 |
Halls Of Residence At The University Of Liverpool
by Holland1
I went to Liverpool university between 1999 and 2002, and for my first year I stayed in Roscoe and Gladstone halls. I absolutely loved my time in R&G, and although things may have changed since then, I would confidently recommend them to prospective students.
The first time I went to see the halls was with my parents as ... part of an open day. I remember thinking how scenic it was (there's a pond type thing, probably won't be as amazing now but at the time was pretty unusual for halls), and it just had a nice feel about it generally. The halls are in a quadrant on four floors, and all the rooms have a small balcony (apart from the ground floor). It's a very sociable place to be, with people coming out on their balconies and shouting across to their friends, and you feel like you're never far from others because it's fairly small.
The halls offer meals which obviously costs a bit more than the self-catering halls, but for people who are away from home for the first time this is brilliant because it eases them into independence gently. I used to love getting up for breakfast and having a decent meal to start the day, and then they'd offer teatime meals, usually a choice of around five, so you only had to worry about feeding yourself at lunchtime.
The halls have porters who man the desk and sort any problems and give you your post. Your post goes into a pigeon hole and you give them your room number to collect it. The corridors are secured by key fobs, but there were always the usual problems with people letting strangers in and not waiting for doors to close before walking away. We never had any problems whilst I was there though, and as long as you remember to lock your room your personal belongings are secure.
I think there was some kind of "common room" with a TV and pool table somewhere, but we never used this because it was easier just to meet in friends' rooms and most people had their own TV in their room. The rooms are compact but have a sink area and balcony, a desk and notice board area to personalise the room to your taste. It was grim on first sight but I soon made it like home, and settled in really well.
There was a shared bathroom between 5 people per each corridor, but this never really posed a problem because everyone was doing different courses so we were all getting up and coming and going at different times. The toilet was also separate to the shower so you could still use it if someone was showering. There were extra toilets downstairs too.
I loved these halls, and made some good friends here. I can honestly say it was one of the happiest years of my life.
Read the complete review |
 |
Halls Of Residence At The University Of Southampton in general
by thefund
These are the only university of southampton halls I have fully experienced and stayed in and I must say I have been very impressed with the standard of the rooms. The halls are en suite and self catered, although there is a catered pay as you go hall which you can use if you can't be bothered to cook after a along day! I haven't ... actually ever used the catered hall as I prefer to cook for myself so can't comment on the quality or price of the food. When I stayed there the price for an en suite room was approximately £115 a week, although this may have changed by now.
The halls are set out into flats of 8 people with a shared kitchen. The kitchens are very big and have plenty of cupboards for everyone to have their own and these can be locked by their owners to make sure no sneaky housemates steal your food! The kitchens have a large table and chairs so everyone can socialise together.
The rooms are of a good size, with a big desk, shelves, wardrobe and pin board so you can put up photos. There is also a bedside table and comfy chair and plenty of floorspace. You are allowed to decorate the walls and so you can really make your room your own. The walls are a whitish colour which you would be so thankful for if you'd stayed anywhere like the kings college london halls with their mustard yellow and green walls! The halls are relatively new and so none of the paintwork is missing and the halls are in really good quality and clean (this may change once you've moved in though!) One wall has carpet on it, which I find weird and I've never really understood but there you go.
The en suite bathrooms are a good size and much bigger than a lot of others that I have seen. Whereas some halls en suites tend to be like a portaloo these are proper sized with closed in showers etc. They are still small of course but they are of an adequate size. The showers are also relatively powerful. The bathrooms also come with a mirror.
The actual location of Glen Eyre Halls is very good and it is a mere 5 minutes walk from the highfield campus, where you can find most academic buildings, the library, student union, stags head and my favourite: the nuffield theatre! There are also lots of takeaways just down the road who will even deliver to you on a lazy day! The halls are in a very leafy area and there is lots of grass and trees surrounding the halls and on the actual site. It really is a lovely place to live and in my opinion, the best halls the university has to offer!
Read the complete review |
 |
Accommodation in general
by tinxabellie
During my first year at university (2009-2010), I stayed in university owned accommodation. I picked the Lawns because I had read that that was the place to be to meet a lot of people and I picked Grant hall because it offered catered en-suite rooms. The block I was allocated in was Grant D (for any of you doing your research for ... rooms).
