The Student Room Group
The Great Hall at University of Leeds
University of Leeds
Leeds

The Big Bumper Henry Price Guide

Oct 2014 - It's been a while TSR... edited a few things, if anyone feels any of the text needs updating please do let me know.

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I'm going to bump this up. Please please note that I made this thread a few years back now, most of the info will still be relevant (I think?) but some may be out of date.

If anyone is interested feel free to notify me of any mistakes in terms of changes that have occured since I've been there. I'll give you showers of praise and a nice "+" on your post haha! What is clearly lacking from this thread is some nice quality pictures, I've got one pic taken on a shoddy webcam :frown:

Some useful input from sophiebow can be found at the bottom of the page HERE. She offers some more details than I did with regards to noise in HP, no common room and the amount of space you get. Please read this after you've looked through this post as the points she makes are excellent and well worth considering if you are/thinking about coming here!

Update List
- Updated Bus 'Day Rider' prices (Apr 2011)
- Updated minor info on takeaways in the area (clearly a priority in this thread :biggrin:) (Apr 2011)
- Updated with slightly more info on busses/shopping at Morrisons in the Misc section (with thanks to *Hannah.*)
- Updated info regarding the on-campus gym (again with thanks to Hannah)
- Updated with warnings from Hannah about various creepy crawlies in the night

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Well okay, it's about 3 am and well I'm bored :biggrin: so I thought I'd do a good deed and help you university searchers out. I know that it might be a little early, but some of you have your hearts set on this fantastic university and may already be looking into accommodation... soooooo I thought I'd give a big guide on Henry Price with everything I can think of. If you like the guide feel free to give me some positive rep (And any feedback) as I'd like to know if anyone actually finds this useful lol :biggrin:

I'm not here to advertise the place and bump up numbers for next year I'll say it how it is (From my experiences anyway). I remember when I was looking into accommodation last year (I'm in my first year at Henry Price) there wasn't too much detailed information out there about the halls, and the information that was out there was understandbly 'biased' with the university making accom. sound great:rolleyes: . If I get the chance I'll upload some pics (Proper ones, not like on the uni site that uses funky camera angles to make the rooms seem twice as big :p: ) And also you can ask me any info on Henry Price if it ain't in this guide (Or anything else relating to Leeds for that matter). I'll add it to a FAQ section if a question is asked.

So here goes with the guide (Drum roll please), it may be edited in the coming days, as I hope you understand I may forget to put some bits and bobs in it tonight :redface: Oh and don't nit pick my spelling/grammar/punctuation/bad humour or I'll hunt ya down next year :cool:

Here we go with .... The TRUTHFUL Henry Price Guide

I know this guide is long, but choosing your university and accommodation is important and I know I wanted to know every last detail about Henry Price before I came last year, so hopefully some of you who may be in that position in a few months will find this useful.

Okay so where to start.... maybe the place that will be your living quarters for a year

The Bedroom


Some great large pictures of the en-suite bedroom are on page two of this forum topic - Provided by Pink_Diamond! :smile:


Right, I'm in my bedroom now and it's cosy :biggrin: The rooms are a decent size, you get a bed (Bet you're glad about that) a bin, a semi-comfy chair, heater, desk, shelves, bedside table, wall mirror, wardrobe, 6 plug sockets and a Internet Socket.Note: Pink Diamond informs me that the large ensuite room gets an extra chair and a coffee table! Basically you get everything that will help you survive for the year. For those of you who want to give the room your own personal touch, there are two note boards that you can use to stick things on (Posters etc.) However according to the rules this is the only place you can stick these things up, using pins and other items on bare walls is very very naughty :smile:

For those of you with a wardrobe of clothes the size of that which Kate Moss owns, the wardrobe provided is a good size, I was easily able to fit all my clothes in there and have space free, but then again I don't have 20 pairs of different high heeled boots to fit in :redface: There is also storage space under the bed in the form of two deep sliding drawers... I havn't even used these as I didn't need to space when I had finished packing Note: A small person can fit in these drawers, however I do not condone such behaviour......

Now a comment I have heard a lot about bedrooms is "I really want an en suite with my own bathroom" personally I don't see the point. The ensuite room IS about twice the size of a normal, however, there is a misconception that you will share a bathroom with 8 other people, I even thought this as I never came to an open day, this isn't true. In Henry Price the shower rooms are between two bedrooms, so you will share your shower room with the person living in the next bedroom (It's kind of between the two bedrooms difficult to explain). I'll get onto the shower room later though....

