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Social Life at kent
I have an offer which i am considering but the social life at kent is worrying me ,although am not expecting anything spectacular i just want to know if there is places to go, shop , club and possible get a few drinks.
Thanks in advance.
Thanks in advance.
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Nightclub on campus and about what.. 7 bars?
Nightclub in Canterbury and about 10,000 bars and pubs.
Nightclub in Canterbury and about 10,000 bars and pubs.
Shopping is good.
If you're into clubbing, then canters not great.
If you're into pubs, then Canterbury is truly blessed!
ps. www.kentale.co.uk
If you're into clubbing, then canters not great.
If you're into pubs, then Canterbury is truly blessed!
ps. www.kentale.co.uk
Not much in the way of clubs, The Venue is awful. Then there's The Works (not really to London club standards) and The Chill (never been but looks more like a bar). Pubs are everywhere and great, hit up the Penny Theatre on a thursday, packed, but cheap-o.
Clubbing wise though, Kaos at K-Bar is quite good on a saturday, saw Jaguar Skills there and he was immense. If you're into indie, most people go to Ruby Tuesday at Origins but I don't really appreciate indie clubs although it's mostly what I listen to. Mungo's on a friday is quite good as well. Bare in mind these are just campus bars that have clubs nights happening, it's small but they are decent nights out if you're with the right people. It's not exactly going to be Fabric on a friday but that's what I like about Canterbury, it's nice and quiet. People have halls/flat parties as well which can be fun.
Shopping is okay I guess. Canterbury city centre has all your main high street clothes shops. No Primark though, to pretty much everyone I knows annoyance haha.
Clubbing wise though, Kaos at K-Bar is quite good on a saturday, saw Jaguar Skills there and he was immense. If you're into indie, most people go to Ruby Tuesday at Origins but I don't really appreciate indie clubs although it's mostly what I listen to. Mungo's on a friday is quite good as well. Bare in mind these are just campus bars that have clubs nights happening, it's small but they are decent nights out if you're with the right people. It's not exactly going to be Fabric on a friday but that's what I like about Canterbury, it's nice and quiet. People have halls/flat parties as well which can be fun.
Shopping is okay I guess. Canterbury city centre has all your main high street clothes shops. No Primark though, to pretty much everyone I knows annoyance haha.
I'll just list all the bars and clubs I can think of with my mini-review and you can decide whether it's for you, any more specific questions about anywhere on campus can be addressed to me or even any other regular here in the Kent Unis section 
When I started writing this I was going to include bars and clubs off campus, but seeing as I rarely ever leave campus because I'm a lazy so and so then I'm really not in the best position to talk about them so I'll leave others to do that, all I know is that there are a lot of pubs and bars out there.
Bars:
Woody's - It's my local as I'm in Parkwood, and on that note I know people that live on central campus that have never even been to Woodys due to the distance!
It is essentially the closest you will get to a pub, though not the rustic, country kind more of a modern design style one. People I know like to go to watch sports matches and it's casual enough for a meet up, there's rarely no room to sit - Woody's rarely runs it's own nights like karaoke so it's a safe bet if you just want to drink in peace. Only real drawback can be distance for a lot of people but I wouldn't mind walking if I knew friends would be there.
K-Bar - K-Bar, housed in Keynes college, is probably my least favourite bar but it's very person specific I think, it's very sports orientated and lots of the sports societies like to go there to watch games and have socials. They have a karaoke night and some live music nights, occasionally they bring in an outside name to DJ for the night but I've never paid much attention to be honest. There's a nice outside seating area, which expands on the limited space K-Bar offers, and the other strong point I feel is that it has a jukebox which is an excuse for me to put on "The Cheeky Song" by the Cheeky Girls, much to the irritation of the sports societies. They also have a cool cocktail shot menu... though most other bars on campus do the same cocktails if you just know the names. Downside is that I personally feel K-Bar is a bit of a grime pit more for sporty people but whatever.
