Senghennydd Court - THE best halls!! (Halls of Residence at Cardiff University in general)

Member Name: CaruRygbi

Product:	Halls of Residence at Cardiff University in general
Date:	29/03/09 (740 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: location superb, friendly halls, comfortable and clean

Disadvantages: shared bathroom, by train tracks

In terms of which halls to choose for Cardiff Uni, I would say Senghennydd Court should be well up there on your list!! I lived there in my first year of uni (last year) and loved it!

Seng Court (or Senghetto as it is affectionately known) has about 1000 students in 14 houses. Most of the houses have 12 flats, although Houses A-D are smaller (6 flats in A,B and C, and 8 in D). Three of the houses, situated in the main courtyard, are just for postgraduate students and have a different layout, but all the rest are for undergrads.

In the undergrad houses each flat has 5 bedrooms, 1 bathroom and 1 kitchen. Each block has a cleaner who comes around once a week and cleans the kitchen, bathroom and hallways. If you don't do your part to keep the flat clean then you get a notice telling you that you'll be fined if you don't sort it out, but usually the cleaners are pretty nice and if you're a generally clean flat then they don't mind clearing up after you've had a party or whatever. With our cleaner you made her a cup of coffee once and she'd love you forever!!

The kitchens aren't huge, but they are liveable. You get 5 tall cupboards for each persons food and then about 3 large communal cupboards for plates and pans and the like. The ovens are pretty decent, and you get a microwave too. You get a small fridge and freezer in each flat, which are probably most full your first week of uni cause everyone goes out and stocks up!! There's also a table and five chairs in each kitchen, and a big notice board too. Recyling is available and a bag is provided, but its the students' responsibility to sort their own recycling, and rubbish.

The bathrooms are pretty basic. There are 2 sinks (not sure why!?), one toilet and one shower in each. The showers are actually amazing...the water is ALWAYS hot, no matter what time you go in, and there's really good water pressure too. Quite a lot of people make a big fuss over ensuite, but believe me it's not all it's cracked up to be! In Seng Court you share the bathroom with your 4 flatmates, but everyone is in different courses and has different lecture times and showering habits, so you tend to never need the shower at the same time, and if you need the toilet while someone else is in the shower it's really easy to go to one of the other flats on your floor and quickly use their loo!!

The rooms are pretty decent too. First impressions can be a bit rubbish, mostly because you are given a totally plain boring room, but there's really good storage space, and the huuuuge notice board is a big plus too. Strictly speaking you aren't supposed to have posters on your walls, but all that happens when they do the health and safety room checks is that if you have posters they take note of where they are and at the end of the year charge you if there's any damage to the wall (which there never is!) If you live on any floor except the groundfloor your windows open fully and they are really big and let loads of light into the room. On the ground floor because of safety issues your windows don't open as wide, but they still open and are just as big. Each room comes with a bed, matress and chair, and there is built in furniture which includes a big cupboard with hanging space and 2 shelves, along with a desk with three big drawers, 5 shelves above the desk, and space under the bed, half of which is just one huge drawer...There's also a mirror on the wall next to the desk, which is a fairly decent size. All in all, the rooms contain all you need, and within a few weeks you make the room your own and it becomes a lot nicer to live in :) I believe it's called nesting...

In terms of the other people I think you get a very down to earth crowd at Senghennydd. (There's a big Welsh contingent there because it contains Welsh only flats, where the Welsh speakers can live with other first language Welsh speakers.) You tend to get a lot of maths, science and engineering students at Seng too, although on my floor, out of 15 people there were 10 who were humanities students and only 5 who were sciences. It's always a nice mix, as you get the students who are a bit more laid back and not as fussy about where they are living, and Seng Court is probably the most popular choice for students who have done a gap year too, with a third of all the students there having taken at least one year out. They tend to bunch all the gap year students together too which is nice because it means you are living with people who are a similar age to you!

Location wise Senghennydd is definitely THE best halls!! You're on Salisbury Road, just 5 minutes walk from the physics, comp science and engineering part of the uni, as well as 2 minutes from the maths building, 5 minutes from the main campus buildings and the students unio, and only 10 minutes from all the humanities buildings. On Salisbury Road there is a tesco express, as well as a couple of other small stores and family fish bar-the take away of choice :p- which is a 2 minute walk from the main gates of Seng Court. You're also 5 minutes walk from Queens Street-the main shopping part of Cardiff. It's 10 minutes walk to the closest cinema, 15 minutes to the Millenium Stadium, 15 minutes to Cardiff Central train station...amazing location! AND you don't need to think about getting a taxi home after a night out because you practically live in the centre of Cardiff!! I think to be honest, although there are certain downsides to Seng Court, the location more than makes up for it...it is perfect.

In terms of cost, it is the cheapest halls (along with a couple of others at the same price). The reception is open Monday - Saturday (8-6) and the post is delivered Mon - Fri and sorted into your mailbox by 11am at the latest usually. You share a mailbox with your flat, and any parcels can be collected at reception if you have your student and halls ID on you (you get a notification in your mailbox when it arrives). The laundry is right next to reception and has 10 washers and 10 dryers. A wash costs 1.50 and takes about 35 minutes, and a dry costs 50p and lasts 25 minutes... Sometimes it gets busy in the laundry, but if you avoid early evening and Sunday afternoons you are usually ok...best time tends to be mornings if you get up!! There's also bike lockers and parking at Seng Court, although you have to let reception know so you can get a permit. If you have a friend visiting you can get a visitors permit for a couple of days from reception too.

If you aren't used to living in a city the first couple of nights may be a little loud for you, as the halls really is practically city centre. Seng Court is right between two railway lines, and through the day the trains are pretty often, although they don't run at all through the night which is good. My block (D) was the worst location in terms of train tracks because it was the only one with trains running on either side, but I never ever got woken up by the trains and I sleep very very lightly, so I doubt anyone else would....I don't know that it's been a problem for anyone. However, Friday and Saturday nights can be pretty loud cause you get all the drunken people out in Cardiff making lots of noise, but you get used to it pretty quickly - plus you're in halls so you have to get used to drunk people coming in making noise at all hours (or just make sure it's always you....)

There is security at SC too, with three security guards on duty at all times, CCTV cameras around, and pin code access to the main gates which only residents get given. All in all, its a very safe place to live! Fire alarms do go off every so often, the uni is required to do at least two fire checks a year in the middle of the night, but its not too bad... the fire alarm only went off 5 other times in the time I was there, three times in the night unfortunately!!

Okkkk so I think I wrote more than I'd expected but I hope if you read it this helps! I really really do recommend Senghennydd Court to you totally. I don't know anyone who wasn't happy there, and its just a generally amazing place to spend your first year at Cardiff University!!!!

Summary: Awesome halls, nice atmosphere, not too big or small, close to town, union and shops!!!