Reality Checkpoint is the name given to a large lamp-post in the middle of Parker's Piece, Cambridge, England,[1] located at the intersection of the park's diagonal paths.[2] The name comes from an unofficial inscription which has been painted on the lamp-post since the early 1970s. The lamp-post is also believed to be the oldest electrical lamp-post in Cambridge.[3]
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There are four main theories as to the meaning of the name. It may mark the boundary between the central university area of Cambridge (referred to as the 'reality bubble') and the 'real world' of non-academic locals living beyond. One is warned to check one's notions of reality before passing.[4] For students at Cambridge, who walk out to Mill Road across Parker's piece for an evening in the 'real world', usually including a visit to one of Mill Road's selection of pubs, the lamp-post marks the end of the 'reality holiday' as they walk back to central Cambridge - back into 'the bubble'.
The second suggestion is that the name arose because the lamp-post forms a useful landmark for people crossing the park at night — perhaps inebriated or in the fog — since it is the only light for hundreds of yards. The third suggestion is that, being drunk, students and the general public are reminded to check they are able to walk like a sober person before passing the police station just a few hundred metres away.[5] The fourth suggestion relates it to the post being situated in the middle of two walking paths that intersect; anyone walking whilst not tuned in to "reality" will likely collide with the lamp-post, hence "reality checkpoint".
The age of the original lampost is rather sketchy. However the post above the dolphins was torn down by American GI's celebrating VJ, the end of the war with Japan. In 1947 the lampost was repaired by a local metalworks firm, George Lister & Sons, Cambridge. The work was done by foreman Mr Sam Mason, assisted by a young apprentice, Tony Challis, who did the scrollwork at the top of the lampost. Mr Challis still lives in Cambridgeshire, and is also responsible for the ornate railings found at Granchester Meadows.
One report claims that the name was first painted on the lamp-post by students from CCAT (now Anglia Ruskin University) under the guidance of one of their teachers.[3]
It has been repeatedly repainted since then in response to removal by Cambridge City Council or obliteration by graffiti. For the first half of 1998 the lamp-post carried an unofficial plaque bearing its name, until removed by the council.[2]
Comedian Ben Miller featured the lamppost in his BBC Two physics documentary 'What Is One Degree?' for the science series Horizon.[6] At that time the lamppost had the words 'Reality Checkpoint' scratched into its paintwork in at least two places.