Also I read about someone who was worried about the bed sizes, and that they thought they may have been too tall. I'm about 6 foot 2 and when I lie down vertically on the bed I still have half a foot of leg room... so unless you are of an amazing height the bed will be big enough :smile:

So in general for good points, the bedroom is very nice, to be honest the first time I saw my bedroom I was very impressed that it was better than I imagined, one of the major plus points of Henry Price I'd say.... but wait there are a FEW bad things...

The bedrooms - Bad Points

Well firstly, the major issue I've had with my bedroom is the heating. Sometimes you feel like it's not working at all even when it's on full, a few weeks back there were a few problems which caused the heating to not work at all!! However, the service at Henry Price is sound, when I informed the accommodation office they gave me an emergency number I could call if it came to the point where the cold was unbearable so top marks there for the staff!

The second issue I've had is the door to the shower room, look at it this way, you can get into it through your door, the next bedroom can through theirs, not really a problem you may say, however, there are no locks on the inside so potentially while your doing your natural stuff on the toilet your drunken neighbour could stumble in on you, hasn't happened to me yet but for those who relish their privacy it may be something to consider...

And that's it for the moment for the bedrooms until something else pops into my head, as I said feel free to ask any questions you have :biggrin:

So up next.....

The Kitchen

Right this is where you'll eat all your 'healthy meals' (For the first week anyway then it's onto the pizzas :cool:) The kitchen comes with all the standard stuff, oven with inbuilt grill, 2 hobs (4 hobs on each hob O.o Does that make sense) cupboards - enough for 1 cupboard each for 9 people, sink, draining board, 3 fridge-freezers (Enough for 1 shelf each and 1 drawer each in the freezer) sitting area, iron, ironing board, kettle, vacuum cleaner and table. Oh and also theres a tv aerial socket, a few plug sockets and an internet socket in here too.

NOT INCLUDED

Utensils
Cutlery
Crockery
Food (Ha you wish :biggrin:)
Toaster

So yeah your standard communal kitchen, great place to socialise for the first few days, oven works well and it's generally nice. You also get a notice board in this room too for sticking up any take away leaflets/fliers for clubs etc. Again as with the bedrooms there are a few problems that I've come across.

1. The sink - Whatever you do, and this is my top tip, do NOT choose the cupboard under the sink for your pans/plates/cups. I chose this one myself (DOH!) and recently I've had gunge from the sink leaking onto my pans forcing me to disinfect the cupboard every time it happens, so trust me and remember this saying "See the sink, don't even think" ^_^

2. Toast Lovers - The grill is shockingly bad, takes about 20 minutes to heat up and it barely browns a piece of bread, get yourself a toaster or even better wait until everyone arrives and chip in a quid or so each and you're sorted :P

3. May not be an issue for you but I thought I'd have a rant about it, when we arrived to our flat the kettle didn't work :frown:

4. The oven was a mess when we arrived, and in a flat inspection a few weeks back we had to clean all the gunk out the oven from last year's flat, so if you're in my flat next year, and feel the same anger, then blame me :smile:

5. The seating area is a little small for 9 people to fit on, the table will fit roughly 6 people at once having dinner, but even that's pushing it...

Righto, this is going to be long WHY OH WHY DID I DO THIS :biggrin:

Next up....

The Bathroom

I don't like calling it a bathroom, because it isn't. Basically it's a shower, sink and toilet combined into one. One of the major flaws, it's small, can barely fit two people in the whole shower room so for those of you who are used to putting your makeup on in the morning in the bathroom, better get used to the bedroom :smile: The shower works as it should but mine is currently deciding to leak quite often lol

Something that has cropped up time and time again is the issue of girls sharing with boys and vice versa. However, as far as I'm aware all the showers shared between 2 people are same sex, no one I know of is sharing with the opposite sex. And as I said earlier, there are no locks on the inside, but as long as you're polite and make some kind of system (Knocking and all that jazz) you should be fine.

I echo what I just said, there is really no big deal in sharing with another person, everyone I know has no problems with it, trust me when you run out of toilet roll and you need to do a whoopsie you'll be glad that you share with someone that you can borrow some off. Don't get too wound up if you applied for an ensuite but don't get it (There's only 1 en suite in each flat anyway) the shared bathrooms are just as practical.

+ points

Shower is right next to your bedroom.
Has the usual stuff in it, sink, toilet.
Sensor that turns on the light when you walk on :cool:wahey, also turns off automatically so no need to worry about your carbon footprint

- points

Too small.
Toilet doesn't have the most powerful of flushes... I won't go into graphic detail...
No locks on the indoors
If you want to go to the toilet after your neighbour has showered, you'll end up with wet feet.

