College Facilities

JCR Bar

Fed up with study? Need a break in the evening? Time to hit the bar! The JCR Bar is located behind the library inside the Butterfield Building and is open at 8pm - 11.30pm (Sunday - Friday) and 8pm - 12am (Saturdays). Downing is proud to have one of the few student-run bars in Cambridge. The bar is a non-profitmaking organisation, ensuring that your drinks are as cheap as possible. With a specially extended licence in Michaelmas and Lent terms, going to the bar is a great way to spend the evening with friends.

TV Room

The JCR TV Rooms are a great place to go and relax with your friends. You can watch all the terrestrial channels, DVDs or even plug in your games consoles. The TV Room usually gets very busy during big sporting events so be sure to get there early! You can find the TV Rooms located on S Staircase. There is also a television in the JCR.

Music Facilities

There are several places in college where you can practice your music without fear of upsetting anybody else.
To find out more about the music societies in Downing, visit the societies page.

  • The Music Room in the West Lodge (E staircase) can be booked for practice and events through the conference office.
  • There is a separate practice room (V4) that can be booked via the Porter's Lodge.
  • The piano in the chapel can also be booked for practice at certain times of the day- Just sign up on the list in the chapel!

Performances often take place in the Music Room, the Master's Lodge, the Maitland Room (West Lodge), the Chapel and the Howard Building.

Gym

The Lt. Col. Anderson Fitness Room (as it is formally known) is equipped with a range of cardiovascular and individual resistance equipment and is located behind the Howard Theatre. There are toilets and showers on site. There is also a drinking water supply. It is open to all members of the college at a cost of £22 membership per year.

Before you first access the facilities, there is a mandatory induction session that you must attend. To book your place on the next one, email Helin Machin in the HR Office ([email protected]). At present the induction session costs £12 per person.

When using the facilities, be aware of other users. At peak times please refrain from using a machine for more than twenty minutes. Typically busy periods are lunchtimes and early evening. Please take a towel and wipe sweat off equipment after use.

Key fobs to open the door are signed out from the Porters' lodge. They must be returned as soon as possible after use, and in any case within 24 hours. There are stiff penalties for retention.

Sports Facilities

We have netball and tennis courts on site, and these can be booked out via a form on the College Intranet. There is also a basketball hoop on these courts.The sports pitches are located on Grantchester Road. Here there are football and rugby pitches.

View Downing College Sports Ground in a larger map

Computer Room

The Computer Room is located behind T staircase and is open 24 hours a day - perfect for those last-minute essay writing sessions. You need a code to get in which you can get from the Porters' Lodge (or just knock and someone will probably let you in).

The room contains 18 PCs, 1 Mac, printers (printing is 2p a sheet) and a scanner. All of the computers are connected to the Cambridge network and offer internet access, e-mail facilities and access to the Public Workstation Facility (PWF). The PWF allows you to use various software packages in these categories:

  • Communications and Networking
  • Databases
  • E-mail clients
  • Graphics and Presentation
  • Programming Languages
  • Spreadsheets and Statistics
  • Teaching Packages
  • Utilities and Accessories
  • Word and Text Processing