Wolfson celebrates kitchen reopening and renaming of Q Block

Both projects were designed by the architects Berman Gueddes Stretton and built by Benfield & Loxley, the team who are currently responsible for the construction of the Leonard Wolfson Lecture theatre, due to transform the face of the College in 2013.

The new kitchen was opened on Monday after several months of building work to completely refurbish the original kitchen, which was over thirty years old. The architects have aimed to capture the ambience of the dining hall with the colour scheme and features including a copper-fronted servery and Welsh slate floors. At the opening ceremony, kitchen staff were thanked for their hard work and skill in maintaining such high standards working from the temporary kitchen throughout the refurbishment process.

On Tuesday, College President Hermione Lee presided over a ceremony to rename Q Block as the Catherine Marriott Building, after the late wife of a donor who until now had wished to remain anonymous. The residential block, which cost 2.3 million to build, first opened in 2009 as a gift to the College from one of its former Fellows, Dr Francis Marriott. Dr Marriott was a statistician with a keen interest in biology and medicine, who was a Governing Body Fellow of Wolfson from 1970 to 1993 and subsequently an Emeritus Fellow.

At the renaming ceremony, Professor Lee said of Dr Marriott, “with his characteristic quiet modesty, he wished to remain anonymous, although he did discreetly come into College, more than once, to look around his building, and I think he liked what he saw. Dr Marriott sadly died on May 15th this year, and his generosity to the College has continued.”

The ceremony was attended by Dr Marriott's friends, relations, old colleagues, and fellow-Wolfsonians, including Jon Stallworthy, whom Professor Lee acknowledged as a vital and lasting link between Dr Marriott and the College.

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