Dutch Courage

The Holland Club has closed. The space will be redeveloped by College and Commercial Services into something new. Apparently, everyone was crying out for more food outlets. Dinner and such. So what will become of the space, now called Level 0? Well, Eastside 2.0 is what I hope it doesn’t become. We already have one of those, why add another in a slightly different location. I also really hope someone “trendy” doesn’t think Level 0 is a postmodern, clever name to call it.

So, here’s a solution that I think sounds sensible. If there was a massive need for more catering places then why not do two things: 1. Make what you have better and more efficiently run. 2. Work with the Holland Club to keep it there as it is and just add pub food at lunch and dinner. Seems like a really simple solution really. I mean, you have a pub, you want food. It isn’t a stretch to say that you could convert that pub into one that serves pub food.

Apparently there wasn’t the facility for that. The obvious solution is to tear down the place and completely rebuild it. I’m joking, that’s not the obvious solution. To me at least, the solution is to create the facilities you need to make pub food (oven and stuff in other, less grand sounding, terms than “facilities”).

All that would have needed to be done would have been to say to the Holland Club that they have to provide food, and then help them provide food. College could have just worked together with the Holland Club to make a kitchen. If the Holland Club didn’t have the money, then College could have paid for it and then recouped the expenses by taking a cut of the profits made by the Holland Club.

Yeah, it would cost the College a penny or two, but it would have made back the money in the end. Crucially, it would also have meant that the whole long affair (tempted to use the word omnishambles) would not have been forced to occur. Plus, it would cost a lot less than studying, taking it down, starting again, and then rebuilding and running it. The added benefit to College is that they don’t even need to run the place: that’s done for them by the Holland Club. They just provide the initial funding (if needed) and then sit back and let the money roll in back to them. Maybe someone should do a feasibility study on that?

Perhaps the solution would mean that the College would feel like they wouldn’t have a say in the matter at all. Well, people can work together can’t they? Plus they could stipulate that if it starts losing money (which is a criteria of “success” I guess) then they step in and change a few things.

Then there would be no closure and no staff and students being annoyed, and no Club with no room. There would be a nice pub to eat food in for postgraduates, and everyone is a winner.

I honestly don’t see why the Holland Club and College can’t work together to renovate the space a bit (sorry, but the toilets could use a bit of a refurbishment) and re-open it, with similar decor and atmosphere, as the Holland Club, but with added food at lunch and dinner times. In fact, the doors aren’t bolted yet, so surely there’s still time for this?

What saddens me really is that in a few years everyone will forget that the Holland Club existed there. It’ll be a mere curiosity. There’ll be no outrage and upset then. Of course the people in College will know that. They’ll know that they can waltz in and no-one will remember it years later. Build it and they will come. People will go to it because it’s there, it’s going to be not too expensive, and it’ll be convenient.

Time will tell if the Holland Club will move to a new location.