Making life easier for students who want to get meals, exercise, or do laundry without facing fickle Cambridge weather, Winthrop House has given students direct access to a formerly locked basement.

The House removed tables and chairs from the basement last week between the H entryway and the I and J entryways in Gore Hall. Winthrop students had asked for access to the area as recently as last Friday in a series of messages over the House’s e-mail list.

But House administrators cautioned that the basement’s opening was only “temporary.”

“The basements will be open as long as nothing disappears from the basements. So don’t steal anything!” a Winthrop House Committee member wrote in an e-mail over the House list last weekend.

The H entryway houses the dining hall, while a gym and laundry room are in the J entryway. The I entryway is located between the two.

The basement had been locked so that Winthrop superintendent David Simms could store furniture that would otherwise be susceptible to theft or loss, according to Winthrop House administrator Joanna G. Miller.

Despite references to “tunnels” over the Winthrop e-mail list, only a basement has been opened—not one of the underground Harvard University Dining Services tunnels that connect several River Houses, according to Miller.

Those tunnels, which run under Mill Street, allow underground access from the Lowell and Winthrop House dining halls to the loading dock between Eliot and Kirkland Houses. HUDS uses the tunnels to move and store food for Lowell and Winthrop Houses, and as a space for washing dishes.

But for undergraduate residents yearning to navigate the River Houses subterraneanly, opening the HUDS tunnels will continue to be just a pipe dream, according to Miller.

“Those aren’t areas students would ever be able to use,” Miller said.

Unlike in other River Houses, Winthrop residents cannot traverse their House underground, as many of the entryways are not connected by accessible basements.

The entryways are fragmented into three groups: A and B are connected; C, D, and E are linked; and H, I, and J are newly enjoined.

Christian E. Free ’10, who lives in H entryway, said he did not know that the basement had been opened, but said that he was “very glad” now that he will have underground access to the laundry room.

“It’s nice to not have to trudge outside when the weather’s not too good,” added fellow H-entryway resident Trevor A. Groce ’10.

—Staff writer Danielle J. Kolin can be reached at dkolin@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Naveen N. Srivatsa can be reached at srivatsa@fas.harvard.edu.