Mungoes - Mungoes, housed in Eliot college, was recently redone (last 2 years or so I think) and is a modern, trendy looking place with a slight techno-feel to it. There're times when Mungoes feels like it ought to be a club rather than a bar, most nights of the week it's quiet enough and pleasant to have a drink in, there's a pool table with an XBox 360 on the side which I believe you can play on for free, though the pool costs. Mungoes comedy night on Thursdays is surprisingly good I find and some other nights they show movies on the overhead projector. Magic Mungoes which takes place on Fridays sees Mungoes pack out almost every week, it's when the line between bar/club gets very blurry as the furniture gets moved to the side and the techno lights get switched on. Some people think Mungoes is a bit of a 'cock-pit' just full of guys looking for sex with girls all tarted up in make-up but I've never let that bother me when I'm with friends.
Rutherford Bar - Now despite what people say about Rutherford i.e. "why does the uni have a wine bar?" Rutherford is easily my favourite campus bar, trendy looking, comfortable seating and board games! Admittedly not the best selection of board games but yeh... anyway the design of the room means that light streams in through the ceiling in the day which is really nice for meeting up and lounging around in. Sadly Rutherford is plagued by lack of customers as a result of it's grimy appearance since before it's redesign and due to the fact everyone thinks it's too pretentious, though I really don't hold to that belief at all. Totally love it, have got pissed in there many a time, they're even planning on introducing a monthly Twister competition which sounds an amazing laugh! Downsides is that everyone seems to hate it, it's a bit hidden away in Rutherford college (though it's only as hard to find as Mungoes really), and it's always quite quiet.
Origins - I want to like Origins, and it's not bad at all, it's famed for Ruby Tuesdays (the indie night on campus), and it's Tex-Mex food menu which one of my housemates was just going on and on about a few minutes ago. Origins is nice enough but it is quite a long way out of the way for a lot of people as it's located in Darwin college, I also feel that on it's busiest night then it's design layout really lets it down, it ends up creating a bit of a bottleneck effect which is interesting to get through to say the least. On the other hand though, Origins really is quite nice, lots of seating, pool tables and a jukebox so it's quite nice really, just feels a bit far away sometimes, especially if you're walking all the way form Parkwood.
The Lighthouse - Not strictly a bar that people consider stopping out, say on a bar crawl, more a subsidiary of the Venue nightclub. It's located above the Venue and you can go in during the day to sit on the sofas and have some drinks, attached to it is the fast-food takeout on campus 'The Kitchen' where you can get some greasy chips. People generally don't meet there and at night it's more used as a place to go if you want to cool off from dancing in the Venue.
Nightclubs
The Venue - The only nightclub on campus, (if you don't count Mungoes on a Friday night), people have very mixed feelings about it. Admittedly it does only tend to play the latest collection of dance tracks, regardless of the theme it claims any night to have. It's selection of outside celebs to come play is criticised as being too aimed at people who like R'n'B and Hip Hop but I guess I'm not bothered enough to care. The club itself has a healthy capacity which doesn't tend to max out except on the most popular nights, though the biggest drawback is it's inability to cater for anyone other than those who want to dance to the latest dance tracks. Personally, I love the Venue on a night out with friends, but then I don't make a regular habit of going so I guess it's fun every now and then and not regularly.
That's about it for the info, like I said at the beginning more specific questions can be asked and I'm sure regulars here from the uni can answer. I've tried to be objective in my views though I have thrown in my own opinions and some others so apologies if I've offended anyone.
Like I said I know sod all about the clubs and bars off campus, I've been The Works, but only on a Monday, and I've been to Chill, but only once because it was rubbish (played obscure music and drink price was quite frankly ludicrous - £4.50 for a WKD Blue? I think not!)
Hope this gives a bit of an overview.
When I started writing this I was going to include bars and clubs off campus, but seeing as I rarely ever leave campus because I'm a lazy so and so then I'm really not in the best position to talk about them so I'll leave others to do that, all I know is that there are a lot of pubs and bars out there.Bars:
Woody's - It's my local as I'm in Parkwood, and on that note I know people that live on central campus that have never even been to Woodys due to the distance!
