hey,
i've been at leeds uni for a year now and i lived in tetley hall which was really good. i'd definatly recomend it. its the smallest of the catered halls which is good because it means its easier to get to know lots of people and makes it seem more like a community than somewhere like boddington where even if you are the most sociable person in the world you're never going to to be able to reconise even half of the the people there!
tetley is in headingley, the main student area, which means there are plenty of pubs and shops around which is useful, its also got a really frequent bus service (about 6 different buses go from it into uni and town) and its only a 30 min walk to uni.
the rooms are alright - in the main block they are a decent size with a basin, wardrobe, desk, easy chair, desk chair, bed and shelves. oh and possible a pin board. theyu are reasonable sized...possible a bit bigger than the ones in othe rplaces ive seen but about average really. in the 6 victorian houses its a bit different...some rooms are massive, some are a bit smaller, some are shared and others are single...but all pretty nice really.
the food is alright, edible if not always enjoyable! i think again becasue its a smaller hall the meals are slightly less mass produced....you get nice home-made cakes and soup and stuff like that which is really nice. however being catered definatly has it advantages...even if the food isn' great meal times are a fantastic time to meet people and spend time with friends....since everyone in the hall is eating the dining room at roughly the same time you get to reconise more people, and get to know different people when you end up sitting ont he same table. at tetley 3 times a week the meals were 'family sevice' where basically the meal was ata set time (12.45 on sunday for sunday roast, and 6 on monday and tuesday) and everyone sits down in tables of 8 and you get a big portion of food to share out between you (ie one pie etc) this was good cos you often sat with people you otherwise wouldn't speak to, and the rest of the week its just cafeteria style. all emals at bod are cafeteria and i think all meals at oxley are family serivce but i could be wrong.
the jcr committee are also meangt to organise lotsa social activities in the hall, although they were a bit crap last year but the things that were organised (halloween party, pub crawls, etc) were quite good.
hmm well thats tetley really....but wherever you go i'ms ure will be fine, it depends more on who you are living with than where you are lving really...which i think makes catered halls a bit better cos it means that you are morelikely to meet more people and so more likely to meet people you like but that by no way means all self-catering flats are unsociable!