The Student Room Group

Best student city? Exeter vs Birmingham vs York

Which two out of the three have the best nightlife and music scene? I assume Exeter and York are a bit safer and probably cheaper than Birmingham too.

Any details would be great. Thanks!
I imagine Birmingham has the best nightlife in terms of big clubs, more people, etc.

Exeter and York are both much, much smaller in terms of area and population.

I suppose that'd make Exeter and York a bit more niche, with smaller independent clubs rather than the chain ones...

Everywhere is different though :biggrin:
Reply 2
Exeter is utter rubbish. Although I guess there could be worse. :dontknow:
Don't know about Exeter and Birmingham (though I imagine Birmingham being a major city would have top notch clubs).

York's nightclubs are surprisingly good. There are 3 or 4 major ones (Tokyo, Salvation etc) and a few smaller ones which really should be lumped into the bar category, such as Vodka Revs and so on.

There's a student night for a given club every night of the week so you can go out whenever you feel like it.

The bouncers are sub-standard, unintelligible faggots with very poor manners, but what's different?
LOL... York is ridiculously expensive (in my opinion), but I live there, and I'm not a student there. I wouldn't say its got a great night life either...
Original post by linkdapink
LOL... York is ridiculously expensive (in my opinion), but I live there, and I'm not a student there. I wouldn't say its got a great night life either...


It's not great but I find that it's fairly cheap (but being from Surrey anything is cheap in comparison.)
Original post by DarkSenrine
It's not great but I find that it's fairly cheap (but being from Surrey anything is cheap in comparison.)


I guess I went to Newcastle and Sheffield for Uni, which are heavily student orientated, so incredibly cheap in comparison to York!
Reply 7
Original post by grape:)
Exeter is utter rubbish. Although I guess there could be worse. :dontknow:


Go on...
Reply 8
Original post by Twazzock
Which two out of the three have the best nightlife and music scene? I assume Exeter and York are a bit safer and probably cheaper than Birmingham too.

Any details would be great. Thanks!


Birmingham probably but go for York! York still has an awesome night out but without the creepy horribleness of Birmingham... everything is so grey and... big... like industrially scary big :frown:

YAAAAY YORK!!! :biggrin:
Reply 9
I've heard Exeter has terrible nightlife, apparently it has a small city centre with few clubs.
Not sure about York but Birmingham is massive and has a large variety of different clubs, from the mainstream ones to alternative clubs and even salsa clubs!
Reply 10
Original post by Twazzock
Go on...


There are 3 main clubs. Firstly I'll describe Arena.... Feet. It smells like feet. The prices are rip-off and it's normally just filled with Chavs.

Secondly, timepiece... it's okay, as is Rococos (a lot of people dislike it)... but well there isn't much variety.

I guess it's subjective.
Reply 11
Original post by grape:)
There are 3 main clubs. Firstly I'll describe Arena.... Feet. It smells like feet. The prices are rip-off and it's normally just filled with Chavs.

Secondly, timepiece... it's okay, as is Rococos (a lot of people dislike it)... but well there isn't much variety.

I guess it's subjective.


Hahaha I love this description, sums Exeter up perfectly. Arena does smell awful! However you have forgotten EX4, which somehow doesn't really appeal to me!

The city itself I wouldn't say is that bad on other aspects, just don't come here for the nightlife!
Reply 12
Original post by Twazzock
Which two out of the three have the best nightlife and music scene? I assume Exeter and York are a bit safer and probably cheaper than Birmingham too.

Any details would be great. Thanks!


I went to York, there is not a good nightlife and next to no music scene. The only positive is that it is close to Leeds.
Reply 13
Original post by _Kay_
Hahaha I love this description, sums Exeter up perfectly. Arena does smell awful! However you have forgotten EX4, which somehow doesn't really appeal to me!

The city itself I wouldn't say is that bad on other aspects, just don't come here for the nightlife!


Well said! Although I didn't include EX4 because well.... it's EX4 haha x
Reply 14
Original post by grape:)
There are 3 main clubs. Firstly I'll describe Arena.... Feet. It smells like feet. The prices are rip-off and it's normally just filled with Chavs.

Secondly, timepiece... it's okay, as is Rococos (a lot of people dislike it)... but well there isn't much variety.

I guess it's subjective.


Timepiece is awful! It's like a school hall with a disco. I hate how it has a really tacky vibe which you wouldn't expect much because it looks so nice from the outside.

I haven't been to Rococos but heard it's bad, too.

I would say Arena is probably the best as the themed Monday nights are usually quite good as they're student nights, there a less chavs.

Overall, Exeter's nightlife is very small and not amazing. The best nights I've had there have been pre-drinking in people's flats. Plus, someone said Birmingham would be more expensive? No way. Exeter is very expensive compared to a lot of student towns. Never been to York, but from what I've heard it's quiet and expensive too. So I think Birmingham wins here!

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