James Partridge and Aryan Parekh (Natural Sciences, Second Year) are discussing the highs and (literal) lows of being on the ground floor.

“The first time I was lying in bed and heard someone walking down the stairs, it sounded like they were falling,” says Parekh.

“I wondered if I should go and help.” That might conjure up Harry Potter-esque visions of under-stairs garrets, but H4 couldn’t be more different: it’s all high ceilings, graceful windows and leafy views across the Quadrangle.

In fact, the windows were a key part of Partridge’s social life. As Choral Scholar, he was given a piano in his room.

“People would hear me playing through the open windows and shout out requests as they walked by,” he remembers.

“Or they’d walk past and knock on the window, I’d open it up all the way and sit on the ledge. Sometimes people would just climb in through the window during the day. Or knock at it at night…”

Parekh, luckily, hasn’t yet experienced the joy of randoms arriving through the window. That’s probably a good thing, considering his timetable.

“My course is full-time – 30 hours a week. And then I have a long eight-hour lab for physics on Tuesdays. It starts at 10 and then it ends at 6. We get an hour in the middle to eat.”

The mention of food sparks memories of dinners past and present. Partridge is delighted to hear that Downingites still call eating in College ‘slops’. “I think we’re the only College that calls it that.

I mentioned it to a friend in another College and they didn’t know what I was talking about,” says Parekh. Partridge nods approvingly.

“Proper Downing lingo!” he says. (Though he admits that he’s never heard of ‘breakfast blocks’.) The room, Partridge says, is spookily unchanged. “It feels quite surreal to be back, because it’s very similar to how it was.”

He goes deep into a rabbit hole of old photos on Facebook, which reveal that most of the room’s furniture – the table and cupboard included – is indeed exactly the same as in his day.

This delving into old albums also throws up some mysterious fancy dress choices. "I think the theme was 80s rave..."

And along with the furniture, the two share a fondness for woollen items made with love. Parekh proudly displays a crocheted version of Inosuke Hashibira from the anime TV series Demon Slayer.

“My girlfriend made him for me for my 18th birthday and I crocheted her a little penguin in return. I’ve been thinking about making something like a temperature blanket but I just don’t get the time.”

Partridge, too, brought a treasured handmade gift from home.

“Every year my nana used to make me an amazing Christmas jumper. They were so beautiful. So I ended up with a cupboard full of jumpers, and I brought them for my first year when I was here. People would always say to me: ‘Where’d you get that jumper from?’ At one point I tried to convince her to start a business.”