Reality Checkpoint

Reality Checkpoint is a large cast-iron lamppost in the middle of Parker's Piece, Cambridge, England,[1] at the intersection of the park's diagonal paths.

A lamp at the centre of Parker's Piece was first proposed in 1890[8] and work commenced in January 1894, when a pipe was laid from Parkside, running parallel with the path opposite Melbourne Place.

[14] In 2016–17 Cambridge City Council restored the lamppost, reinstating its earlier colours of moss green, red, white and gold, and casting any new parts as required.

[17][18] One report claims that the name was first painted on the lamppost in the early 1970s by students from Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology (now Anglia Ruskin University) under the guidance of one of their teachers.

[5] In 2017 two brothers, David and Sandy Cairncross, revealed that they had been responsible for repainting it in bright colours in October 1973, a task undertaken with the written permission of Geoffrey Cresswell, the Cambridge City Engineer.

The Cairncrosses confirmed that the name "Reality Checkpoint" had previously been inscribed in marker pen on the pillar "a year or two earlier" and that their painting of the name was initially a placeholder for more sophisticated lettering.

[5] On how the lamppost got its name, David acknowledged the influence of Checkpoint Charlie during the Cold War and the popularity of Carlos Castaneda’s memoir A Separate Reality (1971).

The inscription was restored in June 2017 by the artist Emma Smith, with the approval of the Cambridge City Council, as part of the art project "Hunch" commissioned by the University Arms Hotel.