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College Rooms

Is there anywhere you can find out more about what the accomodation at Durham is actually like? The university website just talks about the colleges in general rather than the specifics, I'm wondering about things like network points and where you do your laundry.

I'm going to Hatfield but I'm sure there are people from other colleges wondering too. Or maybe it's just me, thinking about Durham instead of revising.
Hatfield- accomodation is of a high standard! 70% of people share, but I know very few people who have had a bad exerience. If you're a gap year student or you opt for extended let you will probably be in a single! whooo.
Palmers Garth is the newer accomodation block for Hatfield but don't let this put you off- they were all refurbished last year so they look good and they're a very generous size. A lot of rooms across in PG are single.
A and B stairs are probably the most luxurious of the sharing- they really are impressive (refurb this year) with en suite and really cool doors (you'll see what I mean :wink:) The rest of the main college is pretty smart too.
There are network points in most if not all rooms and laundry rooms are all over the place. If you want to know any more let me know :smile:
Hatfield- you can also get single rooms in random places like Kitchen Stairs(where I live), Bailey House(opposite the college on North Bailey and facing to the back, Bailey Court(Castle accommodation) and in the bit Hatfield has on Church Street).

As for network points, i don't know anyone who doesn't have one! :smile:

PG has it's own laundry and tv room, but for everyone else over the other side of the river the laundry is next to the Bar and normally stays open til about nine at night. It's a pound for a wash and fifty pence for the driers(you often need to have two washes on medium/hot i find).

The TV room in college, for non PGers and Church Streeters is at the bottom of B Stairs with the Chocolate Room(with chocolate machines/coke machines) adjoining it one side, on the other the computer room.... The B Stairs TV room is definitely best gone to when Neighbours is on in the afternoon!
There are also 2 triple rooms in college which are actually pretty cool. And apart from Palmer's Garth on the other side of the river, there's also Church Street, both of which are decidely part of college despite being a whole minute on the other side of Kingsgate Bridge but which have their own groovy community thing going on. Rooms are being refurbished throughout college - I heard a rumour from my cleaner that F and G stairs are being done over the summer.Just my luck, as soon as I move out...
All the rooms in castle have network points, except for those in Owengate, because there was some problem with them being listed buildings.
I'm going to hijack the thread and ask if anyone knows about cuths accomodation? :redface:
Reply 6
Laces
Hatfield- accomodation is of a high standard! 70% of people share, but I know very few people who have had a bad exerience. If you're a gap year student or you opt for extended let you will probably be in a single! whooo.Palmers Garth is the newer accomodation block for Hatfield but don't let this put you off- they were all refurbished last year so they look good and they're a very generous size. A lot of rooms across in PG are single.
A and B stairs are probably the most luxurious of the sharing- they really are impressive (refurb this year) with en suite and really cool doors (you'll see what I mean :wink:) The rest of the main college is pretty smart too.
There are network points in most if not all rooms and laundry rooms are all over the place. If you want to know any more let me know :smile:


Why if you're a gap year student?
Reply 7
Sooz
Why if you're a gap year student?


They reckon coz ur a year older that u deserve a single room. Personally Im not sure about the logic but hey.
Having said that one of my mates took a gap year and he ended up sharing a room on kitchen stairs
Reply 8
lekha85
They reckon coz ur a year older that u deserve a single room. Personally Im not sure about the logic but hey.


Are you sure? My guess would be that most gap year students apply for deferred entry, so by the time their year comes around they're at the top of the accomodation list and get given the most desirable accomodation.

Just a guess, mind :redface:
Reply 9
I'm on a gap year now, so i have an unconditional offer, so i thought i'd ask to fill in all the accommodation stuff now, so i'm top of the pile....but they wont let me, wait til august they say, how crappy is that?!
Reply 10
That's just how they do it at Durham - because virtually all freshers will be living in college there's no point in trying to sort out accommodation until everyone's places are finalised after results.
mary's - going mixed this october (yay!), have a v complicated room ballot but ensures that you only have to share a room one term and do not got stuck with a really bad room. mary's have the following blocks - ferguson (main block wehre you eat all your meals and the oldest part), mews (behind the kitchens - worst block cos rooms are so tiny but a lot of the university of japan students seem to be in there this term), williamson (new building - where most freshers are), then teikyo residences (some mary's girls are in there, not many tho, is mostly university of japan students on exchanges and some random cuth's boys cos cuth's wud house you down in london if they could - if this year is anything to go by!).

