The Corpus Clock

The Corpus Clock sits on the facade of Corpus Christi College in Cambridge, and it's genuinely one of the strangest timepieces you'll ever lay eyes on. Designed by sculptor John Taylor and installed in 2008, the thing looks like a giant golden mechanism has been bolted to the building - all exposed gears, moving parts, and an unsettling lack of numbers. Instead of telling time in any conventional sense, it displays the hours and minutes through a series of perforations that light up from within.

What makes it properly weird is the grasshopper that crawls around the outer edge, "eating" seconds at an alarmingly fast pace - it's supposed to represent time devouring itself. Every hour, it jumps back to start the whole process again. It's been described as looking like something from a steampunk fever dream, and that's not wrong.

You can see it clearly from the street without needing to enter the college (which is handy if you're not keen on the tourist shuffle through academic quads). It takes five minutes to glance at, maybe ten if you're actually interested in how the mechanics work. History buffs and design enthusiasts will find it genuinely fascinating; families with restless kids might find it a bit abstract.

Cambridge itself has no shortage of attractions, so the Corpus Clock works best as a deliberate stop whilst wandering between punting on the Cam and exploring the colleges. If you're staying at one of the nearby caravan sites like Cherry Hinton or Camping and Caravanning Club Site, it's just a short drive into the city centre.