When students move into college they can expect a decent bed, working toilet and if they’re lucky, an en-suite bathroom.

But amidst the privacy that last year’s lockdown brought, one chemistry student, Richard (not his real name), was able to keep a luxurious hot-tub jacuzzi in his second year digs throughout Michaelmas and Lent. And the best part? The College never knew.

Richard bought the hot-tub for just £200 after he saw a listing on Reddit – a bargain compared to brand-new alternatives which sell for thousands more.

Throughout Michaelmas and Lent, he would host intimate gatherings at his spa-like residence, making the most of his international roommate’s vacant bedroom to house the jacuzzi.

Guests could expect drinks late into the night without having to worry about the dreaded knock on the door from a porter enforcing social distancing.

According to one regular attendee the hot-tub was “fairly nice”. It could fit five people comfortably and was quite deep – the water reached up to your waist if you stood up.

Being a chemist, hygiene was also taken seriously. Richard made guests shower before and after they got in and made sure to drain the pool every month.

However, sometimes he wasn’t thorough enough. According to one friend, a group of freshers left with rashes having sat in water “full of everyone’s bodily fluids” for hours.

Richard was able to get away with his covert spa operation because of the pandemic.

Thanks to a lockdown in Michaelmas and Lent, bedders seldom entered students’ rooms, least of all those situated outside college grounds. And so despite the jacuzzi violating college rules against private furniture, Richard got away with it.

His guests remember the hot-tub months fondly. One said that the emptiness of Cambridge during the Lent lockdown meant “people entertained themselves” using creative and eccentric means to do so. As a result, it was “more fun”. Bedders weren’t coming in and the privacy meant that students could get up to eccentric exploits without the eye of college watching over them.