Orchard Outdoor Furniture

This Summer, St Edmund’s is fundraising for additional outdoor furniture to provide students, staff, and Fellows more space to fully enjoy the College grounds.

With the warm weather here, many of our students have been spending lots of their time outside. St Edmund’s College has beautiful outside space and gardens which students love to spend time in to socialise, study, and picnic, however, the space is significantly underutilised due to the lack of outdoor seating.

The Orchard in particular is a unique part of the College, giving students a serene and quiet area to relax away from other parts of Cambridge which often feel like much more high-pressure environments. With more seating, students could make better use of this space and it would also open up opportunities for more alumni and College events in the Orchard and surrounding grounds.

What are we fundraising for?

All donations will go towards purchasing additional pieces of outdoor furniture, including benches, chairs and tables, and a small number of College branded deckchairs. These are intended to be placed in the Orchard, behind the Garden Room, for all members of the College to use and enjoy but can also be used in other spaces around College if needed.

Why are we fundraising for it?

• We currently have a lack of outdoor furniture, which is not enough to provide for our growing student numbers. The seating areas in the Millennium Garden are often occupied, and we currently only have 3 small tables for the whole of the garden behind College.

• It is essential for our students’ wellbeing to create more social spaces and outdoor areas in College for students to relax and spend time outside, especially with others.

• As a mature and very international College, St Edmund’s has far more students who remain in College over the summer. It is incredibly important that we are able to provide them with the space to be outside and make them feel at home in College.

• Having more outdoor furniture opens up more opportunities for future events, for students, staff, fellows and alumni. For example, this furniture could provide a better experience at our Annual Garden Party, for student or staff barbecues, an outdoor space for drinks receptions held in the Garden Room, and even for apple picking events in the early autumn.

Get a deckchair with your name on it!

Anyone who donates £300 or more has the opportunity to have one of the St Edmund’s deckchairs named for or after them – there are a limited number of these available! These deckchairs would be custom-made with the College's blue stripes.

These are some examples of the kind of furniture we are looking to buy: