Lower Common Room

The Lower Common Room

The Lower Common Room, or 'LCR' as it is known, is directly below the Upper Common Room at the top-end of the Newchurch Building extension to BRGS, besides the main door and toilets, as well as both stairwells leading up to the Canteen and Upper Common Room.

Segregation amongst students at BRGS is not a new concept; the 'UCR' has always been the location of students who are thought to share interests in fashion as well as dance & pop music, whilst the 'LCR' has always been the location of students who could be classed as a "lazy genius" or like to head bang to heavy metal, as well as some students who like to mingle in both Common Rooms.

The Back Wall

The back wall, currently where the CD player is, originally home to pictures of the 2001 fashion show; which 2006-2007's Upper Sixth have recently removed and instead pinned up photographs of days out or fun times together. It is safe to say that none of these pictures are in any way rude or explicit. Depicting memories from such days as the 'Leavers Do '05', vickis halloween party (more to be added soon) and various friendly outings, each picture in some way means something to one of the upper sixth formers. Intruding on these pictures, however, are two infamous characters, also known as Nic (Sanchez the foreign exchange student) and Jonny, have infiltrated ther way onto the BRGS system. Even though they do not, and have never actually attented BRGS, they are as much as a part of the ever circulating friend groups as the many shared bottles of water, or the piece of maths homework that nobody did last night.

Below the out-dated posters, joining the photographs, are a few student time-tables and a large wall-chart of free periods, also devised by Sam which inhabitants of the Lower Common Room can add their name to, in any period where they have a free. The purpose of this, of course, was so that people within the Lower Common Room could easily see who has a free as well as them. Due to the popularity of the wall chart, a bigger one will possibly be required as students have had to start writing their names vertically between spaces in order to fit it in a box.

The CD Player

The LCR has, almost always had a CD player located somewhere within the room. There was a short period during 2003 where the CD player was removed due to repeated arguments over the music played - it was returned a week or so later.

It was again removed mid 2004 due to it having been subject to some rather crude graffiti curtesy of the then upper sixth, and it was also removed towards the tail-end of 2005-2006 for reasons undisclosed and was assumed to have been destroyed. It was thankfully returned by Mr Elkington. This is often surrounded by a single sect of Upper Sixth friends for an entire year until they leave the Sixth Form, and the Lower Sixth assumes control.

The CD player at a busy time is more often than not blaring out bands such as System of a Down, Trivium, Slipknot and Disturbed at deafening volumes. Attempts to change the music genre, or move the CD player to the front of the room often prove futile. It appears that there is always someone controlling the CD player who enjoys heavy metal at every point in the day. There were some attempts to lighten the mood in the room on some occasions. One memorable occasion was late 2003 when a large crowd protected the CD player from being stopped when the Grease soundtrack was being played.

There are many people amongst the usual frequenters of the LCR who would like to keep the legacy and tradition of music style. It was a sorry shame to see the Upper Sixth of 2005-2006 leave, taking with them legends such as Carley, Danny, Ben and Sarah who keep the spirit of Lower Common Room together.However, this 'legacy' has now been passed onto the Upper Sith of 2006, Chris, Sam, Becky and Dani, who take it upon themselves personally to turn the music up, and the bass down, and listen to the sounds of wondrous bands, that only they seem to appreciate.

Currently, an aerial of wire has been soldered into the back of the CD player by Wez and Chris, and leading up the notice board at the back of the room ends being coiled around a piece of wood wrapped in tin foil.

There is growing resentment, especially amongst those who congregate round the front of the Lower Common Room at the choice of music being played. Several plans have come together to take the CD player and bring it to the front of the room, none of these have been fruitful however.

The LCR UVI Poster Wall

The Poster Wall

The Lower Sixth of 2005-2006, now the Upper Sixth of 2006-2007, came up with the idea at the end of the academic year to pull down the useless posters that were years out of date and instead pin up self-portraits and decorate them with their own sayings, or items of personal interest. This area of wall is solely reserved for Upper Sixth students with the exception of a couple of Lower students who have apparently been adopted into Upper Sixth. Lower Sixth students are more than welcome to complie their own poster wall. There is now a very wealthy collection of these pictures, adding a sense of home to the LCR and once again due to the engineering skills of Chris (which actually means the benevolence and kindness of Wez), a locker door has made it's way onto the poster wall, forming the doorway to Narnia supplied by courtesy of Sam's drawing skills.

Community Spirit

Though the music is not always reflective of the personalities about the room, there is a general held consensus amongst users of the LCR that there is a friendly atomosphere. It isn't uncommon to see individuals moving around the Lower Common Room at regular intervals to talk amongst various groups of friends.

The LCR is a place where it's inhabitants can shout and move about freely as much as they like without someone turning around and getting argumentative for no valid reason. Those of you who know/knew Cooper will know exactly how appropriate this statement is.

Stereotyping

Unfortunately it does exist in both Common Rooms and generally speaking, people from the individual rooms don't get along very well due to differences in personality and life-style.

Generalisations that have been made about the Lower Common Room are frequent and very similar to comments from other students, roughly forming the belief that the Lower Common Room is full of moshers, goths, devil worshippers and nasty people.

Of course if folk were to spend more time in the Lower Common Room, or get more involved within the room instead of crowding around the pool table, as is continuing to be the case, they would indeed see that the above generalisation is purely that, and is not, by a long stretch, the reality.

There are some circles of thought that believe this image of the common room originates by the autocratic control of the CD player by a select few. So the common room is often filled with loud rock music, even though the majority of the people there do not enjoy the music at all.

Mrs. Boswell's Office

Overseeing the Lower Common Room from time to time is Mrs Boswell, a Psychology teacher and chief examiner for the PYB6 coursework module.

Due to the amount of classes she teaches, it's a rare occasion that she is in her office, and consequently the LCR inhabitants are more often that not, able to get away with murder.

The Future

What shall become of the Lower Common Room, as Lord Morris already has plans to change things for the Lower Common Room, as he is planning to change the old gym into a rather large Super Common Room where both would be combined into one.

This would cause music to conflict as many students don't prefer the usual that is played in the LCR, unless Lord Morris changes his plans slightly, to make two bigger common rooms, instead of one Super Common Room.

Apparently, one of the two rooms is to become a "Private Study", this may mean just a room for quiet concentration, or it may be over-run by "Lower Common Room-ians". In any case, this may be the end for the Lower Common Room, or perhaps, the end of the Upper Common Room?