Roehampton - Epworth and Aldersgate Halls

Southlands halls are ok, not that old. Epworth and Aldersgate are the halls based around the central quad, and I've been in a few of the rooms. They're not too bad, although they can be a bit tiny - things like the bed sort of goes under the desk in some of the rooms, and there's not much in the way of floor space, that sort of thing. Some of the en-suites are tiny too, they look a bit like an aeroplane loo with a shower lol. However they're very central and you're right on campus, which is handy if you're likely to be having a lot of lessons at Southlands. I've heard though that they do have quite a good atmosphere. A few of the rooms were a bit 'tatty' when I was there, but I think that's fairly typical of most student accommodation.

The nicest halls on campus are either Lee House at Digby, or any of the Whitelands Halls. They're all fairly new (about three/four years old now) and are en-suite self-catered. The rooms at Whitelands are all the same size (unless you luck out and get one of the absolutely mahoosive disabled-access rooms), not huge but spacious enough. The en-suites are nice too, quite big 'wet-room' type affairs, and the rooms have a fair bit of cupboard and shelf space too. The benefit of the Whitelands accommodation over the Southlands is that the Whitelands was designed with quite large kitchen/lounge rooms. At Southlands you've generally just got a small kitchen and there's no real 'social' area - if I did hear any complaints about Southlands it usually was that the kitchens were too small.

The main problem with Whitelands is that it's not on the main campus, and although it's not a long walk it can get fairly tedious walking up and down the hill. Also, people do tend to choose their accommodation based on their main 'teaching' college, so if you're an education student, for example, you might not have many fellow students at Whitelands as it's mainly psychology and science people. It's not a massive issue but obviously if your friends/coursemates are based on the main campus you might find the travelling between the two really annoying. However, at Whitelands you do get the benefit of some of the better accommodation and one of the nicer bars. The other advantage to Whitelands is that you're nearer to the shops of Roehampton, which means less of a walk to get day-to-day stuff. However, the area isn't brilliant. Whitelands is just on the edge of a council estate. It's not *that* bad an area (I now live in SE London and Roehampton seems like a paradise lol) but you do need to be sensible.

Aspen and Linden are probably the 'nicest' halls at Froebel, in terms of being en-suite and fairly spacious. I stayed there for a summer school, and the rooms and en-suites are quite large and the flats have a nice kitchen/lounge area. They also benefit from being at the far end of campus so they're 'quieter', you get the kids from Ibstock Place (local private school) walking past and playing on the sports fields, but it's not bad at all. If you're looking for accommodation at Froebel I personally would avoid Lawrence and Montefiore, I *think* they're being renovated but it's probably some of the oldest accommodation on campus and it shows. I've been in Old Court and that's ok, weird but big rooms, but that's catered and I don't think that's what you're after? Mount Clare is another place that I'd personally avoid, it's a long way from either Whitelands or the main campus and most people I know who lived there tried to move as soon as they could lol. It's really tatty looking and the area isn't great.

I've never actually been in Shaw, although I walked past it a lot lol. It didn't look *that* bad tbh. It might be worth going to an open day and having a look, I know they bribe the students to show their rooms To me, in terms of quality, it didn't look any different to Epworth et al ... I think the rooms might be a little bigger generally though.

I don't mind answering questions at all Anything else you need to know, just ask!

Do you know what the Digby Stuart accommodation is like, and which ones are slightly better?
Thanks for any help.