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Rootes Residences
by kattttt
I am now approaching the end of my time in rootes and it has been the best year of my life so far. The main reason for that is the atmosphere. I think I have maybe been lucky with the people on my floor but I have made some great friends and had a great time. Rootes is split into two halves-Old rootes and new rootes. ... Contrary to what it says in the description in the main page the twin rooms have mainly been phased out and turned into single rooms, so preference is not given to those willing to share. Old rootes are slightly uglier buildings and the rooms are slightly smaller. New rootes is newer (well duh) and the buildings are set out slightly differently but there is not a huge difference.
It is in the middle of campus and only a minute away from the union, the shops, the bus stop, and indeed most of the departments. Being close to the union has good and bad points. I have found it very helpful when staggering back to my room after a night out, but the noise is a factor, especially in new rootes. Personally I tend not to go to bed before midnight and it doesn?t affect me. I also tend to be in the union at the weekends so that avoids the problem of not sleeping. During the week the union stops at 1am and it stops at 2am at weekends. The music can be heard a bit before that. I think it depends on the type of person you are as to whether that will bother you but if you are reasonably easy going it should be fine.
*update* the union has now had sound proofing put in and sound is no longer a problem at all. woohoo!
The rooms are well equipped with a wardrobe, large desk, chair for desk and a comfy chair, a small table, and a reasonably comfy bed. There is not much room for more furniture of your own in old rootes rooms but in new rootes you could probably bring some things. There is also a free very fast internet connection in all the rooms.
There are 16 people who share a kitchen and bathroom facilities. I thought t
hat could be a bit of a nightmare before I came here but it really isn?t. There are 2 showers, 2 baths and 3 to
ilets all in separate rooms and I can honestly say I have never had to wait for the shower or toilet (apart from when we are all going out and decide to go to the toilet before we leave) The kitchen is a bit small for us all although there are enough chairs and cupboard space. It can also get a bit of a mess, although it is cleaner every day by the cleaners. There are 2 large fridges and 2 large freezers so everybody gets half a shelf each and a cupboard each. It can get a bit hectic at key meal times but it is never much of a problem.
Although Rootes may not be the cleanest and newest halls on campus they are above average considering a lot of student accommodation and are great value for money. The most important factor though is that it has a great atmosphere compared to a lot of the halls. It is very sociable and you meet lots of people and make lots of friends. Possibly that is because you all club together due to the less than perfect facilities. Whatever it is, it is a well-known fact at Warwick that the most ?fun? hall is rootes. Some of the other halls, especially the more expensive en-suite ones tend to be quieter and so it is harder to make friends when you arrive, and some people don?t settle in. With 16 people on your floor, you are very likely to make good friends with some of them, if not all.
And just incase you haven?t got the message yet - I have had a better time than I could have imagined here and I would recommend it to anybody.
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Rootes Residences
by LouisaNott
I had the worst year of my life in Rootes Residences, for a number of reasons, many nothing to do with the halls themselves, so I'll try to write as much of an un-biased opinion as I can... First things first, there are two types of Rootes halls, "old Rootes" is blocks A-H (I think), and white tiled, and generally ... older than "new Rootes" which is the higher in the alphabet blocks, and orange brick.
I lived in "new Rootes", and as such, I actually never went to old Rootes in my time, and apart from seeing one room on an open day, I don't have an opinion. In general, the corridors are smaller, and the rooms aren't as nice, but it's OK.
New Rootes, on the other hand, is a set of two huge buildings, facing eachother, at the south end of campus. My dear Father calls them "the hamster cages", owing to the sets of stairs running up inside them, which are on view to the whole world through massive windows.
Each student lives in a "flat", a set of 13 bedrooms, 12 single, and one twin, and a kitchen, which is actually fairly well equipped with two fridges, a freezer, oven, kettle, toaster, not enough chairs and tables for 14 people, lots of shelves, and one small shared cupboard, and stupidly, some really little pokey individual cupboards which will hold tea and coffee making equipment, and not much else. It's very much a "communal living" experience, moreso than other halls which have ample opportunity to tidy your stuff away from others etc.
The rooms are big, and equipped with a small-ish wardrobe with shelves in one side, and 4 huge high cupboards...good for the manky blankets and sheets they give you to be stuffed and left there for a year.
The beds were very soft when I arrived, and as I said before, the bedding is pretty naff...a brown blanket and sheets. You might want to provide your own bedding. Oh, and a spare pillow might be nice.
Added to that, there's an easy chair, a bedside cabinet thing, a work chair (which lots of people tended to replace with their own (or one from the kitchen) owing to it's crapness, I thought they were OK). You get a huge noticeboard, some little shelves for books, and the working space isn't great (especially if you've got a pc). I'd recommend looking at the room, and then going out and buying anything else you fancy. There's still ample room for a couple of blow-up chairs and a pc desk, no problems.
I forgot to mention that there's a sink in your room too, and the mirror is a good size, but badly placed if you want to look at all of you, because it's at the end of the bed and you have to stand on the bed to see yourself in full!
All in all, it sounds quite nice doesn't it!?!
Here are the downpoints that I found...
There is ONE shower between 12 (I say 12 because the twin room has en-suite). This causes lots of queues. Strangely, there are 2 toilets and a room with a bath in it. I think that maybe there ought to be more showers, but hey I never really had to stand in line to wash.
The kitchen, whilst it's fairly big, doesn't allow a lot of socialising, the halls would be a lot better if there was a lounge, and I think that the twin room, being next to the kitchen, would be well made into such a lounge for each flat, and make it much much better.
The heating is naff, because you can't chose how hot you want it, and so you have to regulate the temperatures by opening your window accordingly, which is a bit poo for the people downstairs, as their windows don't open very far.
My main quibble is the noise. The halls are very close to the Union, and loud students tend to go around here at all times of night making a huge noise. Also, because the two buildings face eachother, it really is very noisy during the day too. If you like a lively, yet a bit manky, en
vironment, then go for Rootes, but for me, I like my sleep, and I didn't get much in these halls.
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