A porters' lodge or porter's lodge[1] (colloquially, plodge[2]) is a place near the entrance of a building where one or more porters can be found to respond to student enquiries as well as enquires from the public and direct them around the building. It is particularly associated with university accommodation in the United Kingdom and Canada (such as the majority of colleges of the Universities of Cambridge, Oxford, Durham, York and Toronto).[3][4]
Historically, some hospitals included a porter’s lodge, as with Newholme Hospital in Derbyshire, built for the Hospital porter for purposes of reception, messaging, mail, and myriad other duties.[5]
References
^"porter's lodge, n.", Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
^ abO’Neill, Anne (25 August 2014). "A Cambridge Dictionary". Varsity. Cambridge: Varsity Publications Ltd. Archived from the original on 7 September 2014. Retrieved 1 October 2014.