Previously known as "Crossland's Bungalow" there was a hasty conversion to provide a meeting space where students could get together and socialise. Whereas prior to the arrival of male students gathering in each others rooms was perfectly acceptable it didn't really fit with the mixed-sex community that RHC was to become.So for the first time there was a location where students could meet and buy an alcoholic drink.
The Student Union building was about as far away as you can get from most modern Student Union facilities with their 'flexible use' spaces, snooker tables, widescreen televisions and other assorted bells and whistles. This simple brick and wooden structure, its pretty veranda making it look like a cross between Railway Children style rural platform and colonial type dwelling in the woods, was a hub for much activity throughout the day and evening. By modern standards it was patently inadequate for the role it was expected to perform but for many students its simple charm compensated for other shortcomings.
It provided a busy bar manned only by volunteers as opposed to paid staff, a sandwich bar during the day that provided an alternative to Boog, a pinball machine that was constantly in use by would-be wizards, and a jukebox that played a good variety of music. At weekends it would host STOMP, offering more mainstream music to have a good old bop and a singalong to (all together now,"Hey Ho Silver Lining"), and on Wednesday evenings it was the venue for HEAD, for those who preferred the more alternative music scene. There was no air-conditioning to alleviate the hot and s
weaty conditions generated by our STOMP and HEAD exertions, but in those simpler times we could just fling open the side doors and throw ourselves down on the cool grass of this sylvan setting for a breather and a star-gaze before returning inside for some more whirling dervish impressions! Although these two music evenings were the norm in the early 70s, it would also be interesting to hear about 'booty-shaking' experiences from later in the decade.
On the original website it had its own section on a par with Founders and the halls of residence simply because it provided a fairly central location that everyone could gravitate to and make use of. I had hoped there would be quite a lot of memories forthcoming but alas, that was not to be. However a few people did make comments about some of the original articles so rather than lose these they are now recorded in a blog about the SU. This can be accessed by the link below. I probably had a distorted view as having spent his first two years in Kingswood and therefore had no room to retreat to on campus it was a useful place to go between lectures. It's probably not too much of an exaggeration to say that some students were more familiar with the Union bar than they were with the interior of the library!