The Student Room Group
Students on campus at Queen Mary, University of London
Queen Mary, University Of London
London

Queen Mary Accommodation Sucks

Queen Mary Accommodation Sucks. For the most part, it really is terrible. I'm going to be a 2nd year when the new semester starts, so I just experianced the pain that was Queen Mary Accommodation. Let me share some of my, and many others, experiances.

Firstly, it doesn't matter where you live, you better get used to the fire alam going off at all times of the night. I stayed at pretty much all the halls, and at one point or another the fire alarm has gone off. Alot. It goes off all the times. In pooely, I think it goes off every few days. Which means everbody has to get out, wait in the freezing cold for the firemen to come and check the builds, and you get fined if it call from you flat. Not even your room, just your flat. So, say goodbye to good night sleep. Pooley may get it the worst, but Richard Filden gets it all the time now that they built the new restaraunt underneath.

And if the fire alarm wasn't enough to keep you awake, you better get used to the cleaners banging on the doors with their hoovers early in the morning, and coming into your room even if you put a sign up asking them not to. The cleaners are crazy. They have loud arguments in the corridoors. In one flat I know of, one of the cleaners actually had a shower in the showers! Another was fired for calling a girl fat. And they don't even clean that well. They'd still be dust and crap everywhere after they 2 hours they spent in the flat.

You also have to get used to everything breaking, and staying broken for days. To keep costs down, they must have used a lot of cheap crap. I didn't have a working light for the first 3 weeks I lived in my room, and it took them that long to repair it! In Lindop House, where each flat has two bathrooms, the toilet was broken for over a month!! People came to fix it after a while, and it broke again! Our fridge wouldn't even keep things cold! My friends flat door wouldn't lock, and they didn't fix that for a few weeks too! People kept coming in! The washing machines would stop working, the dryers would take your money and stop working.

But the worst thing has to be the lifts. I can't tell you how many times people have got stuck in the lifts for an hour. I'm not even kidding, the lift would go up, stop, and people would have to talk through the doors to try and get someone to help them.

Internet access is a joke too. It's soo slow, and all downloads are blocked. And forget getting a wireless signal from your room, I had to camp in the kitchen to get mine.

Mile End is also kind of an unsafe area. During the day it's alright, but as soon as it gets dark you don't want to be hanging around there for too long. I was mugged right by campus one night! They took my phone, wallet, everything. And it isn't just me, it's happen to a lot of people. I heard one guy was even mugged on campus!

I would seriously recommend, if you can live at home, commute to Queen Mary. Or, look for private accommodation. Now would be the best time. Bethnal Green, one stop away, in a much nicer and trendier area, and I can't wait to live there this year.

Queen Mary halls may look nice from the outside, but living there is a whole different story. The only good thing is the cheap food, and all the chicken is pink and not cooked properly anyway.

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Reply 1
You have to be the first one that I have herad of that has had so severly bad things to say about the accomodation.
Students on campus at Queen Mary, University of London
Queen Mary, University Of London
London
Reply 2
It isn't just me thats had problems with the accommodation there. Everybody has to deal with the fire alarms, and cleaners, and stuff breaking. It happens in some halls more than others (Pooley is the worst for fire alarms, Filden had new stuff that broke alot, and the others are now just so run down that anything could happen. Don't get me wrong, the Queen Mary is a good uni. And the rooms look nice. But it isn't worth the hassel.

Did I mention TV reception is pretty more in a lot of places?
Reply 3
Completely disagree with what's being said about the accomodation, not sure exactly what you're expecting, but that is student accomodation for you, were you expecting a 5 star hotel?

Yes fire alarms are a problem, but it is caused by students setting them off, smoking in their rooms, and breaking the break glasses, not through any fault in the system.

As for the quality, this is again simply down to students not reporting faults, if you don't report a fault, it won't get fixed. and again, it's student accomodation, it isn't expected to last forever, hence why each building is being refurbished in turn. Feilden is brand new accomodation and the rest of the village is also very new in comparison to lots of others in London.

As for the cleaners, it is their job to clean your room, and in your tenancy agreement, it says you have to allow them in once a week to clean your room, hardly a huge inconvenience to keep the place clean, considering it means you don't have to do a thing. If you prefer to live in a dirty room, thats your choice. If you don't think it's clean enough, report it, or again, nothing will change. If accomodation services don't know somethings wrong how can they change it?

I think you're totally exaggerating the lifts, they do breka down, just like any in any other building, but again in my experience, it is due to people messing about in them, and causing damage.

Your account is very unbalanced, and gives a very unfair view to new students, try opening your eyes and being a little less pesimistic.
Reply 4
themighty
(Pooley is the worst for fire alarms, Filden had new stuff that broke alot, and the others are now just so run down that anything could happen. Don't get me wrong, the Queen Mary is a good uni. And the rooms look nice. But it isn't worth the hassel.

Did I mention TV reception is pretty more in a lot of places?


Yes i agree, Feilden had a few problems, but its a brand new building, and of course it will take a while for the place to be fully settled. It only open in September 2006. Pooley is the worst for fire alarms, again because the students there seemed to be the most troublesome. If you actually new the facts and figure,s you'd see that perhaps only one every two weeks was for a genuine reason (ie. burnt food setting the alarm off because a student left the kitchen). The rest of the disruptions were due to students being malicious, breaking the break glasses, smoking directly underneath the smoke detector. Pooley is the largest building with the most students, it makes sense that it would be the most disurptive, and ultimately, it is all down to how the students treat their accomodation.

I have never heard of TV reception being a problem, and if it is, there are Common rooms with TV facilities.