It is essentially the closest you will get to a pub, though not the rustic, country kind more of a modern design style one. People I know like to go to watch sports matches and it's casual enough for a meet up, there's rarely no room to sit - Woody's rarely runs it's own nights like karaoke so it's a safe bet if you just want to drink in peace. Only real drawback can be distance for a lot of people but I wouldn't mind walking if I knew friends would be there.K-Bar - K-Bar, housed in Keynes college, is probably my least favourite bar but it's very person specific I think, it's very sports orientated and lots of the sports societies like to go there to watch games and have socials. They have a karaoke night and some live music nights, occasionally they bring in an outside name to DJ for the night but I've never paid much attention to be honest. There's a nice outside seating area, which expands on the limited space K-Bar offers, and the other strong point I feel is that it has a jukebox which is an excuse for me to put on "The Cheeky Song" by the Cheeky Girls, much to the irritation of the sports societies. They also have a cool cocktail shot menu... though most other bars on campus do the same cocktails if you just know the names. Downside is that I personally feel K-Bar is a bit of a grime pit more for sporty people but whatever.
Mungoes - Mungoes, housed in Eliot college, was recently redone (last 2 years or so I think) and is a modern, trendy looking place with a slight techno-feel to it. There're times when Mungoes feels like it ought to be a club rather than a bar, most nights of the week it's quiet enough and pleasant to have a drink in, there's a pool table with an XBox 360 on the side which I believe you can play on for free, though the pool costs. Mungoes comedy night on Thursdays is surprisingly good I find and some other nights they show movies on the overhead projector. Magic Mungoes which takes place on Fridays sees Mungoes pack out almost every week, it's when the line between bar/club gets very blurry as the furniture gets moved to the side and the techno lights get switched on. Some people think Mungoes is a bit of a 'cock-pit' just full of guys looking for sex with girls all tarted up in make-up but I've never let that bother me when I'm with friends.
Rutherford Bar - Now despite what people say about Rutherford i.e. "why does the uni have a wine bar?" Rutherford is easily my favourite campus bar, trendy looking, comfortable seating and board games! Admittedly not the best selection of board games but yeh... anyway the design of the room means that light streams in through the ceiling in the day which is really nice for meeting up and lounging around in. Sadly Rutherford is plagued by lack of customers as a result of it's grimy appearance since before it's redesign and due to the fact everyone thinks it's too pretentious, though I really don't hold to that belief at all. Totally love it, have got pissed in there many a time, they're even planning on introducing a monthly Twister competition which sounds an amazing laugh! Downsides is that everyone seems to hate it, it's a bit hidden away in Rutherford college (though it's only as hard to find as Mungoes really), and it's always quite quiet.
Origins - I want to like Origins, and it's not bad at all, it's famed for Ruby Tuesdays (the indie night on campus), and it's Tex-Mex food menu which one of my housemates was just going on and on about a few minutes ago. Origins is nice enough but it is quite a long way out of the way for a lot of people as it's located in Darwin college, I also feel that on it's busiest night then it's design layout really lets it down, it ends up creating a bit of a bottleneck effect which is interesting to get through to say the least. On the other hand though, Origins really is quite nice, lots of seating, pool tables and a jukebox so it's quite nice really, just feels a bit far away sometimes, especially if you're walking all the way form Parkwood.
The Lighthouse - Not strictly a bar that people consider stopping out, say on a bar crawl, more a subsidiary of the Venue nightclub. It's located above the Venue and you can go in during the day to sit on the sofas and have some drinks, attached to it is the fast-food takeout on campus 'The Kitchen' where you can get some greasy chips. People generally don't meet there and at night it's more used as a place to go if you want to cool off from dancing in the Venue.
Nightclubs
The Venue - The only nightclub on campus, (if you don't count Mungoes on a Friday night), people have very mixed feelings about it. Admittedly it does only tend to play the latest collection of dance tracks, regardless of the theme it claims any night to have. It's selection of outside celebs to come play is criticised as being too aimed at people who like R'n'B and Hip Hop but I guess I'm not bothered enough to care. The club itself has a healthy capacity which doesn't tend to max out except on the most popular nights, though the biggest drawback is it's inability to cater for anyone other than those who want to dance to the latest dance tracks. Personally, I love the Venue on a night out with friends, but then I don't make a regular habit of going so I guess it's fun every now and then and not regularly.
