IS ROSEBERY SOCIABLE?
Yes, every year it is one of the most if not the most sociable halls. The layout is also conductive to meeting people, wherever you go outside your room you’ll usually pass a few greetings. It is not unusual for people to go out 3x or more a week, and you will often find yourself going out in groups of 20+ and sometimes as many as 50 or 60 (TigerTiger Blueggrh).
DOES THE SIZE PREVENT IT FROM BEING SOCIABLE?
Not in the slightest. In general everyone knows everyone at Rosebery, but if you want to hideaway in your room there’s still scope for that.
WHAT IS THE AREA AROUND ROSEBERY LIKE?
Rosebery is situated in a truly amazing and vibrant area of London. Islington is known to be a young, trendy area, with numerous bars, cafes and restaurants (most importantly, two spoons’ close by!). Furthermore, we have the world-famous Sadler’s Wells Theatre about a 1 minute walk from Rosebery, and the world-famous Urdang dance school about a 30 second walk in the opposite direction.
Better still, we have the second biggest club in London – Fabric (our secretary lives there) – a 10 minute walk from us, and what is called ‘London’s biggest indie night’ – Propaganda club, also a 10 minute walk from us. That is situated in the O2 Academy, which also hosts many front-line gigs from well-known bands. We're an easy bus away to central areas like Leicester Square and Oxford Circus, but also very close to the trendy areas of Camden Town and Old Street.
A 2 minute walk away also lies Exmouth market, which is supposed to be a very well known market in London and has a range of outdoor cultural food stalls and other random cool stuff. LSE is a 20 minute walk away and you go through the Royal Courts of Justice which is kinda cool.
It’s a relatively safe area in London in general – Boris Johnson lives pretty close (not that that makes it any safer), and we’re fairly central if not a tad east. The area is quite peaceful though compared to most of central London and there's some decent green patches close by like Spa fields.
WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH FOOD?
It’s catered for (meals around or under £3), but each floor also has its own kitchen including a fridge, freezer, hob, microwave, kettle, your own kitchen locker, a sink (well duh) and a toaster. The kitchens are pretty small, and in fresher’s week you’ll usually wake up in the morning to find them covered in various adornments of food and other outdoor appliances.
I’VE HEARD STUFF ABOUT THE BATHROOMS – HOW ARE THEY?
The bathroom refurbishments will be complete by the time you arrive (in fact they are more or less complete now). With the current boys’ set, you cannot change the temperature because LSE management thought that would save energy but actually it’s just a dumb idea. For girls though, this won’t be the case (we complained during the refurbs). The girl toilets are really good. The guy toilets are also decent, just that you can’t change the temperature and a couple of other things. You can have lots of fun with the Dyson hand dryers.
WHAT ARE THE ROOMS LIKE?
The rooms are fairly small but quite square shaped, which is great as a lot of people find the narrowness of somewhere like High Holborn a bit anti-social. You get a desk, lamp, internal phone, Ethernet port (there is also wireless which will be upgraded 3x the strength by the time you arrive), bed, and some cupboards and stuff. Oh yeah and a big cork noticeboard to put up to do lists that you’ll never do.
WHAT OTHER FACILITIES?
We have a piano room (just tuned that badboy); a spacious bar area known as the “Tipsy Beaver” which includes a brand new state of the art pool table and a table football table; a large canteen area which is also great for late night parties as it’s open 24 hours a day; a spacious and comfy TV room with Sky, a DVD player and some books & board games that I've never seen anyone use; communal washing machines, dryers and irons.
HOW MUCH IT COST?
Around £100 per week. It is the cheapest halls in LSE, often by a long shot.
DO YOU HAVE A CONDOM MACHINE?
Yeah.
WHAT ARE THE DOWNSIDES OF ROSEBERY?
Probably the facilities. You're paying about half the market rate for similar accommodation in central London, so it's to be expected. In particular, the kitchens are very small (due to be refurbed soon though). Actually I can't think of anything else to complain about. Other than that...I guess other halls in which you pay a lot more for, you get more...for example the rooms at Bankside are perhaps almost twice the size.
The other downside I guess is that at times it can be 'too social' for some people. You are always seeing people and there are always parties going on late at night and through the morning, which often make a lot of noise (there are provisions to stop this but yeah show must go on). So it's probably more difficult to do work than a lot of other halls.