File:Original medieval dining hall, Pembroke College, Cambridge c1870–75.jpg

Credit for the identification is due to Livejournal user unwholesome_fen, who made the connection in this comment thread on user nwhyte's blog, on the strength of similarities with an 1841 engraving by LeKeux. The College Registrar, Dr Becky Coombs, has confirmed the identification, writing:

I would say that this is definitely an image of the medieval Hall at Pembroke. There is a similar photo in the book: Pembroke College, Cambridge. A celebration by Dr A. V. Grimstone.

(The similar photo appears to be this one).

According to the Victoria County History volume on Cambridge (1959, J. P. C. Roach (ed.)), pp. 346-355,

"... in 1863 John Cory was called in to do some repairs, and seems to have made the hall, which had been rather bare and neglected, into a very pleasant room."

It later adds, on the subject of Waterhouse's rebuilding,

"... No doubt the old lodge and the south range of the Old Court were in poor repair and very cramped, but they should not have been demolished before careful consideration had been given to the state in which the adjacent buildings would be left. Instead, they were demolished first, and only then was the College confronted with a report that the hall was beyond repair, and so forced to accept a new one, either on 31 December 1874 or very early in 1875. There is no actual record of the decision. On 6 March a memorial signed by all the most distinguished Pembroke men of the time was sent to the Master and Fellows, but they paid no attention and on 16 March passed an order for pulling down the hall. It is said that part of the building was so strong that it had to be blown up, but this merely means that medieval mortar, being of haphazard composition, would set hard in one place, and turn to powder in another. Modern technique could have saved the building, and so even then could an architect less enamoured of his own grandiose designs."

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