That's about it for the info, like I said at the beginning more specific questions can be asked and I'm sure regulars here from the uni can answer. I've tried to be objective in my views though I have thrown in my own opinions and some others so apologies if I've offended anyone.
Like I said I know sod all about the clubs and bars off campus, I've been The Works, but only on a Monday, and I've been to Chill, but only once because it was rubbish (played obscure music and drink price was quite frankly ludicrous - £4.50 for a WKD Blue? I think not!)
Hope this gives a bit of an overview.
Forgot to mention shopping.
Considering it's population size (a third of my hometown) it's shopping experience is actually pretty good, though as mentioned earlier there is no Primark. As a result of tourism I suspect there is practically every High Street store I can think of, (Yay I finally have a local Topman!) and it's all set in a rather nice town so all for the best really. It's easy to get to by bus, just catch the bus outside Keynes (all day ticket for £2) and you can get off right in the town centre, then catch the bus back when you're done!
Oh and I just noticed the comment about hall/flat parties, this point is particularly notable in Parkwood where for like the first 4 weeks you could wander round Parkwood and find a house party like EVERY night. No one minds if you just drop in either which is pretty good.
Never seen the Medway campus but it does remind me of the frequent complaint people make about the Canterbury campus that 'all the buildings are horrible'.
I would like to make a point here, Kent Uni (at Canterbury) was built in the age of the uni boom (the 60s) and as a result it has ended up with some cringe-worthy architecture, however I think that the uni has made a real effort to cover up a lot of it with large amounts of greenery all over the campus! In Spring and Summer there are trees pleasantly blooming around most of the campus buildings, obscuring them quite nicely to a point where it seems tolerable. This said I actually quite like the design of the buildings which really are quite nice in comparison to the Uni of Bristol's student union building which can only be descibed as a concrete slab of ugly. Compared with this the buildings on the campus really look quite nice, I believe, and the colleges on the inside can be really, really nice! Take the dining halls in Eliot and Rutherford, or the glass front of Keynes, or the crazy chandelier in Darwin, it's really a lot nicer than some people make out.
Considering it's population size (a third of my hometown) it's shopping experience is actually pretty good, though as mentioned earlier there is no Primark. As a result of tourism I suspect there is practically every High Street store I can think of, (Yay I finally have a local Topman!) and it's all set in a rather nice town so all for the best really. It's easy to get to by bus, just catch the bus outside Keynes (all day ticket for £2) and you can get off right in the town centre, then catch the bus back when you're done!
Oh and I just noticed the comment about hall/flat parties, this point is particularly notable in Parkwood where for like the first 4 weeks you could wander round Parkwood and find a house party like EVERY night. No one minds if you just drop in either which is pretty good.
Immz
I was going to apply to the Medway campus until I wentn to the open day. It was the biggest sh1thole I've ever seen. I instantly changed my mind
Never seen the Medway campus but it does remind me of the frequent complaint people make about the Canterbury campus that 'all the buildings are horrible'.
I would like to make a point here, Kent Uni (at Canterbury) was built in the age of the uni boom (the 60s) and as a result it has ended up with some cringe-worthy architecture, however I think that the uni has made a real effort to cover up a lot of it with large amounts of greenery all over the campus! In Spring and Summer there are trees pleasantly blooming around most of the campus buildings, obscuring them quite nicely to a point where it seems tolerable. This said I actually quite like the design of the buildings which really are quite nice in comparison to the Uni of Bristol's student union building which can only be descibed as a concrete slab of ugly. Compared with this the buildings on the campus really look quite nice, I believe, and the colleges on the inside can be really, really nice! Take the dining halls in Eliot and Rutherford, or the glass front of Keynes, or the crazy chandelier in Darwin, it's really a lot nicer than some people make out.
Am going kent, and was worried about the same thing too. Don't let that bother you because we're going uni to study and not something else, although it would be nice to have a good time there.
