“It will be much better than the old one and has been designed with a much better layout,’’ he says. “We have appreciated that we have been able to have input into this design. It will have an open plan layout so the boys will be able to see the chefs working in the kitchen – much like in a contemporary café. “There is no doubt not being onsite has meant a few extra pressures, but staff have been coping really well.’’
shake of such magnitude, compared with say the Great Hall in the Arts Centre which is a similar size. The boys were back in the Dining Hall in three weeks.
“It is a great testament to foresight,” he says.
Dining Hall manager Paul Cook is looking forward to moving into the new kitchen at the beginning of next year.
History of the Tower and Kitchen
The Tower and kitchen at Christ’s College were originally constructed in 1925 as part of a newMemorial Dining Hall to a design by architect Cecil Wood. Upper floors originally housed accommodation for kitchen staff and maids with the tower (facing into the Quad) containing dining rooms for staff, tutors and visitors. The design is generally in a Collegiate Gothic style adapted by Wood to suit the complex floor plans. On the Quad side, a tower with a distinctly Norman look was cleverly used to marry the elevations of the new Dining Hall to the classroom building which was already stood on the site. The tower which links Harper– Julius with the Dining Hall was not part of the original plan, but when the present Dining Hall site was chosen, it became an architectural necessity. The two upper floors of the tower provided 15 single rooms for live-in domestic staff, but the big bonus was space for a College hospital. In 1920, the school was hit by an influenza epidemic. At one stage 100 boys were down with it and the school had to be closed and the boys were sent home. When the decision was made in 1921 to move the site of the Dining Hall, it was decided it was important to have a hospital included in the tower.
The completed hospital took up two floors and had all necessary hospital facilities, a flat for the Sister, several sick rooms and a large balcony suitable for convalescents overlooking the Quad.
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College Issue 30 2016
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