STANDING THE TEST OF TIME A li Harber may only have arrived this year at Win Coll , from Benenden , to oversee the introduction of girls to the College as well as the development of the new girls ’ boarding houses , but her roots at the school go back a long way — to the ’ 90s when her brothers were in Beloe ’ s , under Michael Nevin .
‘ The story in my family goes like this : my first experience of Winchester College was when I was a babe in arms , and I was passed over to Lindsay Nevin on a visit . And then I sat in Beloe ’ s kitchen repeatedly over the years when I was very little . For my father to look now and see his youngest daughter in this kind of position is taking a little bit of adjustment ! But my memories of Winchester when I was young are always of the happiest times , mainly spent with Michael Nevin ’ s dog , Jasper , in Beloe ’ s garden .’
The task of overseeing the project to introduce 100 girls into the school across two new boarding houses is surely the most challenging part of the new Vision for Winchester College . And Ali Harber sets the challenge out clearly :
Opposite page : In front of Outer Gate
‘ We ’ ve got to make sure that we build boarding houses which will both stand the test of time and enable the bestquality pastoral care of teenage girls . It ’ s tremendously exciting to look at what that pastoral care will be like , what the boarding houses will look like , and how they will take shape . At the same time we need to remember Winchester ’ s current architecture , and must not try to create something that is radically different ; what we currently have is actually very fine !
‘ So , we ’ ve got this vision , but the detail is also important : how will the lived experience work in practice ? We must recognize that , when we create these spaces , they ’ re going to be fully inhabited by girls who will want to put their own stamp on them ; so we mustn ’ t over-structure them . The spaces themselves must allow the girls to come in and say “ We want the inside to look a bit like this ”, or “ We want the outside area to look like this ”; that ’ s better than us simply imposing our own ideas .’
These will be the first new boarding houses in a century . It ’ s interesting to think how they ’ ll be different from others in the school , which already has
23