From the 15th century Cambridge inns begin to figure by name in town rentals, college accounts and deeds of purchase. The 'Angel', the 'Antelope', the 'Black Bull', the 'Black Swan', the 'Boar's Head', the 'Brazen George', the 'Cardinal's Cap', the 'Dolphin', the 'Griffyn', the 'Lilypot', the 'Ram', the 'Star', the 'Sun', the 'Swan', the 'White Hart', and the 'White Horse', are all mentioned before 1500, and the 'Cock', the 'Crane', the 'Falcon', and the 'Lion' occur soon after. The accounts of a Cambridge vintner for 1510 note deliveries of wine to several of the foregoing and also to the 'Vine' and the 'Unicorn'. Some of these were on the sites or in the buildings of former University hostels; many of them were to be swallowed up by University and college buildings. St. Catharine's, for instance, has absorbed the sites of the 'Three Horseshoes', the 'White Swan', and the 'George' (Hobson's property); Corpus has annexed one of the 'Dolphins'; King's cut a new thoroughfare across the site of the 'Boar's Head' and of the 'White Horse' which once earned the nickname of 'Germany' from the meetings of the reformers who came from King's, Queens', St. John's, and the Austin Friars to discuss the new doctrines; the University Press occupies the site of the 'White Lion' and the 'Cardinal's Cap'; the Senate House and its yard have replaced the 'Green Dragon', the New Angel and the Devil Inns, the last the house from which in 1653 the first stage coach ran to London. Across the river, Magdalene has ousted the 'Chequers', the 'Black Boy', the 'Green Peele', and the 'Star'.
On the names of various inns in the city of Cambridge, during the 15th and 16th centuries.
From 'The city of Cambridge: Inns', in A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 3, the City and University of Cambridge, edited by J. P. C. Roach, published 1959.