is added to walking tour

Science Photo Library James Watson and Francis CrickScience Photo Library
James Watson (left) and Francis Crick worked at the nearby Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge

The pub where the discovery of DNA was announced has been added to a historic walking tour.

The Eagle in Bene't Street, Cambridge, is one of the university town's best known pubs.

In February 1953, a jubilant Francis Crick walked into this Grade II listed building and proclaimed he and James Watson had "found the secret of life".

The pub is one of six hostelries in the city chosen by Historic England for its Cambridge pub walk.

The Carlisle Kid/Geograph RAF CeilingThe Carlisle Kid/Geograph
Allied servicemen wrote on the ceiling in The Eagle's "RAF Bar" during World War Two

The pub opened in the 17th Century and was originally called The Eagle and Child.

It was a regular haunt for RAF servicemen during World War Two.

It was also the "local" for scientists such as Crick and Watson, working at the University of Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory.

Crick and Watson discovered how DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) carried genetic information.

N Chadwick/Geograph The Eagle Pub, CambridgeN Chadwick/Geograph
The Eagle Pub dates back to the 17th century and is on Bene't Street, Cambridge

The other watering holes on the tour are:

  • 10 Peas Hill, now the Pint Shop, which was once home to the novelist E M Forster
  • The Pickerel Inn, which dates from 1608 and could be the "oldest licenced ale house in the city"
  • The Baron of Beef, where Douglas Adams, the creator of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, is thought to have drunk
  • The Mitre
  • Bath Hotel

Tony Calladine, Historic England regional director, said: "Our historic pubs have been part of the fabric of life, and at the heart of communities, for generations."

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