On the plus side, you would be more likely to spend less and also do your work to good standards. So don't let that put you down hun. Consider the pros and cons and hopefully, you will see what am on about....xx
On the plus side, you would be more likely to spend less and also do your work to good standards. So don't let that put you down hun. Consider the pros and cons and hopefully, you will see what am on about....xx
random_bloke
Shopping is good.
If you're into clubbing, then canters not great.
If you're into pubs, then Canterbury is truly blessed!
ps. www.kentale.co.uk
If you're into clubbing, then canters not great.
If you're into pubs, then Canterbury is truly blessed!
ps. www.kentale.co.uk
Hey, I didn't know the Kent Ale and Cider society was still up and running. I couldn't see it on the list of societies last time I looked.
Saruken
Hey, I didn't know the Kent Ale and Cider society was still up and running. I couldn't see it on the list of societies last time I looked.
My friend goes like every week so I'd say it was still up and running.
Faustus Fotherby
My friend goes like every week so I'd say it was still up and running.
Dya know whether it's a big society or not?
68 members on paper, about 30 active(ish), certainly going strong!
any more questions about the society throw them my way!
any more questions about the society throw them my way!
xx..SPOTTABLE..xx
Am going kent, and was worried about the same thing too. Don't let that bother you because we're going uni to study and not something else, although it would be nice to have a good time there.
On the plus side, you would be more likely to spend less and also do your work to good standards. So don't let that put you down hun. Consider the pros and cons and hopefully, you will see what am on about....xx
On the plus side, you would be more likely to spend less and also do your work to good standards. So don't let that put you down hun. Consider the pros and cons and hopefully, you will see what am on about....xx
I get exactly were your coming from , to me the degree comes first , but 3 years is a lot of time and i want to use it reasonble academically and socially , i just feel at kent i might not be able to get both.
Depends what you're into, they've got Jagged Edge playing at The Venue next week, I was pretty surprised myself..
random_bloke
68 members on paper, about 30 active(ish), certainly going strong!
any more questions about the society throw them my way!
any more questions about the society throw them my way!
What he said, I don't really know any details about the society, just that my friend always goes.
brokenheroes
Depends what you're into, they've got Jagged Edge playing at The Venue next week, I was pretty surprised myself..
OH REALLY!!?? coool, how i wish i was there lool
I love love love jagged edge!!!...
Arsenalforev
I get exactly were your coming from , to me the degree comes first , but 3 years is a lot of time and i want to use it reasonble academically and socially , i just feel at kent i might not be able to get both.
Your socila life is what you make it, theres quite plenty to do in kent trust me, i spoke to one of the current students about this issue. And she said there's soo much to see and do becasue the city has a rich history.
personally, coming from London, i think canterbury will take me some time to get used to lol. But am sure, well hopeful that my social life would be pretty good.
random_bloke
68 members on paper, about 30 active(ish), certainly going strong!
any more questions about the society throw them my way!
any more questions about the society throw them my way!
What sort of pubs do you go to and how often do you meet? Too late to join?
xx..SPOTTABLE..xx
OH REALLY!!?? coool, how i wish i was there lool
I love love love jagged edge!!!...
I love love love jagged edge!!!...
Me too! It's during the week unfortunately, if it was at the weekend I would have gone. The Venue gets quite a few 'urban' acts, I think mostly because if that is what you're into, there's not a lot in Canterbury for you to do! In the past they've had Bobby Valentino, N-Dubz, think they've got Tinchy Stryder coming up as well?
If you're into other stuff, they've had The Holloways, a Pendulum DJ set, some other stuff I can't remember..
brokenheroes
Me too! It's during the week unfortunately, if it was at the weekend I would have gone. The Venue gets quite a few 'urban' acts, I think mostly because if that is what you're into, there's not a lot in Canterbury for you to do! In the past they've had Bobby Valentino, N-Dubz, think they've got Tinchy Stryder coming up as well?
If you're into other stuff, they've had The Holloways, a Pendulum DJ set, some other stuff I can't remember..
If you're into other stuff, they've had The Holloways, a Pendulum DJ set, some other stuff I can't remember..
Am sooo greeen!!???...bobby Valentino??..
offcourse am into such kinda music lool...AM BLACk!!
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