The Building Itself

Yeah it's a building, nothing fun about a building, but as they always say don't judge a book by it's cover. You get into your block using a keycard provided by the uni and this keycard will also get you into the flat so it's really secure. There's also CCTV on the outside just to be safe. The building is made up of 5 floors with two flats on either side of a floor (Except for certain blocks, F is a example) The blocks range from B-F, F being the one closest to the university with the other blocks moving further away as you go down the alphabet. There are no lifts, so if you're one of the unfortunate ones who gets one of the two top floors (Like me) you'll be doing a lot of stair climbing, saves you having to go to the gym anyway :wink:

One of the disappointments of Henry Price is that there is no common room, so meeting other flats can be difficult, however many people randomly walk around the first few days, leave your door open and people will pop in to see you :biggrin:

At the bottom of each block there's a set of lockers for flat mail, of which I believe you obtain a key from the office situated at the bottom of Henry Pric, however no one from home seems to send me anything? :frown: so I havn't yet obtained a key.
Laundry
Another important thing (That no one told me about beforehand when I arrived) is the issue of laundry. Now I know many of you will take yours home every weekend, but some of us don't like wearing the same underwear 3 times a week. The laundry room is located between blocks B and C, and costs £1.60 for one wash. The washing machines are like those large launderette ones so you can fit a lot in, the washing machines now accept all coins except 5p, 2p and 1p (Thanks again to Pink_Diamond for reminding me about this :wink:). I've never used the driers but they also cost money, however a lot of people claim they make black fluff appear on your clothes haha!
Parking
There is limited onsite parking, however I have no idea who can get it and what you need to do. There's some parking spaces on the main road outside the building but they get full by 10am. Depending on which side you overlook from your bedroom, you will either be looking over Hyde Park or a graveyard (Yes that's right a graveyard). I got the Hyde Park view which I'm not complaining about... :redface:

The General Location

In my opinion this is one of the best things Henry Price has going for itself

You couldn't ask for better, it's about 2 minutes walk from the union, 2 minutes walk from a pub and takeaways and there's a bus that stops right outside the halls which takes you into town.

For the fitness fanatics there is the on campus gym "The Edge" which is FREE for all undergraduates who pay rent in University accommodation. There are some limitations on what you can do for free in terms of only being able to go at off-peak times etc. but there is the possibility to upgrade to premium membership if you want to avoid these limitations (As of May 2011 an upgrade to 'Club Extra' costs £50 for the year, to upgrade to 'Club Premium' is £90 a year). Further details can be found by clicking HERE.

You lucky buggers this wasn't the case when I was at Uni a few years back :P . I would utilise this opportunity as much as you can! - Thanks to Hannah for reminding me about the new gym redevelopment

It may be worth mentioning that a bus ride to Morrisons cost £1 each way (on the number 56 First Bus - First being the company). If you're travelling elsewhere around Leeds £4.20 will get you a Day Rider for unlimited travel thanks to porki for reminding me about the increase in day rider prices.:smile:! - There is a stop right outside Morrisons which is handy if you've got a fair few carrier bags or if it's bucketing down.

The takeaways are great value, the best in my opinion being Romee'z pizzas that sells 14 inch pizzas for £4.50 (Romee'z no longer exists :frown: - 2011), a bargain! There's also a Chinese, burger and curry takeaway as well as a few small restaurants down the road. The Library pub which is a 2 minute walk is a really great place to start off a night with events such as comedy night's on Thursday's often selling out because they are so popular. There's also a big morrisons superstore that's about a 15 minute walk (Or it's located on a bus route if you prefer to hitch a ride) which will be your godsend for budgeting on your food each week.

Put it this way, I know people who live in Bondington Halls and they have to get up an hour earlier than me just so they can catch the bus into Leeds Uni. If your one of those people, like me, who wouldn't mind setting off for lectures 10 minutes before they start and want a self catered halls then I would seriously consider Henry Price as your choice, just for the pure fact of the great location.

Bad Points?

Well can barely think of any.... if I had to be picky, some nights can get a little noisy with drunk students walking past, and also you can hear the traffic lights outside beeping until early morning..... but truthfully, location is one of the things that clinched the deal when I chose Henry Price.

Miscellaneous Stuff

-Henry Price may be a little more expensive than other halls, but the amount you save on bus fares (Remember you have to walk 2 minutes to get into the uni compared to daily bus rides in some other halls) will make up for the extra expense.

-There are inter-flat competitions for sports ranging from badminton to women's football.

-There are wardens living within the halls if you have any problems.

-The fire alarm.... is annoying.... yes I know it can save lives, but they seem really sensitive in Henry Price.. had a few false alarms already... and yes you have to wait outside in the cold rain..

