At the centre of Parker’s Piece in Cambridge stands a special lamppost. This landmark is decorated with heraldic dolphins and etched with the words ‘reality checkpoint’.
Whatever ‘reality’ you face as you stare up at the nineteenth-century, cast-iron pole (possibly your vulnerable position as bikes approaching from the four paths intersecting at the lamppost career towards you), there is one truth that has been lost to time. Nobody knows exactly why this landmark is called ‘reality checkpoint’.
There are plenty of theories. Some believe the spot symbolises the separation of the university and the ‘real’ world beyond. Others link the lamppost to the drunkenness that often comes with being a university student: either its four lights guide merry students, as the only lights for over one hundred metres, or it is a spot where students can check their ability to walk in a straight line before passing the nearby police station.
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In 2017, artist Emma Smith, who collected the theories behind the lamppost and created a display on the topic for the Museum of Cambridge, said: “Reality checkpoint is set in the centre of Parker’s Piece, an extraordinary plot of land that has been the site of numerous future predictions, foresights and inventions.”
Today, a ‘dinky door’ is placed at the bottom of the lamppost, on which a notice states: “On holiday. Please check reality yourself. Thanks xxx” Find out more about Cambridge’s ‘dinky doors’ here.