Staff Spotlight: The Porters

We begin by discussing the role of the Porter, which Kev is keen to express is pretty much a never ending list, and he assures me that there’s at least one job he’s forgotten about.

"So the role of a porter, is multifaceted, and it covers numerous things, and it can be from anything to literally anything, which is quite remarkable, and we're the go to for everybody; staff members, Fellows, visitors, tourists, and they all ask different questions.

We're first aiders, we’re security, the postman, the friendly face of the College, also the front of house, where we're representing Queens' College, so that's quite an important role.

We're Fire Officers, to a certain extent, if any alarm goes off in College, we have to go to it immediately, in case it is a fire and evacuate the buildings if necessary. So that's very important as well. That does go off quite regularly, particularly in term time, it might be that students have just burnt their toast, but the alarm still goes off, but you can never be too sure!

We're a concierge service. We can be asked, anything and everything, such as; 'What time is the next train to Manchester?' or 'How many carriages does the next train to London have?' When we can, we'll always find that information, but that's what I find quite comical about the role of the Porter. Some people expect you to know absolutely everything. Invariably some do.

Now, another biggie that we're fully aware of and deal with on a very regular basis are mental health issues. We get to know a lot of students, we also get to know the way that they carry themselves and their personalities, and if we notice anything that's different to their normal behaviour, we can approach and say, ‘Hello, how are you?’ start a conversation and just see if anything is not right. We get a lot of students who like a particular Porter and it covers quite a lot of us, and they'll always ask to speak to that Porter, to talk about these issues.

We all like the traditions that College has, which is really important as well. We have a number of graduations each year, which are good and enjoyable for all who are involved in it. The Porters dress up, put their bowler hats on, the Head Porter leads the procession with a Fellow, and we have another Porter at the back of the procession walking up to Senate House and that's a lovely thing to do.

We’re also the key holders, for every room in college. Many students on a daily basis lock themselves out, so we always give them the backup key, which they have to return immediately. But that keeps us quite busy as well!

The role covers every aspect and everything that goes on in college. So we do know a lot of things, and we have to put that into operation. It’s interesting because sometimes when there are the occasional quiet days, and if people walk through and not much seems to be happening, we all sometimes think the perception is we do nothing, but from what I've just explained, there is an awful lot that we do and it does keep you very busy."