Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

As a (for the most part) non-smoker, I always found it difficult to understand why smokin' folks kept on going to the notoriously well-known smoking venues when it stood to reason they'd get busted on a regular basis. And why the hell were the Cowsheds called cowsheds anyway, when they were merely an equipment store? And did anyone really bother walking all the way to the Bird Sanctuary just for a quick cig? And did anyone who smoked at the Cut ever fall onto the railway line?

Me, I experimentally bought a pack of 10 Guards (extinct) once from a wall-attached all-weather cig machine (extinct) in Horsham, discreetly smoked 'em alone by Doctor's Lake, then packed in. Did I miss anything massive by not lurking behind the Cowsheds on a regular basis?

'Twas always the 'drying-room' under Coleridge in the Tube for me !.

The dank musty smell of rugby kit always masked the smell of the dreaded weed, and not too far to walk, either !

'Twas always the 'drying-room' under Coleridge in the Tube for me !.

The dank musty smell of rugby kit always masked the smell of the dreaded weed, and not too far to walk, either !

(That damn echo's back !! )

Is it? Is it? Is it? Is it? Is it?

Well, the Bird Sanctuary was used quite a lot - a bit of a trek, but quite sociable (you'd meet other groups of smokers there).

I think that where you smoked may have depended to some extent on which house you were in and on the group of people who used to smoke with you. The Cut seemed to be used mostly by Peele and Thornton types, as is was quite handy for them.

The railway crossing (now sealed off) was quite popular, as was the tube (a bit risky), East Gun Copse (I got caught there a couple of times, though), the Music School bush, behind the Theatre (risky), Music School roof, Bocker's Club hole (again, a bit of a trek), the bus shelter opposite the (now defunct) post office (hours of darkness only), any tree which had plenty of foliage would also do. Doctor's Lake was nice, particularly in the summer, the cowsheds (didn't go there much myself), behind the Manual School (or whatever it's called now), Squash Courts (again a bit risky, but quite handy later in the evenings).

Sometimes a really heavy mist used to cover the whole site - when this happened you could walk around smoking just about anywhere, as you couldn't be seen from more than about 5 yards away.

Personally, I used the tube quite a lot (pressures of time, etc). Dank and smelly, but it served the purpose.

I also remember the fag machine in the Carfax - wouldn't last a Friday night nowadays.

In modern times the following places were used:

1. MSB - Music School Bush - even though this was cut down on a regular basis - it was still widely used...

2. The art school bogs - now sadly gone

3. The pavilions - popular with Grecians in the new 'residences'

4. 'Bailey's' - so called because it was next to Bailey's house in East Gun Copse before Grecian's east was built...

5. Sicker Bushes - bushes by the sicker - regularly busted by Messers Talkinton and O'Meara who lived above them....

6. Chelsea - the now sadly extinct bushes behind Barnes...

7. The copse behind Thornton

8. The Cut...

i can shed a little light on the subject.

bird sanc was a trek from anywhere but GrW (which is where i had to walk from) but it was safe enough unless you were one of those idiots that made a lot of noise when smoking . if you knew it well enough, there were always places to hide/run.
me and some army cadet buddies used to go there after CCF, that way if we got asked what we were doing there we just said 'looking for a beret', which could then be conveniently 'found'. this trick worked almost anywhere when in combats, or even not. you just had to carry your beret in your pocket.

some places were used even though they got bust because:
there are a limited number of places to smoke, and the teachers know where they all are anyway.

the five-yard mist was fantastic. especially seeing as we got it a lot in winter. the best place to go then was the middle of big side.

what the estate staff don't seem to grasp is that every time they prune MSB, it grows back thicker and stronger.

smoking in the tube used to make me so paranoid and tense that i had to go for a cigarette somewhere else afterwards anyway.

fags rolled with brown licorice papers couldn't be spotted by busting staff if you threw them on the floor.

Hendrik, was it you that made that fantastic smoker's den in the Bird Sanc complete with benches and litter bins?

i wish i could claim that i had, it was initiated by a friend in the same house (PM for details).
twas a nice little bush, you're right. just to the left of the drive to whoever's house that is. it was nearly rain-proof - thus stopping one's uniform from getting too muddy. it had bins and ash-trays and a spike in the ground to shove empty packets on. infact: given that we grecians were told explicitly that we were allowed to smoke in bird sanc, the whole thing made it more civilised, our uniforms were less dirty, it kept the copse tidy, it encouraged people not to smoke in mr holdsworths lovely pavillion, and we even bannished non-grecians from it; what justification did some nasty, spiteful, vandalising, immature, counter-intuitive, promise-breaking members of staff have to destroy it several times over?
...uh-oh...feel a mega-rant coming on......quick hide..... phew, managed to suppress it. instead, if any members of staff read this, PM me and I'll rant at you!

I was most upset when that bush was destroyed as when I was 11 it was one of my 'look out bases' from the Bird Sanc....

Hendrik wrote:...given that we grecians were told explicitly that we were allowed to smoke in bird sanc....

How thoughtful of the authorities!

Actually, I don't remember anyone being caught smoking in the bird sanc. in my day - there seemed to be a sort of implicit understanding that it was a safe place in which to indulge. A kind of "out of sight, out of mind" situation I suppose.

Any of my contemporaries may remember otherwise, though.

Nobody's mentioned smoking in their own study - which I certainly did every now and then (with joss sticks burning at full blast). Also there was the quiet room roof and those roomy ventilation tunnels under the air passages which you could easily reach with a quick scramble (pausing only to slip off the roof and bust your head on the courtyard paving stones).

J.R.'s reminiscences about smoking in the Tube suggest that it was a very different place in his day from how it was in mine. The whole concept of the Drying Rooms was utterly bizarre in my time; almost without exception they were dank, rot-stinky places with puddle-strewn floors. The idea of using them for drying anything seemed insane at the time and presumably seems even more insane now. I only recall smoking in one once and there was no pleasure in it - it was like inhaling wet rot through a roll-up. (It'd be interesting to know just when the Tube stopped being dry and became the sewer we all came to love.)

I remember how inadvisable it was to smoke cigars at school; the aroma could be detected from way off. I used to cycle out to discreetly distant woodland when I wanted one. (Though why I imagined I wanted one, I've no idea.)

Nobody's mentioned smoking in their own study

terrible thing, smoke alarms ...

Yes, Jack - The Tube was dirty, damp, dank and wet in the winter, hence fairly safe from Masters.. The drying room had all the hot pipes running through it for the central heating. (Central Heating ? That's a joke in its self !)

I understand from a recent visit that the tube is sealed and out of bounds due to asbestos. Makes you wonder just how much we inhaled along with the dreaded nicotine !

well part of the reason i found the tube unsuitable was the asbestos, and the famously leaky gas mains. both of which made it very, very, against the rules to even be down there, yet alone smoke down there.

similar thing with smoking in my study. of course i did it a few times, but if the draught happened to be going in the window and not out, the dorm was flooded with the smell. seeing as joss sticks were banned towards the end of my time, this only signposted to someone smoking in the house. not to mention the sh1t you got in if you got caught.