Lisa Barnes is Deputy Head Porter. She has recently completed a management training programme 'Realising your Leadership Potential'.
She attended King’s Hedges Junior School
Here - by coincidence - she was taught by former Library Volunteer, Penny, and loved to play the piano. She remembers performing ‘Amazing Grace’ for the school assembly and it’s still her showpiece. She’s even been known to try out some of Christ’s pianos!
Lisa is a single mum – with attitude!
Lisa worked hard to raise her two daughters which she says has given her confidence and authority. Skills that come in handy as a Porter.
“I've noticed if I’ve had to go to noise complaints, I'll walk in a room and the students look absolutely horrified! And I say ‘It's alright. I'm only here to tell you to turn it down.’”
She is now a proud grandma of four - her grandson Alfie has been signed to Stevenage Football Club aged just ten. The whole family will join Lisa on her first ever holiday abroad next year.
She joined Christ’s Housekeeping department in 2010
For a few years she juggled two roles when she was also a Night Porter. Now one of the few female porters in Cambridge, she is Deputy Head. She said:
“It’s an interesting role as you're dealing with all different sorts of people, and you have to deal with them all differently as well.”
And as a bonus, she says, she lost 3 ½ stone moving from the night shift where she ‘snacked all the time.’
She’s nostalgic about 1970s’ TV
Lisa saw her favourite ‘Mr Benn’ on TV again recently - ‘I thought Mr Benn looks like a bloody Porter!’
Mr Benn is a bowler-hatted man who visits a fancy dress shop, where he enters a world of adventure when he borrows different costumes.
Porters at Christ’s don’t wear bowlers, but they do dress up for graduation. Lisa said that it’s great fun taking part in the procession especially when she stops the traffic.
She’s excited about the new Porters’ Lodge
Back in it's traditional position in the oldest part of College by Great Gate, the redesigned Lodge will have underfloor heating, a new luggage room and plenty of space for the eight deliveries of post that arrive each day. Lisa had a lot of input into the design. The move back is planned for January 2026.
