Cambridge: The new Kitchens and Servery at Jesus College, under construction 2020-22.
Visuals: Rendered Image Ltd.
After seven years of painstaking work to secure the agreement of Cambridge City Council, Historic England and of course the College itself, construction of the New Kitchens began in September 2020; this final phase of the project will take two years. The Old Kitchens had hardly changed in size or location since they served the Benedictine Nunnery of St Radegund in the Twelfth Century. At that time, it is thought that meals for perhaps thirty mouths were required each day. The numbers increased a little when the buildings were converted to become Jesus College in 1496, and, by 2020, the Kitchens were sometimes producing as many as a thousand meals in a day. Unsurprisingly, they were by then far too small, far too cold in winter and far too hot in summer. Plus, the routes by which food was brought from the Kitchens to several Dining Halls and Rooms on different floors, were tangled with the routes by which College members and guests reached their tables. Nor was there a lift for wheelchair users.
The new arrangement will extend the size of the Kitchen by around 60%, add a large basement to house plant rooms, stores and a wine cellar, and provide several new staircases and four new lifts to separate the served from the servers, as well as speeding the delivery of the food. To achieve such significant alterations within a Grade 1 Listed Building is, for an architect, challenging, complex and very satisfying. For the College, of course it is disruptive and expensive, but will also bring better working conditions, a smaller carbon footprint, much greater convenience, and hotter food for many many years.
Other projects completed in 2020:
Cambridge: New Dining Halls, Servery and Kitchens in ‘The Forum’ at Jesus College, for use during the construction project described above, and afterwards for Conference use.