High table

The origin of "High Table" goes back to the physical layout of the dining halls of English colleges at Oxford and Cambridge Universities.

[1] The high table is a table for the use of fellows (members of the Senior Common Room) and their guests in university dining halls, where the students eat in the main space of the hall at the same time.

They remain the norm at Oxford and Cambridge, followed by Dublin and Durham universities, which are all organized into colleges.

The table is normally at the end of the dining hall on a raised platform, although this is not always the case.

"High table" is sometimes used figuratively in a variety of ways to suggest things thought to be characteristic of Oxbridge fellows.

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