The former City Arms changed its name to The Dobblers Inn when it became a CAMRA Investments pub in 1982.
I have long wondered what a ‘dobbler’ might be, and recently I found out: it’s a local term for a rag and bone man, one of whom had a yard nearby, apparently. I suppose the sign might have been a bit of a clue, if only I’d bothered to look closely. But I didn’t in those days.
I suspect the word, like the trade itself, is plummeting towards obsolescence now that this part of Cambridge is getting more gentrified.
