Sep 23 2016

Autumn term has started and we’re now just days away from the launch of the new Boilerhouse Café!

Work has been progressing well and the inside of the north wing of the café is rapidly coming together.  The original brick walls and wooden supports on the ceilings have led some of our staff to start referring to this part of the café as the ‘stable block’, and it certainly retains some of the Victorian features of the stables that once housed the horses that brought coal up to the Boilerhouse from Egham.  It’s also starting to gain many of the more modern features that the café will have, however – including the dozens of charging points along the north wall and the modern state-of-the-art servery and coffee machines.


The entrance to the spacious new servery area, before and after

Attached to the refurbished stable block area are the new toilets for the facility.  These thoroughly modern, gender neutral toilets now have a refurbished self-cleaning skylight, letting lots of natural light in and giving toilet users a wonderful view of the Boilerhouse chimneys, framed by the original wooden beams of the Boilerhouse. (don’t worry, you can’t see in from the outside!)

Boilerhouse Cafe - new bathroom skylight
A ‘loo with a view’! That’s right, we said it

The new pavilion in the Boilerhouse courtyard is also making excellent progress, and the copper roof is now complete.  We can now add the metal framing and glass exterior, making the building watertight and ready for furnishing.  The pavilion is emblematic of the project as a whole, bringing together original fixtures (like the brick exterior wall), natural materials (with new wooden beams and the copper roof) and state-of-the-art technology (such as the ground source heat pump) in one unified building.

Boilerhouse copper roof in progress
The new copper roof, shining and complete

When will the new café open?

Good question!  In our last update we said that the café would be open during Welcome Week, with the pavilion open later in October.  We’re still on track to complete the project in October, but while we could have rushed to open the café this week (with lots of things left to do) we’ve taken the difficult decision to delay the opening until Thursday 6 October, when the stable block, lounge and servery, and the courtyard seating area will be open (with the café seating in the pavilion to open towards the end of October).  By opening a little bit later users of the café will get a much better experience, giving our café staff more time to train and familiarise themselves with the new facility while also meaning fewer construction workers bustling around trying to finish things.

The main cause of the delay was the drainage underneath the courtyard, which turned out to be in a much worse condition than we thought.  The drainage is hugely improved, which will make a big difference to the building in future, but it has slowed the building works down while we sorted it all out.

We might quietly open the café a few days beforehand for staff training, so if you’re walking past and you notice it’s not cordoned off do come in – you might be able to get a coffee before everyone else does!

Starbucks coffee and more choice of food

Starbucks have been on campus this week to install the coffee machines in the Boilerhouse Café and to deliver their signage and other equipment, while we’ve now finished fitting out the servery area with new chilled, ambient and heated food and drink displays.  The new café will have a wide choice of hot and cold food and drinks available, with a wider selection than the old Café Jules.  We’re very excited to see what you think of the new food offer when the café opens!

Boilerhouse Cafe - stable block seating in progress
The wall along the north side of the café has dozens of power outlets – ideal for charging laptops or tablets while you enjoy your coffee

Open until 11pm on weekdays

We’re also pleased to announce that from the beginning of November the opening hours for the new café will be much longer than those for the old Café Jules, as the Boilerhouse Cafe's opening hours will be extended to 8.30am – 11pm, Monday to Friday.  This means the Boilerhouse Café will be open and welcoming after evening events in the Windsor Building, for example, or a comfortable place to hang out late after a long evening in the Library.

Questions?

That’s it from us – by the time we write our next update in a few weeks’ time the Boilerhouse Café should be open and ready for business.

As always, if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to email the estate plan team.