Pauline’s mug

One day, at a time when various other projects had stalled somewhat, I found myself over in the other side of the building. Thinking I’d grab something to eat, I wandered into Pauline’s.

For want of a better term, Pauline was the Department’s resident tea-lady. Tea, coffeee, sandwiches and the usual assortment of crisps and chocolate bars.

When I walked in though, she told me she was retiring at the end of the week.

I felt I needed to use the next few days to document the end of an era: having worked there for over 20 years, Pauline was an institution.

She told me the story of her time in the Department and we reminisced about “sunset tuna” sandwiches and Children in Need collections. She often talked about the students as being “her kids”. She’d even remembered me after 6 years!

However, in the the time since I had been there, the urn and the table bearing rows of food had all been stripped out and replaced with a couple of vending machines. Even the cash box had been replaced with an electronic till…

This was the result of catering being centralised and the ensuing rulings over Health and Safety. No more hand-made sandwiches. No more fresh(ish) tea. Apparently things had been pretty dire over the last couple of years, but Pauline stuck it out ’till she could retire.

I made some sound recordings and took a few photos, but it seemed the most appropriate way of marking the event was to make a commemorative mug.

The design takes several references from the sort of thing you see to mark royal weddings and jubilees, but being hand-drawn in biro, it is kept fairly low key.

The final presentation of Pauline, includes the mug and a short text (written on a Catering Services feedback form).