For anyone who has been to University, one of the aspects they hope to forget sooner is usually the accommodation. Remember if you can: eight people baywind residences to a fridge; parties keeping you awake; security shutting your parties down; wet rooms,; rats. However, when it comes to Halls of Residence, it is not just the students who live in them who think they should be torn down. So what are the worst halls in the UK? And are we seeing the birth of a new breed of Super-halls?
Aberystwith sits on Cardigan Bay on the West Wales coast, however its primary halls of residence at Penbryn are not considered the university’s most enduring feature. Despite seeming to have had a recent make over and offering students the chance to get a “room with a view” the building has still been criticised for its terracotta, pastel green and white exterior, and its quick-wearing interior with 20 people per floor. Madeira But this doesn’t appear to be the worst of it: one ex student claimed there was one cupboard in a tiny kitchen for each floor (it is catering), and described his room in one word: BASIC.
When it comes to London, its sheer size Autoværksted suggests that it is quite likely that there will be many halls horror stories. In an open debate by the BBC in 2003, they asked the public what they considered were the worst eyesores in the UK. Most of the responses were quite in depth, but not particularly enlightening, as the Millennium Dome and Wind Farms(?). However, the most damning comment was the most frank, it read: “South Woodford Halls of Residence”. Although to my knowledge it has since been torn down, jocuri poki I did read a touching memoir of a naïve student who had lived there a while. “No-one seemed to have heard of South Woodford and, in fact, it was, in the parlance of the day, ‘nowheresville’.”
York University is spoken of very fondly by its students but its halls are not. One title of a review reads: “Prisoner Cell Block H or Hilton halls?” He goes cali plug carts on to describe the “scary concrete blocks” juxtaposed with a “few classy apartments”, no doubt to rub salt in the wounds. One saving grace I did notice of the worst (Goodricke, Lanwith, and Derwent) was the fact that they all have their own bar but the nicer ones do not. Presumably, this says something about those who like to spend money on drink…and I think I might just be prepared to put up with rats for that kind of convenience! fragrance samples
It is fair to say that as universities receive more investment and living standards improve, whilst increasing competition comes from online business courses and home study, halls of residence have started to resemble Swedish resorts more than prisons. So will the grime ever be missed? Well, at least we still have The Young Ones to remind us.