most first years are down in the williamson block and these are all singles so creates a nice community just down the steps from the older ferguson building. if u find yourself in ferguson is most likely that you'll be sharing but there are some pretty nifty doubles in the roof with gabled windows and sloping ceilings. there is no doubt that some of the rooms need refurbishing and some of the bathrooms too but on the whole the college is of a generally good standard and if your floor bathroom is in a bit of a delapidated state can always go use another floor that has much nicer bathrooms - seems to be common practice. all rooms have a washbasin and there are a few ensuites. all ensuites are single, except two, and these go out to 2nd and 3rd yrs however the two double rooms with ensuites do go to first years and if you play the system, like i did, it is possible to get an ensuite for at least one term.

if you have any reservations about sharing it's really not that bad - i shared for my second term and it worked out fine, it really is a lot easier and more fun than it sounds (this coming from someone who's never shared a room in her life!) although i was friends with the girl for a term first. sharing in your first-term tho, based on others' experiences is pretty darn convenient as it means you'll always have someone to go down to dinner with and you'll always have someone to talk to if u feel a bit lonely - the college does quite a good job of pairing people together with similar interests.

we also have 3 tv rooms/jcr's - one of which will have a plasma screen by next october and all are getting sky so should be fun, fun, fun!

it really is best to come and look round the colleges tho to get an idea of the place as each has it's own unique character- highly recommended.
sorry about long reply - once get typing just can't stop!!!!!!!!!!
silver~planet
I'm going to hijack the thread and ask if anyone knows about cuths accomodation? :redface:

Cuth's has accomodation scattered all over Durham. There are 4 houses on the Bailey, though House 8 is currently out of use cos the roof fell in during the storms in January. This is why there's randomly people living down by the prison and in Teikyo - they've had to find places to stick all the people who were living there. However, there are also houses in Gilesgate, at the Observatory, in some kind of old people's home somewhere.... Basically, people can be a bit scattered. Apparently there's even a second dining room somewhere off the Bailey. I know far too much about this, considering I don't even go to Cuth's!
A note on Castle accommodation is that the MASSIVE rooms in cosin's hall with about 23 bathrooms per person are for girls only, since apparently the chaplain (who lives on the top floor with his family) wouldn't be able to cope if there were rowdy male students. (Despite the fact that some of the girls there are rowdier than some boys I know, Lydiamonds :-p)
Other than that, Becca's more or less summed everything up nicely, except that not all of the rooms in Bailey court will have been offered to finalists to have, so if you are put there, don't worry, there will be other freshers living nearby!
Reply 15
OK, well for you Trevelyanites to be, I shall explain the accomodation offered in the wonderful Hexagonal-palace!

Firstly, we're far smaller than most colleges (same size as St. Johns - making us the joint-2nd smallest college - many people don't realise this though). Trevs has all their accomodation under one roof! This means that you'll never have to go out into the rain to go to a friends room, or even to the dining hall, shop, bar, pool room, TV rooms, computer rooms, library, laundry rooms...erm, I think that's it!

Now, unlike the big colleges, the majority of rooms are incredibly similar! However, Trevs is quite unique in that it has several blocks which are hexagon-shaped. There is A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, J, and K blocks (no-one seems to know where I block went!). K block is for 3rd/4th years, Exec members, and conference guests (it's the only one which isn't a hexagon - and is absolutely amazing!).

J block is mostly for post-grads, but some freshers do live in there.

ALL rooms are being refurbished this summer - with brand new sinks, fitted wardrobes, desks and drawers! However, F, G, H and J blocks are also getting the bathrooms all fitted out nicely with new pressure showers and all that fancy stuff! (Though this doesn't mean the other blocks are crappy, they're still pretty nice!)

Erm, other than that, each landing has 6 people on it, rooms are funny shapes but they're cool! You'll share a bathroom generally with 12 people, but the place is so small that I have 4 toilets and 4 showers within like 20metres! The place is a bit of a maze to visitors and freshers, but once you've lived in for a while you get to know all the shortcuts and laugh at people from other colleges who get lost all the time! :biggrin:

Anything else to say? :smile:
lekha85
They reckon coz ur a year older that u deserve a single room. Personally Im not sure about the logic but hey.
Having said that one of my mates took a gap year and he ended up sharing a room on kitchen stairs


:cool: Kitchen Stairs rocks, and you know it!

It reeks of the kitchen too much of the time though:frown:

I was put in a single room in Kitchen Stairs I think because a) they made a mess up with my application in the first place (long and boring story) and because perhaps nobody liked all the music i listed......
socialist cook
:cool: Kitchen Stairs rocks, and you know it!

It reeks of the kitchen too much of the time though:frown:

I was put in a single room in Kitchen Stairs I think because a) they made a mess up with my application in the first place (long and boring story) and because perhaps nobody liked all the music i listed......

I'm guessing you were quite specific about the music issue :p: