Dorley Hall
Dorley Hall is a privately-owned dormitory adjacent to the Royal College of Saint Almsworth.
The hall is a six-storey red brick building at the edge of the university campus, "where grassy scrubland meets dense woods, bracketed from the rest of the university by a thick semi-circle of empty land."[ch. 3] A walking path from the Student Union Bar connects the hall to the rest of the campus.
Dorley Hall predates the university, having been built as a private hospital. Ownership of Dorley Hall has passed through multiple hands over the years. At present, Dorley Hall's public face is that of a dormitory for disadvantaged female students attending Saints.[ch. 1] However, unbeknownst to all but a few, Dorley Hall is also the headquarters of a forced feminisation programme operating from a hidden sub-basement of the building
Grandmother's Dorley
At some unspecified point prior to 1985[ch. 26], Dorley Hall became the headquarters for a programme of forced feminisation of ostensibly "criminal" men, under the custodianship of Dorothy Marsden, who styled herself "Grandmother." The "Dorley girls" created by this programme were sold to wealthy aristocrats as menial servants and sexual slaves. As Dorley girls had no legal existence, they were generally considered disposable, and were frequently murdered when their "owners" tired of them. During this period, Dorley Hall was nicknamed "The Toy Factory" and "The Fanny Farm."[ch. 28]
In 2004, control of Dorley Hall was taken from Grandmother in a financial coup staged by Elle Lambert, the granddaughter of the Hall's previous owners, and Beatrice Quinn, a Dorley girl who had successfully escaped the Hall. Grandmother's presence was reduced to living in a single first-floor flat in the Hall for the remaining two years of its lease.[ch. 15]
Modern Dorley
Following Grandmother's ouster, and backed with funding from Elle, Beatrice had substantial parts of Dorley Hall remodelled to bring it into line with their vision for the reformed Dorley programme.
As of January 2020, Dorley Hall has five floors of dormitory housing above the ground floor, an accessible rooftop, and two basement levels. All floors have their own kitchens, except the first.[ch. 7] Rooms on all floors except the first are arranged in pairs with matching bathrooms which share plumbing.[ch. 13] Dorm rooms on the first and second floors are arranged around a single long, winding corridor which threads through the building.[ch. 20]
Most of the building is accessible. The main stairwell has a lift that reaches the aboveground floors;[ch. 34] a more circuitous stair-free route to both basements is also available.[LL] It’s not known whether there is roof access.
The ground floor
The ground floor of Dorley Hall is accessed through the front doors, and includes an entryway, a kitchen with a table and an AGA, a dining hall where events are held (including the yearly Christmas party[ch. 31]), restrooms, a makeshift gym[ch. 21], a conservatory[ch. 9], and several rooms devoted largely to storage of decrepit furniture.
The first floor
The first floor is set aside primarily for the second-year Dorley girls, who are housed in "a self-contained dorm-within-a-dorm" with biometric locks similar to those in the basement.[ch. 7] Aunt Bea's flat is also on the first floor.[ch. 19]
First floor residents
The second floor
The second floor houses third-year Dorley girls[ch. 3], sponsors, and staff.
Second floor residents
† Vicky is assigned a room, but doesn't occupy it,[ch. 10] instead sharing a house in Almsworth with Lorna and two other housemates. Paige uses Vicky's room as an adjunct wardrobe.[ch. 8]
The third, fourth, and fifth floors
The upper floors (somewhat inaccurately referred to as "the cis floors"[ch. 10]) primarily house underprivileged, non-Dorley-affiliated female and nonbinary students, putting some truth to the façade of Dorley Hall's public persona. The doorways on these floors lack the biometric locks found on the lower floors. One corner of the third floor is cordoned off with frosted glass doors; beyond these doors is an L-shaped corridor with flats for the oldest sponsors.[ch. 19]
Third floor residents
Fourth floor residents
This section is incomplete. You can help by expanding it.
Fifth floor residents
The rooftop
The roof of Dorley Hall is frequently used as a social space, or a place to get some fresh air and solitude. A gravel square occupies the center of the roof, with white plastic chairs for seating. Brick pillars at the corners are said to have been used to support a tarpaulin in the past, and the square used to host official gatherings. A pathway encircles the square, along with potted plants, wooden seats and tables, and benches dedicated to famous or notable alumni, all facing outwards. An observation bench facing the front of the Hall looks out over the university grounds, towards the Student Union bar.[ch. 7]
The upper basement
The first floor basement includes:
- a security room for monitoring the entirety of Dorley Hall via multiple computers, furnished with a couch and table arrangement
- a recreation room with couches and a television hooked up to a laptop and a couple of games consoles
- a break room and bathroom for the private military contractors of Peckinville Associates, with stairs leading to the back rooms on the ground floor and an access door to the rest of the basement
- various storerooms and unused spaces
- a small bathroom with shower facilities
- a medical area, with multiple surgical suites and recovery rooms in development
The lower basement
The lower basement of the Hall, commonly referred to as simply "the basement", is a quarantined dormitory / prison for boys being put through the first year of the programme. All doorways in the basement have biometric fingerprint-reader locks granting access to specific people. These locks also allow sponsors or staff to lock down the entirety of the basement as well as specific areas, such as the cells or the bedrooms.
During Dorley Hall's initial incarnation as a hospital, the basement was used as either a morgue or a laundry.[ch. 3]