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". [SD 3] A walking path from the Student Union Bar connects the Hall to the rest of the campus.
At present, the building is the property of a trust which provides accommodation and financial assistance to female and nonbinary Saints students from disadvantaged backgrounds. [SD 26] Unbeknownst to the public, Dorley Hall is also the headquarters of a forced feminisation programme operating from a hidden sub-basement of the building.
History
Originally built as a women's asylum sometime before 1900, Dorley Hall predates the nearby university it serves by many decades. By the 1960s, the Hall had been abandoned and left to deteriorate since the turn of the century, due to its owner being uninterested in neither renovating nor demolishing it. [SD 37]
Grandmother's Dorley
In 1962, a disaffected young woman named Dorothy Marsden, along with her co-conspirators Constance and Esther, arrived at the Hall seeking refuge after poisoning the food at a dinner party hosted by their employer Hugo Mount and kidnapping Mount's son, Wallace Mount, and his cousin, Chester Mount-Farrow. After imprisoning the boys in the cells in the basement, the girls proceeded to dress Wallace in girl's clothing and makeup and castrate him, resulting in a violent tit-for-tat in which Wallace killed Constance and Dorothy killed Wallace. A few weeks later, the girls were confronted by Crispin Smyth-Farrow, who followed their trail to the Hall seeking to return Chester to his father. After vouchsafing Chester's safe return, Smyth-Farrow made a proposition to Dorothy, allowing her to remain free while operating a extortion ring on his behalf in which the Smyth-Farrow family's enemies could be threatened with kidnapping and forced feminsation. Soon after, it became apparent that not only had Crispin Smyth-Farrow developed a taste for the sadistic treatment of feminized young men, there was a lucrative market in making the Hall's captives available to other members of the aristocracy with similar tastes. [SD 37]
The Hall thus became the headquarters for a programme of forced feminisation of ostensibly "criminal" young men kidnapped off the street for minor offenses, and functioned not only as a torturous force-femme dungeon but also operated as a brothel, human trafficking ring, and extortion racket. The "Dorley girls" created by this programme were made to serve and sexually service patrons who visited the Hall (who had varying levels of awareness of the girls' true origins and degree of suffering), and most would eventually be sold to wealthy aristocrats as menial servants and sex slaves. As Dorley girls lacked legal identities, they were generally considered disposable, and were frequently tortured to death or driven to exhaustion by patrons at the Hall, or murdered when their owners tired of them. During this period, Dorley Hall was nicknamed "The Toy Factory" and "The Fanny Farm" by those aware of its existence. [SD 28] As custodian of the Hall, Dorothy styled herself as a well-to-do upper-class woman under the moniker of "Grandmother". (Though she herself was also a brutal sadist who found pleasure in breaking and humiliating young men, Dorothy was blackmailed into continued employment by Smyth-Farrow, who possessed evidence of her murder of Wallace Mount.) [SD 37] Over the following decades, this programme, funded by a cabal of wealthy, well-connected patrons, passed through multiple generic holding organisations created to obfuscate its actual owners. [SD 26]
Modern Dorley
In 2004, control of Dorley Hall was wrested away from Grandmother in a financial coup staged by Elle Lambert, the granddaughter of two of the Hall's original major shareholders and patrons, and Beatrice Quinn, a Dorley girl who successfully escaped the Hall in 1988. Due to legal wrangling by Crispin Smyth-Farrow, who refused to relinquish his stake in the Hall, Grandmother was allowed to reside in a first-floor flat in the Hall, locked out of most of other areas of the building, [SD 34] for the remaining two years of the flat's lease before finally being evicted. [SD 15]
Under Grandmother, the dilapidated Hall had been brought to working order by cheap and amateurish renovations; [SD 34] following her ouster, Elle and Beatrice immediately had substantial parts of Dorley Hall remodelled to bring it into line with their vision for a reformed Dorley programme. The new programme, with rehabilitative goals and comparatively gentler methods, began its first intake in 2005, with a team of liberated Dorley girls acting as sponsors. [SD 31]
Main article: The programme
Layout and current residents
In the modern era, 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. [SD 7] Rooms on all floors except the first are arranged in pairs with matching bathrooms which share plumbing. [SD 13] Dorm rooms on the first and second floors are arranged around a single long, winding corridor which threads through the building. [SD 20]
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 (leftover from Grandmother's tenure), [SD 34] a dining hall where events are held, restrooms, a makeshift gym, [SD 21] a conservatory, [SD 9] and several disused rooms devoted largely to storage of decrepit furniture accumulated over the years. A stairwell leading to the basement is located in the dining hall and can be hidden behind two bookcases via a concealed mechanism in the wall. [SD 22]
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. [SD 7] Aunt Bea's flat is also on the first floor. [SD 19] By December 30th, 2019, Indira has repurposed a spare room on the floor into a multi-purpose "common room". [SD 34]
First floor residents
| Name | Notes |
|---|---|
| Aisha | |
| Beatrice | |
| Anne | |
| Faye | |
| Fiona | |
| Mia | |
| Rebecca | |
| Stephanie | Granted a first floor room as of November 30th, 2019 but chooses to mainly reside in the basement. [SD 19] Departs the Hall on January 31st, 2020. [SD 47] |
The second floor
Typically housing third-year Dorley girls, [SD 3] sponsors, and staff, the second floor is also home to Valérie, Trevor, and Frankie, following their escape from Stenordale Manor. The floor is bisected by a biometrically locked fire door with all residents but Frankie (and later, a garrison of Peckinville soldiers) on one side. Much of the second floor has been left unoccupied since the renovation in 2004; [SD 38] in the modern era, many rooms simply serve as storerooms for junk. [SD 28]
Second floor residents
| Name | Notes |
|---|---|
| Christine | |
| Jodie | |
| Julia | |
| Paige | |
| Vicky | Assigned a room, but doesn't occupy it,[SD 10] instead sharing a house in Almsworth with Lorna and two other housemates. Paige uses the room as an adjunct wardrobe. [SD 8] |
| Yasmin | |
| Valérie | Granted a room upon arrival on January 5th, 2020. [SD 38] Next door to Trevor.
