Tabling the past

The table tops in the Junior Common Room (JCR) are a beautiful synergy of old and new.

The table tops were fashioned from the benches in Lecture Theatre A, which was for a century in the Victoria Wing of Main Building, which faces the Library. Many alumni will recall this room, which was used for Theological Hall lectures. It had tiered wooden benches and desks as well as a blackboard and pulpit-style lectern. There was also a small organ suggesting the space was used for services.

During the many decades of teaching in the room, students used to carve their names into the long wooden desks that stretched the length of the space. The desks became a gallery of names and small designs cataloguing the generations of Ormondians who had sat there. At one time, name carving was such a pastime that older alumni speak of the lecture theatre being known as the ‘carving room’, and students taking in tools for the purpose.

In 2010, with the Theological Hall no longer using the lecture theatre, the benches and desks were removed during the conversion of the room into the Middle Common Room. The desk timbers with their elaborate carvings were repurposed as table tops for the Junior Common Room, which was being concurrently remodelled into the JCR Café. The tables continue to serve current Ormondians as they meet, study and relax. The result is a beautiful synergy of old and new where older alumni still find their names and those of classmates when they visit.