Hidden places, makeout spaces...

Cruel2BKind

Not Quite Here
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Feb 3, 2011
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One thing that I've noticed about my college is that it has plenty of secrets, some more well-hidden than others.

For instance, in my hall, once you get to the fourth floor, the staircase continues. There isn't another set of dorms up there, but there is a lonely little concrete room with a light and a single outlet. Someone gets caught trying to smoke pot up there every semester.

We have a koi pond that almost no one knows about. There are usually a few people smoking (legally) around the pond, but they are always people with work study in the building.

And best of all, there is the 'Chamber of Secrets'.

In the basement of the cafeteria building, we have a hallway that leads to a set of restrooms, but beyond the restrooms there is an entire hallway with couches and desks, perfect for studying. The lights go out frequently because there are no motion detectors in the back hallway. What this means is that you can be in the back room and you know whenever someone enters the hallway. :D

I took someone's virginity in the Chamber. Are/were there any secret places at your college/school/work?
 
I couldn't do better for my alma mater than refer you to the late Tuli Kupferberg's litanical verse, "A Thousand and One Ways to Make Love at Brooklyn College."

My current college has many places, but fewer than in the past. Expansion of study space has reduced make-out space; we've even lost our skinny-dipping pool!
 
I used to visit a Youth Hostel in Kent, long closed.

It was an ancient building with a variety of styles from several architectural periods as poorly interpreted by local builders.

Apart from the 'ghosts' and the famous cold spot over the former inside well, there were two priests' holes for hiding Jesuit priests during the persecutions of Catholics.

Neither were shown to 'normal' hostellers, but sometimes I acted as Warden of that hostel to allow the normal incumbent a night off duty. The access to one was in the Warden's Office, behind a sliding panel. It was just large enough for two people to stand side by side and originally had a peephole to enable one person to see out. As a hiding place it was useless. Just knocking on the panelling would set it out as being hollow.

The other one was concealed behind the well shaft. When the well cover was slid one way nothing could be seen. If it was slid the other way, which would be awkward because you had to lean across the open well, it revealed a pit about four feet deep. If you climbed into that pit and slid the well cover back into place over your head, there was a wooden ladder leading upwards inside an apparently solid stone wall. Climb that, lift a trap door and you would have entered a windowless room about ten feet square.

"would have", because the false wall had been demolished in the 19th Century to make the secret room into a bathroom. :D

The trap door still gave access - to the female hostellers bathroom.

Neither priests' hole was ever used. Although the house was adapted for Catholics, they sold it to staunch Protestants before the adaptations could have been used.
 
When I attended a boarding school many years ago, most of the school was in a Stately Home. Successive students found their way into the cellars. The main building was U-shaped, but the cellars included a tunnel from one leg of the U to the other.

We used the cellars for clandestine activities but since it was an all-boys school and the grounds were extensive and wide open, smuggling girls in was not an option.

The older students who wanted to meet girls used the Ice House next to the Parish Church. The Ice House was close to the village and could be accessed through the Churchyard.

Many offices I occupied had interesting voids. One late 19th Century building in the City of London had strong rooms on each floor - useless for office space, and equally useless for security. But very useful for office assignations.

Even better were the basements. The main basement was used for record storage. Below that were the sub-basement rooms, two of which had been equipped as Air Raid Shelters, including bunk beds, washrooms and kitchen. They were supposed to be kept locked but several people found that any office door key would fit...

The Air Raid Shelters were never used for their designed purpose. They were well below the level of The Thames. A near miss would have flooded the Shelters.
 
The University of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning has some delightful out-of-the-way spaces. There was a stairway to nowhere from the Dean's floor, the Dean's floor itself had a friendly alcove with a Mission-style bench outside the offices, and infrequent security visits after hours. If one got in the good graces with the volunteers who gave tours, access to the more valuable locked International Rooms could be gained. Plus there were nifty nooks and crannies on the first few floors. My first forays into "don't get caught" sex were all at Pitt (with the exception of adventures in "parking" in high school).

Oh to be that limber again!
 
I went to a university with a very extensive agricultural college. The experimental greenhouses were always open, dimly lit and smelled seductively of growing things and fertility. I don't know how many other students knew about them but I did . . .
 
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