Was temporarily staying at the Peckinville ranch, [SD 44] but has returned to the Hall as of January 30th, 2020. [SD 47] |
| Trevor | Granted a room upon arrival on January 5th, 2020. Next door to Valérie. [SD 47]
Was temporarily staying at the Peckinville ranch, [SD 44] but has returned to the Hall as of January 30th, 2020. [SD 47] |
| Frankie | Granted a room upon arrival on January 5th, 2020. Located on the far side of the fire door. [SD 38] |
| Peckinville PMC soldiers | Garrisoned some time in January. Located on the far side of the fire door. [SD 47] |
The third, fourth, and fifth floors
The upper floors (somewhat inaccurately referred to as "the cis floors") [SD 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 and staff. [SD 19]
Before Grandmother's eviction in 2006, Beatrice temporarily resided in a flat on the third floor. [SD 34]
Third floor residents
| Name | Notes |
|---|---|
| Abby | Corner suite. [SD 38] As of January 27, 2020, Abby resides in a house off-campus with Melissa and Shahida. [SD 45] |
| Edy | Moved in with Maria in January 2020. |
| Maria | Bedsit flat. Previously belonged to Tilly prior to the takeover. [SD 43] |
| Melissa | Initially borrowed Steph's room on the first floor after returning to the Hall on December 12th, granted a temporary second floor room on the 14th. [SD 26] Moved to a third floor corner suite after moving back to Almsworth on January 18th, 2019. [SD 44] As of January 27, 2020, she resides in a house off-campus with Abby and Shahida. [SD 45] |
| Monica | |
| Pippa | Dorm room on the cis side of the partition. [SD 48] |
| Tabitha | |
| Elle | As of January 30, 2020. Resides in Edy's old room. [SD 47] |
| Cally | As of January 30, 2020. Shares the room with Elle. [SD 47] |
Fourth floor residents
No fourth floor residents have been introduced as of yet; presumably they are all unaffiliated with the programme. Naila and Ren have an unnamed friend on the fourth floor. [SD 20]
Fifth floor residents
| Name | Notes |
|---|---|
| Naila | |
| Ren |
The rooftop
The roof of Dorley Hall is frequently used as a social space, or a place to get some fresh air and solitude, and is open to both Dorley girls and non-affiliated dorm residents from the cis floors. A gravel square somewhat resembling a zen garden 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. [SD 7]
Basement one
The first floor basement is accessed from a staircase in the dining hall on the ground floor. It houses the support facilities for the lower basement, including:
- a security room for monitoring the entirety of Dorley Hall via multiple computers, furnished with a couch and table arrangement. The room is located directly beneath the kitchen. [SD 20]
- a medical area and waiting room -- orchiectomies and medical exams are performed here. Fully functional surgical rooms and recovery rooms are currently in development. [SD 22]
- 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
- a recreation room with couches and a television hooked up to a laptop and a couple of games consoles
- a small bathroom with shower facilities
- various storerooms and unused spaces
Basement two
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 only 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.
Christine believes the basement was originally used as either a morgue or a laundry; [SD 3] however, while first exploring the abandoned Hall in 1962, Dorothy Mardsen identified the space as holding cells from its time as an asylum. [SD 37]
Basement dwellers
| Name | Notes |
|---|---|
| Adam | |
| Bethany | "Across the way" from Stephanie's room. [SD 25] |
| Leigh | Next door to Stephanie. [SD 27] |
| Martin | |
| Ollie | |
| Raph | |
| Stephanie | Part time resident as of November 30th, 2019. [SD 19] Departs the Hall on January 31st, 2020. [SD 47] |
Portakabins
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Trivia
Accessibility - Most of the building is accessible without stairs. The main stairwell has a lift that reaches the aboveground floors; [SD 34] a more circuitous stair-free route to both basements is also available. [LL] It’s not known whether the roof is accessible without stairs.
| Locations in The Sisters of Dorley | |
|---|---|
| In England | Almsworth, Cherston-on-Sea, London, Stenordale Manor |
| In Almsworth | Dorley Hall (basement), Egg Nation, Legend, Royal College of Saint Almsworth |