The Room - My room at Grant hall was what I considered very nice for a University room. It cost me roughly£117 a week although they took out the payments each term. You also have to pay a deposit of £150 before you start your stay. It came with a single bed with mattress protector, side table, a desk with draws, a small metal bin and a wardrobe. The rooms at the Lawns (all but what are considered 'small' rooms and Ferens) come with a balcony. These are good if you are a smoker because you can go and pop just outside your room to smoke instead of making your way outside the block (because all halls are non-smoking, which is great for non-smokers like myself). Balcony's don't tend to be used often if your not a smoker because the majority of the time your staying there will be in the cold months anyway. The en-suites are great too! The only blocks that have them in Grant hall are A, D & E (Please note if you are desperate for en-suite accommodation, put in your request for which rooms you would like as soon as it comes through the post. If you leave it a day you won't get your preference). You have a cleaner to clean your halls five times a week and they will clean your room once a week unless it's too untidy. Our cleaner happened to be very nice though she is under instruction to bin all unwashed utensils from the kitchen after about 3 days (you will get a days notice though). Each of the three kitchens in our block were very spacious but the only negative was that you had to share one fridge-freezer between 7 people - nightmare! There are 7 rooms to each floor and there are three floors. Being on the top floor like myself was a nightmare when you had heavy shopping to carry up stairs.
The Hall - Grant hall has a common room and utilities room for all to use. The washing machines cost £2 a time in 50p's and come with washing soap in the machine all ready. I would say that Grant's common room looks like the worst out of all the other Halls' common rooms because there was only a flat-screen TV without signal and rubbishy hard furniture. Unlike other halls, it seemed people from Grant would only use the common room on occasion. ***Note: I am basing this on my 2009-2010 experience. Things could have changed***
Situated - Grant hall is situated right at the back of the Lawns complex. Again, if you have a lot of heavy shopping, this can be annoying. Also when you want to go for dinner and it's raining, it seems like the longest trek ever. In order of front to back of the complex it goes: Ferens, Lambert (ideal spot for lazy people), Nicholson, Morgan, Downs, Reckitt then Grant. Since most student's live at the Lawns, it makes it very handy to pop round to your friends for a chat or get help with work. All the halls apart from Ferens (which seems rather detached) are situated around a massive hilly field of grass (hence the name 'The Lawns'). It is a great place to be in the last moths of your stay (which has the warmer weather) because many people arrange to play block games and have barbecues out in the sun. The Lawns complex also has it's own bar in the centre and the drinks are pretty cheap. In the bar they hold quiz nights and put football match's on the large flat screens. It is very much like a local pub.
The Food - All halls at the Lawns (bar Nicholson because they are self-catered) are entitled to a dinner at The Lawns Centre. On your arrival they make arrangements to make a dinner card for you which you must show every time you collect your food. Remember to take two passport style photos with you because they use them in these dinner cards. The food it's self is not great. In my experience, the food tastes OK when you are first there, and as time goes on it appears worse and worse. I don't know whether it's the quality going downhill or whether me and my friends were just fed up of it. You would get an option of what you want for dinner each night. They would serve your main dish on a plate for you and you could help yourself to sides (from hot things such as chips and carrots to the salad bar of coleslaw and pasta salad). Your dinner came with either a juice or a desert (you couldn't have both - annoying!). I always ended up always getting a baguette for my dinner. Jacket potatoes are available every day as well. Regular meal times ran from 5pm-6.30pm. Snack bar (where you can take your food back to your room, designed for people who work to late who could not get their meal at regular dinner times) starts at 7pm. Again you need to take your dinner card. At snack bar you usually get a choice of baguettes, jacket potatoes and the days leftovers with chips and leftover stuff from the salad bar. I preferred this but only because I hated the canteen system of the 5pm-6.30pm. *Warning for weight worriers! You cannot watch the calories with Lawns centre food. Most of the girls I had spoken to gained so much weight through these dinners, that some ended up going on a diet and not eating the meal they had paid for*
The Village - The Lawns (like the Needler residence) is situated in the lovely village of Cottingham. The village is a couple of miles out from the University so I would recommend investing in a bus pass or biking to university. The Lawns is not far from the centre of Cottingham full of little shops which makes it useful if you want to do some food shopping. It has a Heron Frozen Foods (which is like Iceland or Farmfoods) and a convenience Sainsbury's shop. For students that like a drink, there is Rhythm and Booze and anyone that wants a nice meal out can attend an Italian restaurant called Pascos which is not too far away.
Would I recommend Grant Hall - Personally, I would have much rather stayed in Nicholson Hall's en-suite blocks because its a self-catering hall and it's closer to the bus stop (but that's because I am lazy). I liked living in Grant hall because I had the luxury of an en-suite but I would recommend anyone wanting en-suite accommodation to try and get a place in Nicholson. Even the people in my block who hated cooking said they would have preferred ready meals and takeways each night. The fact we were paying around £20 a week more than Nicholson en-suite residents for food we did not even like was terrible. The food at the Lawns is what makes me rate Grant around 4 stars. The plus points of living there though is the en-suite facility and The Lawns community environment.
Read the complete review |
