Cambridge is full of rooms you can wander into and never quite forget. A giant whale hangs above a museum staircase. An old house is arranged so carefully around paintings, chairs and stones that it feels like a work of art itself. Somewhere else, rows of machines tell the story of a world before everybody carried a computer in their pocket.
And rather wonderfully, you can explore a surprising amount of it without leaving your chair. Some places offer proper 360-degree tours where you decide which way to look. Others let you listen to a curator or browse thousands of objects, following a thought from one curious thing to the next.
These are seven Cambridge online experiences worth opening in a fresh browser tab. They're not all the same kind of virtual tour, and that's what makes the collection fun.
| Experience | What you do | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| University of Cambridge virtual tour | Explore 360° scenes, colleges and campus maps | Roaming and discovering spaces |
| Museum of Zoology | Watch guided tours of the animal collection | Wildlife and unusual creatures |
| Kettle's Yard | Explore art and listen to the stories behind it | Beautiful interiors and audio |
| Centre for Computing History | Take a 360° look inside a computing museum | Retro tech and games |
| Fitzwilliam Museum | Browse and zoom into artworks and objects | Painting, detail and design |
| Whipple Museum | Search historic instruments and models | Scientific oddities |
| Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology | Browse remarkable objects and photographs | Human stories and archives |
1. Wander the University of Cambridge in 360 degrees
If you're the sort of person who loves getting lost in Street View, start here. The University of Cambridge's official interactive virtual tour opens up colleges, accommodation, academic spaces and parts of student life through 360-degree scenes. You can follow a curated subject tour or explore from the map and choose where to go next.
It's a surprisingly absorbing way of looking beyond the familiar postcards. You can drift into spaces you wouldn't necessarily stumble across during a normal day in the centre, then click through to learn more about different colleges and subject areas. There's a version for prospective undergraduates and another for postgraduates, but nobody needs an application form just to enjoy looking around.
Open the University of Cambridge virtual tour ↗
2. Meet the creatures of the Museum of Zoology
There's a reason the Museum of Zoology is such a wonderful place in real life: the fin whale skeleton at the entrance is enormous, and behind it are cabinets of animals, some familiar, some wonderfully strange.
Its online offering is a series of guided videos rather than a walk-anywhere 360 tour. You can join assistant director Jack Ashby for a longer introduction to the collection, explore the museum's Bridging Binaries tour about animal behaviour and identity, or follow a very fast five-minute highlights visit with two zoology students.
That's a lovely combination. If you're curious, choose the longer tour; if you just want something enjoyable while your tea brews, five minutes is enough to fall down a new little rabbit hole. Watch the virtual Zoology tours ↗.
3. Listen to the rooms at Kettle's Yard
Kettle's Yard is the sort of place that makes you pay attention to a single pebble. Jim and Helen Ede's home is filled with thoughtful arrangements of art, furniture, found objects and light. Even a simple white wall feels like part of the composition.
There are two different ways to explore online. The website has a searchable collection database, ideal for discovering works and artists. For something more immersive, its free Bloomberg Connects guide brings audio stories, highlights and reflections from curators, artists and people connected to the house. The ReCollection oral-history archive adds actual voices to the story.
This one rewards headphones and a little time. Browse a painting, hear someone speak about it, then follow an entirely different object. Explore the house, collection and audio ↗.
4. Peer inside the Centre for Computing History
Maybe you remember the sound of a floppy drive, the first game you ever played, or the moment a home computer felt like a doorway into something enormous. Cambridge's Centre for Computing History is one of the most hands-on places in the city for that kind of nostalgia.
Its visitor page offers a 360-degree tour of the museum, useful for peeking at the interior before making the journey out to Coldhams Road. The actual museum is famous for the playable machines and old games, so this online tour is more of a tantalising look inside than a full substitute for getting your hands on a keyboard.
Find the 360° museum tour ↗. And if you want to make the trip, there's our Cambridge retro computing guide.
5. Go treasure hunting in the Fitzwilliam Museum's collection
The Fitzwilliam Museum is known for grand rooms and extraordinary art, but its collection goes far beyond the things you happen to see on one afternoon. Its online search lets you browse paintings, drawings, ceramics, sculpture, coins and objects from across the world, often with images you can examine closely.
Don't start with a checklist. Try typing a subject you love: flowers, cats, a colour, a place or an artist's name. One little image can lead to another, and before long you've assembled a private gallery of things that surprised you.
Explore Fitzwilliam artworks and objects ↗.
6. Open the Whipple Museum's cabinet of strange inventions
Cambridge's Whipple Museum collects the tools people have used to understand the world, from astronomy and optics to calculating devices and curious scientific models. It's exactly the kind of collection that becomes even more interesting when you can zoom in on a small instrument and wonder how on earth it was supposed to work.
Its online portal lets you search more than 13,000 records, including objects and trade literature. There are dedicated themes around globes, meteorology, microscopes and calculating devices if you want a less random starting point.
Enter the Whipple collections portal ↗.
7. Get lost in the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology's archive
The Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology cares for a staggering range of artefacts and photographs, from ancient archaeology to contemporary creative work. Its online collection database gives you another kind of virtual visit: the freedom to move between objects, places, images and stories at your own pace.
There are more than 175,000 object records, many with images, alongside a photographic collection that offers remarkable windows into the lives and histories attached to particular places. Some searches become unexpectedly specific, which is often when museum research gets really interesting.
If you've only got ten minutes, where should you start?
For actual 360-degree roaming, choose the University virtual tour. For a narrated visit, pick the Museum of Zoology. For beautiful atmosphere and stories, head to Kettle's Yard. For the delightful feeling of finding an object nobody else was looking for, try the Whipple Museum.
And if you enjoy digital museum adventures, the University of Cambridge Museums' Explore the Collections hub has another wonderful assortment of films, stories and curious things to follow.
Build your own little world around the discovery
There's a lovely overlap between discovering somewhere online and turning your own screen into a place you enjoy spending time. Calphii is a customisable browser environment with visual scenes, ambience, music, Pixel Pets and focus tools. Put on a gentle soundtrack, open a museum collection in another tab and follow whichever fascinating thing catches your attention.
For a day when you'd rather go out and find these places in person, explore our rainy-day Cambridge escapes. For more unusual digital places beyond Cambridge, there's also our guide to tiny interactive browser worlds. Curiosity is a good reason to open another tab.