-Some nice social events, one of the first nights their we had a Henry Price bowling trip, £3.50 for 2 games, buffet of pizza and cheap drinks at the bar, can honestly say it's been one of the best nights out so far!!

-Close to the union which has places such as, the old bar and the refectory. Also close to the popular club Halo (Just on the other side of campus)

-You get the internet cable and instructions to set up the network supplied to you on arrival :wink: - Note: The cable they provide will not reach your bed, if you prefer to use a laptop while lying on your bed I suggest you buy a 5m+ cable, can get them relatively cheap, I picked up a 10m one for a couple of £'s

-Bins are emptied daily by the wonderful cleaner, except for weekends, however, there are bins located at the bottom of Henry Price so you can take some rubbish out yourself if it's piling up Thanks Pink_Diamond for reminding me about this!

-Hannah has posted that the she has heard of some problems with silverfish insects (Lepisma saccharina for the zoologist in you). I don't think I had any issues myself when I was there but it may be a warning if you're squeamish about things like that.

Well at the moment that's all I can muster up from my brain, at least I feel I've been useful now :biggrin: I know how little detailed information there was about Henry Price when I looked last year, little details like whether there's a toaster or not, do you share bathrooms, how big are they are never explained fully (Or they wern't to me)

Please ask any questions about Henry Price or university life in general, no matter how much detail you want I'll be happy to answer any questions on what seminars are like, how much work do I do (Yes I'll tell you this truthfully), what are assignments like, is it true that students do no work at all etc. MAKE ME FEEL USEFUL!!! :biggrin:

Thanks a lot and I wish you well in whatever University you choose in the end (But obviously I prefer those of you who are coming here :redface:)

Chris


FAQ Section

Swifter asks - "Is the community a close knit one? I'll be happy living anywhere as long as everyone gets along!"

Thanks for the first question ever Swifter :p: Okay a few things to mention...

1. You live in a flat with 8 other people, you would be trying very hard to annoy people if you didn't get along with at least a few of them:smile:! Everyone in my flat gets along with each other, there has yet to be any arguments. (Although I must say, it seems to be the all girls flats that supposedly have the big disagreements) Like I said in the guide there is NO common room, however, I don't think one is needed.

2. The first few days are nervous for everyone. On the first day when I came to Henry Price there wern't many flatmates that had arrived. I left my door open and an hour or so later someone arrived and came and said hi to me. As long as you don't shut yourself away you will be fine, other people from other flats even came knocking on our door.

3. The kitchen is a great place to meet everyone (It's like a mini common room in itself) You will most probably see each of your flatmates everyday, one of the maor advantages of self catered accom. over catered. On the first night we had a flat meal so everyone gradually got to know each other, just talk to people and things should be fine. Remember, there are going to be a wide variety of people with different interests to you. Some people you may not get along with but I guarentee there will be many more that you do make friends with, it's all part of the experience :wink:

Toasted marshmellows asks - " Is it single sex - like to each flat? and if it is then is all the leeds accom single sex?"

As far as I'm aware there's no specific single sex accommodation for Leeds University. In my current flat there are 4 males and 5 females however in the flat across it's just all females. It's pot luck I think. I don't think you'll ever get put in the situation where you are with all members of the opposite sex (i.e if you're a boy you end up in a flat with no other boys), or I'm not aware of anyone in this sort of position at the moment :smile:

ewanm asks - "I'm not really that picky with stuff like rooms being en-suite etc, my only problem with Henry price judging from your guide is the lack of common room. Do you reckon its a major letdown or not really a big deal?"

Personally I thought it was a really bad point before I came to Leeds that Henry Price didn't have a common room... but since I moved into Henry Price it hasn't bothered me in the slightest, in fact I never even think about the fact that there's no common room in HP.

There's tons of stuff to do around campus/in the city/even at the local pub down the road (Which has table football and a pool table). Of course I guess having no common room is a slight negative, afterall, I don't see how I could play table tennis at 4 am like you said you can do at your friend's accom. :p: What you find is if you get a half decent bunch of flatmates, you'll find yourself doing stuff with them, for example, a game of trivial pursuit, Playstation in the kitchen, Buzz The Music Quiz (I love that game!! :biggrin:). Like I said in the guide, the kitchen is basically a mini common room itself!

However, I think when choosing an accommodation having a common room or not, in my opinion, is insignificant. You're going to be living in whichever accommodation you choose for just under a year, so base your decision on the overall feel you have for the place, whether you'll feel comfortable living there and is it the sort of place you can feel happy living in for a period of time

When I was looking through the various accommodation before I came to the uni last year, I found that there was no single perfect place for me, each had good and bad points, it's just that Henry Price ticked more of the good boxes than the rest:smile:.

