Old Court reborn

In the summer of 2023, the second and most complicated phase of the project (‘Phase 1b’) was completed. Some people were perhaps starting to wonder if the day would ever arrive. Students who matriculated in October 2020 had never been in Hall. For the past three years, all College dinners (from matriculation to graduation and alumni reunions) had taken place in the Gillespie Centre in Lerner Court – which has certainly proved its worth, underlining the wisdom of our immediate predecessors in developing the old bike-shed area adjacent to Memorial Court.

Piece by piece, the main spaces in Old Court have been handed back to the College. The crane in the Master’s Garden was taken down in mid-March 2023, although the garden itself remained a building site for several months more. In July, the Master moved her study back into the Lodge after two years in temporary digs in Memorial Court. In the Easter Term, the kitchens, buttery and Small Hall reopened – although an unexpected issue with the pot-wash facility temporarily delayed the move of dining back to Old Court. Hall itself, gloriously refurbished and refurnished thanks to the exceptional generosity of a donor (see URL for full details), opened its doors for a series of key College events at the end of the academic year: the tea following the Memorial Service for Anne Brewin, the Lady Clare Dinner for the graduating cohort of 2023, and the 50^th Anniversary Reunion Dinner for those who came up in 1972. In July, the temporary bridge – built to provide access for heavy machinery and materials to Old Court – was dismantled, a complicated and delicate operation taking several weeks and necessitating the night-time closure of the Cam to all traffic.

 Finally, the splendid new River Room café, the envy of students at other colleges, was officially opened in October 2023, at the beginning of the new academic year. Occupying the site of the old 1970s television room, to the north of the Master’s Garden, with spectacular views over the Cam, the café provides seating for some 70 people and has already become a popular place for students, staff and Fellows to have a cup of coffee, meet friends, discuss their work, or simply relax and watch the world go by. The integration of the new facilities with the historic fabric of Old Court is both ingenious and impressive, and has attracted widespread admiration.

 To recap on the scope and progress of the Old Court transformation project, phase 1a was completed in October 2020 after 2 years’ work, and comprised modernisation of the Porters’ Lodge, refurbishment of facilities in the basements of E and G staircases, refurbishment of student rooms in A and B staircases, a new fire escape, the rewiring of C staircase, the construction of a new plant room, and the re-roofing of the North Range. (Leaking roofs had made many of the attic rooms unsafe and uninhabitable.) Phase 1b saw the construction of the River Room café; new steps with a concealed lift to the North Range to allow disabled access to all the main spaces of Old Court (for the first time in the College’s history); the refitting of the main College kitchens; and the construction of a new three-storey extension in the North Passage incorporating a new servery area, toilet and disabled facilities, a lift and fire escape.

 Phase 2, the third and final element, comprises essential repairs, restoration and refurbishment of the East, South and West Ranges, to complement the work already undertaken on the North Range. Starting in September 2023, the three ranges will be re-roofed to make the buildings water-tight and improve energy efficiency, D and E staircases will be re-wired, and rooms in staircases C to E refurbished. Phase 2 will require the erection of external scaffolding, but this will be significantly less intrusive than for Phase 1b. All works on Old Court will be completed by the end of 2025, in time for the College’s 700^th anniversary celebrations in 2026. In the meantime, the Fellows’ and Master’s Gardens are being restored and will be back in service for College access next summer.

 The overall purpose of the Old Court transformation project is to provide the best possible experience for current and future students, so that they can benefit from all the opportunities of a Clare education. Old Court is the beating heart of Clare, so ensuring its long-term conservation, upgrading its facilities, and allowing it to be used flexibly for a range of College activities are core priorities. The Hall is now a wonderful performance space as well as a spectacular dining facility, and the inaugural Hall Concert was held in October 2023.

 Once the Old Court project is fully complete, future generations of Clare members will once again be able to enjoy all the historic spaces in College, and our successors will be spared from having to carry out major works in Old Court for another 300 years or so!