Which halls are run down?
Reply 5
femmefatale
Completely disagree with what's being said about the accomodation, not sure exactly what you're expecting, but that is student accomodation for you, were you expecting a 5 star hotel?

Yes fire alarms are a problem, but it is caused by students setting them off, smoking in their rooms, and breaking the break glasses, not through any fault in the system.

As for the quality, this is again simply down to students not reporting faults, if you don't report a fault, it won't get fixed. and again, it's student accomodation, it isn't expected to last forever, hence why each building is being refurbished in turn. Feilden is brand new accomodation and the rest of the village is also very new in comparison to lots of others in London.

As for the cleaners, it is their job to clean your room, and in your tenancy agreement, it says you have to allow them in once a week to clean your room, hardly a huge inconvenience to keep the place clean, considering it means you don't have to do a thing. If you prefer to live in a dirty room, thats your choice. If you don't think it's clean enough, report it, or again, nothing will change. If accomodation services don't know somethings wrong how can they change it?

I think you're totally exaggerating the lifts, they do breka down, just like any in any other building, but again in my experience, it is due to people messing about in them, and causing damage.

Your account is very unbalanced, and gives a very unfair view to new students, try opening your eyes and being a little less pesimistic.


If you do report a fault, it takes them a long time to even investigate the problem, and after that who knows how long it will take them to actually fix it. As I said, I didn't have a light in my room for 3 weeks! They came down at the start of the 2nd week after I reported it on the 1st day, and then the guy took th light apart, said he'll be back in a few minutes, and then didn't come back untill the end of the next week. I had to you a table light, which also broke after a while.

The broken bathroom was reported, and wasn't fixed for a very long time. When they finally did come around to replace it, it broke again the next day.

And I understand that a lot of the time alarms go off because students mess about, but I'm just warning people that they do go off, a lot. Even if it is the fault of students a lot of the time, it doesn't stop the fact that it's hard to get a good night sleep.
I think you're expecting too much. It is like this EVERYWHERE.
Reply 7
That's why I chose to move out into Intercollegiate halls. I'd rather travel from Kings Cross/Euston to Queen Mary than live out in Mile End area!
Reply 8
I think I'll like the grime...bring on the muggers as well.
Reply 9
haha xrayzulu don't be a baby, start living in the real world :smile:
there's more muggers in kings cross than mile end...
Reply 10
drhouse
haha xrayzulu don't be a baby, start living in the real world :smile:
there's more muggers in kings cross than mile end...


Muggers travel in packs around Mile End, they know they'll be drunk students everywhere. 3 of my friends all had their phones stolen in the same week right by the campus!

My friends at Kings and UCL had much better accommodation. The intercolligic ones are much nicer too.
Reply 11
don't be a pussy?
Reply 12
Now mugging London is probabily not uncommon, but there are things you can do to not advertise the fact you have things worth stealing.

For one I have no intention of walking about with my phone or Ipod Base showing, and when I bring my laptop in I will have it in a rucksack not a normal laptop carry case.

I know I might be a tad older than most people using this forum but please, the accomidation is what it is. You get what you pay for, and tbh your not paying for a maintained flat in Mayfair. For most people going to uni is the 1st time they have had to think about things like this, take a step back and think of things you can do to help yourself and make the situation better, not whine when things are not 100% how you would expect them.

Regards

Sprout
Reply 13
drhouse
haha xrayzulu don't be a baby, start living in the real world :smile:
there's more muggers in kings cross than mile end...


Every time you say Queen Mary people automatically start talking on how bad and unsafe the area is. I don't know if it's true but many people seem to have the same view.

The halls in UCL, KCL, ICL, LSE area are much better, all the clubs, events happen in the West end. Why would I wan't to move to Mile End.

themighty
they know they'll be drunk students everywhere. 3 of my friends all had their phones stolen in the same week right by the campus!


That's a good point. After a nights clubbing, drunk, trekking it to Mile End? I don't think so!
Reply 14
Bull........aint That Bad!
Reply 15
Sleep In Tha Garden =]
drhouse
don't be a pussy?



My sentiments exactly.
Reply 17
Sorry guys, I'm not trying to bum you all out, but I just thought I'd warn the new freshers while they still have a chance to travel from home, or look for other places around the area.

I'm already out, I'm renting a really nice house around Bethnal Green. The accommodation office also have loads of room and stuff posted on their notice board, and a lot of them are really nice.

And I'm not saying Queen Mary is a bad university! Far from it. I loved most of my first year! But the accommodation there really does have a lot of problems. And Mile End isn't a safe area.

If you do choose to stay in halls, let me offer you some advise. Never go anywhere by yourself when it gets dark. Even at 8 o'clock. Even if its just the short walk to Budgens. I was mugged just cross the road from LaLuna to the campus.

But that still won't stop the constant alarm, and things breaking. A crappy security. I swear, those guys are never awake.
Reply 18
themighty
Sorry guys, I'm not trying to bum you all out, but I just thought I'd warn the new freshers while they still have a chance to travel from home, or look for other places around the area.

I'm already out, I'm renting a really nice house around Bethnal Green. The accommodation office also have loads of room and stuff posted on their notice board, and a lot of them are really nice.

And I'm not saying Queen Mary is a bad university! Far from it. I loved most of my first year! But the accommodation there really does have a lot of problems. And Mile End isn't a safe area.

If you do choose to stay in halls, let me offer you some advise. Never go anywhere by yourself when it gets dark. Even at 8 o'clock. Even if its just the short walk to Budgens. I was mugged just cross the road from LaLuna to the campus.

But that still won't stop the constant alarm, and things breaking. A crappy security. I swear, those guys are never awake.


i need to teach you how to fight
Reply 19
I just realised you're name is the mighty doesn't sound like it lol am joking

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