St Edmund Hall, Oxford

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	St Edmund Hall
	Established:	c. 1226
	University:	University of Oxford
	Address:	Queen's Lane Oxford, OX1 4AR, UK
	Telephone:	(01865) 279000
	Website:	www.seh.ox.ac.uk
	Student Union/JCR website:	jcr.seh.ox.ac.uk
	Admittance:	Men and women

Location

Teddy Hall is handily located down Queen Street, just off High Street. This is a wonderful central (slightly east) location, but sufficiently well hidden to make toursists a rarity. College annexes are found around the city including on Iffley Road and at Norham Gardens (just by LMH) where 4th years often live.

Accommodation

(1st Year, on college) Rooms are very nice, although there are a couple which are on the small side because they happen to be on the side of the building. Students there get discounted rent. The rent is stupidly high by Oxford standards, about £17-18 a day, coming to just over £1000 by a term. My first term's battels (including food) cost £1464, which I believe is the highest in the uni. 2nd year- most people live out in private accomodation, as I'm planning on doing (I think, if nothing else, its really important to learn about dealing with arsy landlords and the rest of it). The college does have accomodation for you if you want it though, mainly in the Isis hotel on Iffley Road, which a couple of people take up, as well as the visiting students. 3rd/4th year- Although you could opt out and go for private accomodation, most return to college-owned accomodation. This is either on-site in college, in Isis again, in Dawson Street, where the rooms were built about 5 years ago with self-catering facilities and en-suite bathrooms, or else in the Norham Gardens annexes.

Social Spaces

For the undergraduates there is a JCR, which has lots of newspapers and magazines and a TV with Sky; a games room with quiz machines etc; a pool table and an area where you can buy snacks etc. There is a computer room as well as internet access in all rooms.

There is also an MCR for postgraduates, with tea- and coffee-making facilities and newspapers etc and a seperate computer room.

The college bar is lovely and looks like an old pub. Our bar men are famous all over college for their friendliness and know all the regulars' names.

In summer there's also the graveyard. Yes, I know that sounds weird, but we do hang out in a graveyard. It's actually very beautiful, with flowers growing through the grass and climbing plants climbing on the grave stones. It's just by the bar and in summer people spill out of the bar onto the grass and have a few drinks in the evenings. Since the smoking ban, it's also where the smokers tend to hang out!

Clubs and Societies

Teddy Hall has a sporting reputation, with concentration on rugby, football and rowing in particular. The teams are as legendary for their socials as much as their sporting prowess, which is of a pretty good standard. We also have a whole range of other sports- basically, if there's a college sport of some kind, Teddy Hall will have a team! Badminton, tennis, pool, lacrosse, darts all feature. I don't know what strength it'll have, but I'm gonna guess that in the summer, the cricket team will be on that list as well.

The chapel choir is small, but of a good standard, with around 4 choral scholars helping to maintain a high standard. Recent tours have included Paris and Rome, where the choir tackled some incredibly challenging music (including the Elgar Te Deum and Benedictus, as well as Byrd, Parry, Walton and Stanford) to a high standard while singing at a number of churches including the Santa Maria degla Angeli basilica. In 2007 the choir undertook a workshop with the world-famous Swingle Singers.

Library and Computing

There are plenty of computers around college- in the IT room and the library, though most students have their own as well. There are black and white and colour printers available (you get charged on your battels bill for it at the end of term). The library itself has a good selection of books and is housed in an old church, which makes a lovely setting.

Welfare

Teddy Hall is a very supportive college generally and people tend to look out for eachother; however if you need welfare support it's there. As well daily visits from a nurse or GP and a chaplin, there is a JCR welfare rep and students can choose to become peer supporters, receiving training and holding drop-in sessions. In addition we hold regular welfare teas (free cake and biscuits!). As an example of a recent welfare project, Teddy Hall JCR and MCRs recently organised the Walk Safe project where students volunteered to accompany others if they need to get somewhere alone at night. This has now been taken over by the Student Union.

Atmosphere

Facilities

Student-eye view

Although most famous for its sporting abilities, Teddy Hall has a lot to offer students regardless of thei intrest in and prowess at sport. Due to the realtively small size of its central site, it's easy for students to get to know eachother and thriving clubs and societies mean people know eachother accross the years as well as within each one. Overall, we are a very close-knit community with strong friendships and enjoy socialising together very much.

The college is not particularly known for producing politicially active students/ journalists/ musicians etc etc, but rather tends to produce a broad range of people with various different interests and encourages them all both within college and on a university level.