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High table

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Not to be confused with Bar table.

View towards the High Table in the dining hall of Merton College, Oxford. The lower tables have a mixture of chair and bench seating.

The high table is the table (often on a dais) where the most important guests are seated at a formal meal.[1][2] These include state banquets,[3][4] wedding receptions,[5] university formals, and other formal events such as the White House Correspondents' Dinner.[6][7] At some colleges in universities, the high table may be used by members of the senior common room during ordinary meals as well as at formal dinners.[8]

History

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The restored great hall at Barley Hall in York, with the high table across the width of the hall and two other tables down its length

In the medieval period, the high table was where the host and the most important guests sat at meals in the great hall of a castle. It was at the far ends of the hall from the doorway to the kitchens, on a raised dais, and stretched across the width of the hall while they other tables, for the ordinary members of the castle household, ran down its length. This was preserved in the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge universities, where the students took the place of the members of the castle household and the fellows that of the lord and their guests.[9][10][11] Traditionally the high table had chairs while the other tables had benches, and the food served at the high table could be completely different from that at the other tables.[12]

Universities

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The high table in the dining hall of Fitzwilliam College at the University of Cambridge

The high table at universities is for the use of fellows (members of the Senior Common Room) and their guests in large university dining halls in some universities, where the students eat in the main space of the hall at the same time. They remain the norm at many colleges of Oxford,[13] Cambridge[14] and Durham[15] universities, as well as at Devonshire Hall at the University of Leeds[16] and St Anselm Hall at the University of Manchester[17] in the UK, Trinity College Dublin in Ireland,[18] St Paul's College, University of Sydney in Australia[19] and the Graduate College at Princeton University in the US.[20]

The high table is normally at the end of the dining hall on a raised platform,[20] although this is not always the case. Typically, the high table is set across the breadth of the hall, and is thus at right angles to the tables in use by the main body of diners, which stretch along the hall's length. On more formal evening occasions, dinner jackets are worn. It is also still common to wear academic gowns, at least for dinner.

Other usage

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At the University of St Andrews, "high table" refers to a small formal meal for a group of students and academics rather than to a high table in the dining hall.[21] At Trinity College and Massey College in the University of Toronto, "high table" refers to the formal dinner for the whole college,[22][23] as does "high table dinner" at universities in Hong Kong.[24][25][26][27]

References

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  1. ^ "High table". Cambridge Dictionary. Retrieved 26 April 2026.
  2. ^ "High Table". Oxford Learners' Dictionary. Retrieved 26 April 2026.
  3. ^ Catherine Meyer-Funnell (31 October 2023). "Queen Camilla stuns in blue tunic and trouser combo for Kenyan state banquet". Express. Upon arrival Charles and Camilla were received by the President and his wife, First Lady Rachel Ruto, before meeting other guests at a short reception ahead of taking their seats at the High Table.
  4. ^ Ben Jureidini (4 December 2024). "An emotional tiara debut for Queen Camilla, a surprise re-wear for Princess Anne, and a treasured favourite of Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh: all the royal jewellery tributes and traditions you missed at the Qatari State Dinner". Tatler. Speaking from high table, King Charles addressed the visiting royals
  5. ^ "Where Do the Bride and Groom Sit at the Reception?". Ainsworth House. 14 December 2024. From the left to the right, those who sat at the high table were a groomsman, a bridesmaid, the best man, the bride, the groom, the maid/matron of honor, a groomsman, and a bridesmaid.
  6. ^ Victoria Bekiempis (26 April 2026). "Shots rang out, pandemonium erupted: how the White House press dinner shooting unfolded". The Guardian. Donald and Melania Trump appeared in good spirits as they settled in on the high table at the White House correspondents' dinner in Washington DC
  7. ^ Keith Duggan (26 April 2026). "Donald Trump's dinner with the media descends into chaos as gunman storms hotel". The Irish Times. At 8.34pm, Trump was sitting in the centre of the high table flanked by the first lady, Melania Trump and Jiang when the scene was suddenly flooded with Secret Service and military personnel who rushed the president out.
  8. ^ "Dining in College". Grey College SCR. Retrieved 26 April 2026. Informal meals are taken through the servery with SCR members sitting at High Table in the main Dining Hall.
  9. ^ Marc Morris (2003). Castle. Channel Four Books. p. 170.
  10. ^ "Reconstruction drawing showing a dinner taking place in the great hall of a typical 13th century castle, with the lord and his closest associates sat on the high table at the far end". Historic England. 1992. Retrieved 26 April 2026.
  11. ^ "Entertaining at Goodrich Castle". English Heritage. Retrieved 26 April 2026.
  12. ^ Roy Strong (2002). Feast: A History of Grand Eating. Jonathan Cape. pp. 102–105. ISBN 0224061380.
  13. ^ Lila Robinson (16 November 2025). "Investigation: the cost of High Table". The Oxford Student.
  14. ^ "High table". University of Cambridge. Retrieved 29 April 2026.
  15. ^ Mia Ainsley (20 November 2024). "What is a formal?". The Durham Student. Durham University.
  16. ^ Sarah Djuric. "Devonshire Hall Formals". Residence Life. University of Leeds. Retrieved 22 April 2026.
  17. ^ "Slems is known as the weirdest university halls in Manchester. That's exactly how the students like it". Manchester Mil. 25 November 2023. Retrieved 26 April 2026.
  18. ^ R. A. Somerville (2022). "Oculi omnium: The Graces of Trinity College Dublin" (PDF). Classics Ireland. 29. Classical Association of Ireland: 42–54.
  19. ^ Antone Martinho-Truswell (19 June 2020). "We need highly formal rituals in order to make life more democratic". Big Think.
  20. ^ a b "High Table". Princeton University. Retrieved 26 April 2026.
  21. ^ "St Salvator's Hall". Archived from the original on 5 October 2023. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
  22. ^ Gavin Foster (21 October 2018). "The problem with high tables". The Varsity.
  23. ^ "Massey High Table". Massey College. Retrieved 22 April 2026.
  24. ^ "HKBU High Table Dinner". Hong Kong Baptist University. Retrieved 26 April 2026.
  25. ^ "High Table Dinner (HTD)". City University of Hong Kong. Retrieved 26 April 2026.
  26. ^ "High Table Dinner". Hang Seng University of Hong Kong. Retrieved 26 April 2026.
  27. ^ "HKMU Business School High Table Dinner". Hong Kong Metropolitan University. Retrieved 26 April 2026.
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