Several floors on the East and West wings of Founders were used for female accommodation. The rooms varied in size with an assortment of single and double occupancy. The majority had magnificent views, with the sports fields to the west and an impressive conifer to the east. Others overlooked the North and South Quads, with some corner rooms boasting a rather lovely raised rounded window area, much too spacious to be referred to as merely a sill.
The bell in the clock tower could be guaranteed to disturb your first few nights there but after that the brain seemed to adjust to it. The rooms had gas fires that could be used for toasting bread or crumpets (not anymore because of fire regulations) which made for a very pleasant snack. Surely there must be a few past Founders residents with a cautionary tale to tell about overdone crumpets combined with burnt fingers which may have added to the statistics that contributed to more stringent fire regulations! On the subject of fire regulations, it would be interesting to know how many parents of Founders residents would have slept less easily in their beds if they'd known that their precious offspring, destined to scale the heights of academic excellence leading to financial security enabling them to take care of their doting parents in their old age, were slumbering in a building whose walls were rumoured to be insulated with straw.
Another novel feature for Founders residents was the bathing experience. These hardy souls did not enjoy the luxury of shower rooms or even the smaller and therefore warmer bathrooms of the more modern halls. Founders offered what was basically a large, often cold room, containing several baths separated by wooden partitions to afford privacy. The partitions were open at the top so bathers could easily hear each other splashing about and doing whatever it is people like to do during their ablutions. While this may have been a fraught experience for those of a shy, more sensitive nature, it could also be quite fun if bathing sessions were timed to co-incide with a friend so it became a more sociable event involving conversational exchanges floating over the partitions.
The spacious corridors of Founders were even wider than some of the actual rooms in the new halls, and along with the broad stone staircases and old-fashioned lifts with their manual doors set Founders apart from all the other accommodation. It certainly had a little touch of Hogwarts about it.
There should be some fascinating articles to be written about living in Founders – so let's see some of them!
The BBC has an intersting article on Founders in the 1090's and 2010's on the BBC Website