Trinity College’s dining hall will remain shut for at least a month due to safety concerns, after halfway hall was cancelled last week.

The college’s halfway hall formal was cancelled 2 hours before it was due to start, and all formal halls have now been postponed for the next month.

Halfway hall is a formal hall that marks the midway point in students’ time at Cambridge, and is seen as a highlight of second year for many students.

Students were first notified of the hall’s closure last Tuesday (06/12), on reported “health and safety grounds”.

A second email sent out on Friday (09/02) by the College’s junior bursar, Emma Davies, confirmed the hall’s closure, stating: “We have been advised to undertake further checks on the condition of the plaster on the ceiling, which may need some repair. This will require us to put up scaffolding and the Hall has to be closed while we do this.”

“We realise that there are a number of formal halls and other events planned for this period and will try to rearrange these or to do them differently,” Davies continued.

One Trinity student told Varsity: “Halfway Hall was cancelled on short notice of the fault of no one in particular. Nevertheless, 2nd-year spirits are indeed down, hope the college finds a way to remedy the loss of such an important undergrad benchmark.”

An email from the College’s SU steward stated that, while the college was looking into “re-working formals in the venues still available for use,” there were “no guarantees that they will be able to go ahead”.

The hall is expected to remain closed for at least a month, with “no guarantees” that it will re-open before Easter Term.

Jesus College’s halfway hall was also cancelled last week, due to staff sickness. The College’s head of hospitality notified students on the day of the event, which has now been rescheduled for Saturday (17/02).

A spokesperson for Trinity College said: “The Dining Hall at Trinity has been closed while checks are conducted on the Jacobean building to assess if any works are required. The process is anticipated to take a month during which time the Catering Department will continue to provide breakfast, lunch and dinner, as takeaways or seated in alternative spaces. The College is working to rearrange any planned events in Hall.”