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HISTORY I Jesus College Annual Report 2022
Preserving the character of the Dining Hall Nicholas Ray An Emeritus Fellow and Architect describes past decisions about the architecture and design of the Hall, in advance of a full archaeological report
Members of the College will be aware of the substantial building programme nearing completion, effectively extending the kitchens for the first time in more than six hundred years. We will describe the results in a future Annual Report, including exciting archaeological findings – yet to be fully analysed and written up – which cast new light on the history of the Convent of St Radegund and the College that was founded on its site. This short piece acts as an introduction to the topic, concentrating on the work undertaken to the Hall when we anticipated the quincentenary of the College’s foundation, in 1996. The major building project of the period was of course the construction of the Quincentenary Library, where the architects were appointed following a limited architectural competition. It was also decided to refresh the appearance of
the Hall and the Bursar at the time, Professor John Killen, asked me to “prepare a colour scheme”. Older College members will recall that the Hall was a uniform chocolate brown, re-painted many times, with minimal gold leaf gilding on the flat face of the pilasters. I told John it was not a matter of just a colour scheme: decisions had to be taken as to what period the decoration would refer to and that would involve some specialist investigation. The brown colour scheme probably dated from 1875, when Alfred Waterhouse repaired the north-facing oriel window, repaired the chestnut roof, re-arranged the west end screen, and constructed the Little Hall, subsequently demolished in the 1960s. The panelling itself, however, was early eighteenth-century, dating from 1703 to be precise. A Committee was established, and we interviewed several architects working in historic building conservation, appointing Richard Griffiths for an early job in a career which has subsequently involved major conservation work in London and elsewhere. Paint layers were carefully scraped to try and find evidence of the original decorative scheme, but Waterhouse appeared to have stripped it all very thoroughly, so the committee considered alternative schemes from the early eighteenth-century – the heyday of English Baroque. The one we chose was based on that used in a room at Windsor Castle. I was aware that it would be difficult to explain such radical proposals to the
