![]() ![]() It was apparent that there was no longer any need to hold back redevelopment of the Old Kitchens, and planning began for refitting them as a general purpose reception room or small dining room. Phase 3 of Cripps Court became what is now known as Lyon Court, with the Fitzpatrick Hall theatre, squash courts, new table-tennis room, and so on. ![]() Without prejudice, the college Table-Tennis Club for many years used the derelict kitchens as their home. The Old Kitchens themselves, associated sculleries, and rooms in Essex Building, were left un-redeveloped: at that stage there was uncertainty about what Phase 3 of Cripps Court would be able to offer, so the Old Kitchens and surrounding area were held in reserve for a possible College Centre, or a small theatre. The Buttery rooms north of the Old Kitchen were refitted as forward kitchens and wash-up for servicing functions in the Old Hall, Munro Room, and Old SCR, with the primary cooking having being done in the new kitchens. With the opening of the new Dining Hall and Kitchens in Cripps Court in January 1979, the Old Kitchens were finally closed, stripped out and gutted. Because the Hall was too small to accommodate one year of students at dinner, the Erasmus Room (formerly the Bernard Room) became an overflow dining room, served by a dumb waiter from the kitchens below. ![]() At some time, the kitchens also expanded into the ground floor of C staircase, Old Court, through the back of the former east fireplace. In 1937, probably prompted by the expansion of student numbers following the arrival of Fisher Building, the kitchens were again re-fitted. In 1931, the kitchens were enlarged by the addition of a single-storey extension in Pump Court. The ceiling of the kitchens, also the floor of I2 above (now called the Erasmus Room), was replaced with a concrete ceiling/floor supported by steel joists. The former north wall of the kitchens, which had been a load-bearing wall holding up the dividing wall between I1 and I2 above, was replaced with a massive steel joist. On the ground floor, the kitchens were expanded northwards at the expense of the buttery rooms. Apart from the panelling in room I1, almost nothing survives in other rooms from before 1912. The 1912 refit appears to have been substantial, and affected also the rooms above the kitchens in staircase I, which were all reorganised and remodelled: so much so that it is no longer truly possible to identify where Erasmus might have lived and worked. The date on the desk calendar is 14 June 1912. The Butler’s Office, taken through the west door of the screens passage, looking south-west. On the left is the entry to a staircase down to the cellars below, which was removed during the 1912 refit. The far wall would be moved towards the viewer so that the far window became part of the kitchen. Somehow, the entire college was fed from this kitchen.Ī view of the Buttery, before it was made smaller in 1912 in order to enlarge the kitchens, taken through the east door of the screens passage, looking south. This photograph suffers from some camera shake during the long exposure, but the main layout is clear.Ībove the clock are some antlers and a turtle shell, presumably the relics of some earlier dinner. Thus, long before gas or electricity were used in the kitchen, it was possible to have an automatic roasting spit.Īnother view of the kitchen before the 1912 refit, looking towards the remains of the east fireplace, which appears to be no longer in use, although its flue is being used for some other apparatus on the far left. A large pan underneath collects the fat from the meat as it cooks. The chains come down and cause the roasting spits to rotate in front of the fire, automatically turning the joint of meat being roasted. The fan drives an axle through the front of the fireplace (seen roughly in the centre, just under the lamp shade) where bevel gears transfer the rotation onto a long axle to the right, where pulleys drive chains. An open fire sends hot gases up the flue, inside which there is a fan, turned by the flue gases. ![]() This photograph shows the cooking arrangements of the south fireplace before they were scrapped. ![]()
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