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St Catharine’s opens new temporary hall and kitchen in Main Court

Friday 18 December 2020
 

St Catharine’s College today announced the opening of a new temporary structure as part of the relocation of its kitchen and dining hall to Main Court on the Island site until 2022. The spaces previously used for catering and dining will not be accessible while the College undertakes essential renovations as part of the Central Spaces project.

Deborah Loveluck, Director of Development, explained, “Our vision for St Catharine’s set out in 'Our College, Our Future' identified a pressing need to renovate, modernise and integrate the facilities at the heart of the Island site for the benefit of future generations of students, alumni, staff, Fellows and visitors. Today represents the start of a new chapter in the history of St Catharine’s and brings us a step closer to achieving our ambitions.”

The College has chosen to name the new structure ‘the Catzebo’, which was selected from a wide-ranging and inventive list of suggestions submitted by students and staff in recent weeks while the structure was being installed.

Pictured: Installation of the Catzebo began in November and was completed this month.  

Professor Sir Mark Welland, Master of St Catharine’s, commented, “It was my great pleasure to open the Catzebo today as it will be an important fixture of College life until 2022, when the remodelled Hall is due to be completed. In the meantime, I am confident that the Catzebo will provide a welcoming space where we can all take time away from work or studying to connect with others.”

From today, the rich variety of eat-in and take-away meals that were previously offered in the College’s existing Hall are now available from the Catzebo. The temporary space can host up to 44 diners seated 2 metres apart and over 200 diners when social distancing measures are able to be removed.

Helen Hayward, Operations Director, added, “We are incredibly proud of the way students, staff and Fellows have worked together to enable us to get to this significant milestone in the Central Spaces project. I particularly appreciate the dedication and flexibility of the College’s catering team, who have done an amazing job serving our community during the first phase of this project. They seamlessly delivered nutritious and tasty food whilst being exceptionally busy transferring equipment and supplies from the old kitchens to the Catzebo."

Pictured (from left to right): Ana, Alan, Sasha and the rest of catering team helped transfer the College's hall and kitchen faciities to the Catzebo this week.