Students at Robinson College have been told to do their laundry elsewhere, following problems with the College’s laundry facilities.

In an email sent to students on Friday (06/06), the College gave an “update regarding laundry,” giving “thanks to our Housekeeping team who have worked with Selwyn and Gonville and Caius to gain access for Robinson students to use their laundry”.

The laundry facilities at Robinson’s central site have been shut for the past three weeks, aside from two machines in College-owned houses on Adams Road. These houses are typically reserved for those in second year or above.

Now, students have access to laundry between “4:00 PM to 8:00 PM on Monday to Friday” at Caius’ offsite accommodation and until 5:30 PM each day at Selwyn’s central site. The College also stated that “each college can only allow access to 70-75 students” at those times and that “a further update will follow if any additional services [at Robinson and elsewhere] become available”.

Freshers and other undergraduates in the central site have told Varsity that they have been unable to wash their clothes or forced to “scramble” for one the available machines.

One frustrated first-year student told Varsity: “No one has [any] clean clothes at the moment”. They explained that this has been worsened by the stress of exam term, saying that “it’s horrible to feel dirty when you are stressed”.

A frustrated third-year student described the situation as a “complete mess,” stating that it was “a total inconvenience” that the rest of the College “are using our machines when we are stressed”.

The laundry closure follows the temporary closure of the main catering facilities earlier this term. Robinson’s Garden Restaurant was shut for two weeks, following “drainage issues,” with students dining and brunching in the conference building in the interim.

One of the main college balconies has also been deemed unsafe for student access.

Robinson College was contacted for comment.