Thanks to:

Pink_Diamond - Giving me info. that I had not thought about :biggrin:

EssexDan86 - Humouring me, reminding me about the bus fare price rise and being HP's biggest fan

Porki - for reminding me of another day rider price rise... First travel claim it was for 'fuel cost' rises... but I'm yet to hear any news about bus prices falling as petrol prices decrease!!!

sophiebow - Providing some extra information from her perspective and experiences at Henry Price

*Hannah*. - Extra info regarding buses, the gym and silverfish infestations! aha
(edited 9 years ago)

Scroll to see replies

You forgot to mention the random weirdos that climb the wall at the back of Henry Price....and that the bins get emptied daily except weekends.

Also i have one of the large enusite rooms...in this room you get a 2nd chair and a small coffee table.
The Great Hall at University of Leeds
University of Leeds
Leeds
Reply 2
Alright thanks Pink +rep for you :smile: Added to the guide and gave you recognition
lol thank you...btw what block are you lol, ive probs seen you on the stairs or something
Reply 4
Block E :cool:
Im D
Reply 6
Okay, I will definately be putting pictures of Henry Price,Building, bedrooms, kitchen, shower and any other stuff, sometime around New Year as I'm going to be getting a webcam/camera for xmas so I can do some pics :smile:

Also if any current residents have anything they want to add (Like Pink_Diamond did) just post here and I'll add it to the main guide giving you recognition. If you want to put any pictures up in your post feel free to do so too!
Bah, Henry Price is a Swedish Prison suitable only for those who are so useless and lazy they get out of bed 10mins before lectures!

Everyone knows it's all about Bodington!
Reply 8
"they get out of bed 10mins before lectures!"

I fail to see the disadvantage of this, maybe the early starts at Bodington have made you cranky :biggrin:
Bodington is closing so evidently it's not "all about Bodington" at all.
Reply 10
guitarromantic
Bodington is closing so evidently it's not "all about Bodington" at all.


:eek: never knew that, since when is this happening and for what reasons? Surely they must be building somewhere new to accommodate the places that will be lost?
Haha, someone doesn't read the Leeds Student newspaper! http://leedsstudent.lsrfm.com/article/23/11/2007/645/
Reply 12
Too busy studying to read the newspaper .... :smile:
Yeah it's closing sadly... a combination of students wanting fancy en-suite rooms these days and the university realising how much money they'd make if they sold it off!

Bodington 04-05, those were the days!
I've heard henry price is quite a quiet place compared to others? along with the other ensuite ones
is that true?
Ahh deciding on accomodation is tough ! x
Henry Price Quiet?? Who told you such a lie lol.

It is at first till you socialise with other flats, but living with 8 other people things are never quiet...somebody is always in the kitchen (my biggest distraction as i live across from it lol and always go for a chat when i hear someone)
Reply 16
Yeah there's a decent amount of flatmates in each flat so quiet pfffft nah. On the first week a Henry Price bowling trip was organised, I recommend you go if the same sort of thing happens again next year :wink:

(And I promise I'll get the pictures done soon, I've had a few exams so havn't really had the time, but my last exam is tomorrow hooray!)
Reply 17
Okay 2 pictures of my bedroom added, made my bed especially for you all :smile:

The pictures are a little rubbish, I don't have a digital camera so I'm having to take pictures with my webcam, if I manage to get a usb connecter for my phone I might take some exterior pics and other shots of Henry Price.

I kept the pictures as small thumbnails so as to keep the page loading time to a minimum. If you want to view the bigger picture click on the pic you want and it will open the link to the full size version at www.imageshack.us :wink:

If anyone has any particular requests of specific pictures - If you would really like a picture of the chair I'm sat on for example :biggrin: - Then either post a reply in here or private message me.
Wizard if anyone wants pics of the bathrooms, or a large room i also have these.
Not to mention a picture of someone in one of the under drawer beds lol. I have kitchen picutres but the kitchen is covered in beer bottles in it (1st nite) so maybe not that one lol

Oooo and the washers now take all coins except 5p and coppers. and the dryers take £1 coins now too
Wizard, what's with the talk about buying a dayrider to get from the swedish prison into town?! It's about a 10min walk anyway, and the dayrider has just gone up to £2.70, meaning if you just want to go there and back in one day you'd do better to just spend £1 to get into town and £1 back.

Though I suppose HP is intended for the particularly lazy students who don't want to have to go far:wink:

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