LSE accommodation Q and A

College hall is good for social life

Thank you for your reply! Is it true that there are only UCL students there or can I hope to find some LSE students too?

No there has to be a fair allocation of each college at a UoL hall, it says on their website

Yes, and a fair allocation means by definition that those halls will be UCL dominated since UCL is proportionally a much bigger uni than LSE and others.

UCL: 40,000 students
LSE: around 10,000

You do the math.

Yikes and most LSE is postgraduate.
Well at least your social life will be better due to it being majority first year and other unis outside LSE.

I’m a second year at LSE - just here to give advice

Hey! Will living in an intercollegiate hall necessarily alienate me from most LSE students, even though it may be better with respect to social life? I guess in the end I'm just asking whether giving up LSE halls and choosing intercollegiate halls is worth it when everything is taken into account.

Hey! Will living in an intercollegiate hall necessarily alienate me from most LSE students, even though it may be better with respect to social life? I guess in the end I'm just asking whether giving up LSE halls and choosing intercollegiate halls is worth it when everything is taken into account.

Hi! I was wondering what the catered food is like because I'm debating going catered or non catered. Also how is the social life at Urbanest, I've heard mixed reviews?

The catered food is fine - not incredible, not terrible. The huge benefit of being in a catered hall is the better social life - everyone mixes everyday at mealtimes & there are communal areas whereas in self-catered halls everyone’s in self-contained flats.

Urbanest is probably the worst hall there is for social life. Avoid at all costs in first year.

Thanks so much. Is Bankside good for social life? I've heard from loads of people that it has a really good community.

I think if you want an ensuite it's your only option out of the social halls, isn't it?

Urbanest is probably the worst hall there is for social life. Avoid at all costs in first year.

Talking about Passfield/Carr-Saunders, I paid just about £220 a week for a single room (no roommate). If you shared with one or two other people it could be significantly cheaper. And no, these are undergrad only halls.

Foodwise, these halls are catered, so cooked dinners are provided 6 nights of the week (Sunday-Friday), and on Saturday a brunch is provided.

So Sunday-Friday, I would have cereal for breakfast, and then for lunch I would either buy a sandwich near campus or make one in halls and take it with me. (And then eat dinner in halls)

On Saturdays, the brunch would serve for breakfast and lunch and then my friends and I would normally order a takeaway for dinner - Dominos and Deliveroo aren't that expensive if you're paying as a group.

Rosebery is honestly fine - it was an excellent hall when I was in first year last year. The communal area is like a conservatory which you can use to also chill outside in summer which is great. Also BIG BIG advantage of Rosebery over Bankside: shorter commute to campus.

Bankside, yes it’s great and has a good reputation as a hall but it’s the furthest one from campus by quite some margin (it’s in south London for starters.)

At Passfield or Rosebery you’d have a sound 25 minute walk to campus which is easy. At Bankside it’s more like 35-40 minutes.

Something to consider especially when it’s winter or if it’s raining badly etc.

I was considering Rosebery as well but I know they will have construction work and I think I will go mad if all I do is keep hearing drilling which is such a shame!

I was planning on studying more in my room as much as I can as I do like to talk out loud when reading etc so hopefully that is possible

Studying in your room shouldn’t be a problem at all at Rosebery

I think I am just worried about the construction noise, I've heard it has been going on for a while but I am not sure how disruptive it exactly is. All I fear is that when I open up my books and start to study, I hear long drilling which has been the case at my school so far for us to never see the building (a levels cancelled)