Bristol University Accommodation

[AstroLoco]

Ds has an offer for History at Bristol university. He has been looking into accommodation options and has an idea of what he likes, although I'd love the know the reality from people who have experience from there.

Can anyone recommend accommodation and let me know any positives / negatives for each one please?

He is aware that it can be difficult to get your preferred accommodation at Bristol (or even to get accommodation at all), so any advice on this would be gratefully received.

DDs room was deemed to be shared and another girl went through it diagonally to get to her room. DD was insurance though so was glad to get anything. The room was effectively two triangles!

The room was a passageway for another room?!!!
I'm hoping rooms at Badock sunny state bathrooms between too many.

Sunny state? i mean don't share.

Wow. DD had a sunny double bed room in a large flat with massive modern kitchen and lounge. And an en suite. Still lives with her flatmates and doing the same for 3rd year. Sounds like she's been really lucky !

DD was insurance so lucky to get anything. It was catered and the same price as minimum loan - back then. She hardly saw the other girl. I don’t think we, or she, necessarily expected luxury and it was better than getting a private rental house which was the alternative. She refused to defer. We are obviously made of stern stuff. Home is big enough with quite a few bathrooms to choose from.

Other universities have less than optimal sharing arrangements as well - the 'twin' shared rooms at UEA have a partition but have the desk space for both occupants in one bed's half and the wash basin in the other. Also I can't remember which university (but Surrey springs to mind) had a sort of mezzanine arrangement, with the 'upstairs' being accessed through the 'downstairs' bedroom. LSE has some triple rooms.

It doesn’t really matter does it - if you want to be there. I’ve never really understood why people moan about costs but DC insist on having the most expensive rooms. We gave DD the difference between her rent and full award. Plenty on MN said we gave way too much. We felt it was fair as she didn’t have the greatest room and, shock horror, liked the odd coffee in a coffee shop!

@MarchingFrogs Thanks a lot for posting this link! Very useful.
You did select West Village - I believe this is the nearest to uni?

I have another question. Of West/North/East village accommodations, which ones would you say are the liveliest and closest to shops?

Apologies for my ignorance but I'm not from this country and we have not had a chance to view the area.

Thank you

Stoke Bishop (North) is definitely the most distant from anything.

West is Clifton, a nice residential area.

East is more city centre.

Clifton has a Waitrose.

Catered halls are in North. Stoke Bishop. Only 10 mins on the bus. North halls are quite lively as not near clubs and pubs. Most students manage to shop near the uni and take shopping back on the bus.

Hiatt Baker has a great social life anyway. The bus is free. They all go on it. A stroll to the Downs.

Great, super helpful. I’ll discuss with DC tonight.

YouTube, as you might expect has some videos to offer on the university, various halls, the city (for the last, I like the 'Hey Nadine' one - it's not student specific and I assume that she and her friend are not remotely short of money, but on a grey day, it's just nice to see someone being so enthusiastic about somewhere. Also see the student guide ones by 'Curiositi' from that point of view).

@NCTDN the extra cooking facilities have been brought in by the flat mates. To give you any idea of how social SB can be DS is in a group of 26 wanting to share so have found 2 x 10 person houses and 1 x 6 person house all within 5 minutes walk in Redland for next year.

Echo what pp said about food. Not quite as nice as his very nice school dinners were and portions small for the sporty boys. However DS appears to have charmed some of the catering staff who save him extra!

Badock Basic with basin

Badock shared bathroom

Bath is in separate lockable sub room. Showers are lockable.

Badock Pantry for those in catered

My dd is in Clifton Hill House which was her first choice. She definitely wanted catered. It's nice that she doesn't have to worry about a meal in the evening after a busy day. Plenty of time later on for cooking!

At the time everyone told me she 'needed' to be in Stoke Bishop. We went for a visit before she applied for accommodation and while some of the SB halls were lovely (especially Wills) it's a bit of a pain being further out and dependent on buses.

Clifton Hill house is in a great location, she walks everywhere, it's close to the Students Union. She has a single room with a washbasin with toilets and showers on each floor.

I think a lot of the Stoke Bishop students rarely go to the Union. I know DD did for a bit in y1 and then never went back even when she lived very close to it. The sports facilities are nearer SB and some students like those being closer.

My SB DS seems to mainly hang out in Senate House rather than the Union.

Not sure mine's ever been to the Union. She does use Wills library's lot

@bendmeoverbackwards dd is under the impression that Clifton hill house is more for postgrads?

Clifton Hill House doesn't come up at all, using the Bristol accommodation search tool set to 'postgraduate' and 'West Village'.

[quote NCTDN]@bendmeoverbackwards dd is under the impression that Clifton hill house is more for postgrads?[/quote]
Not as far as I am aware. DD’s friends on her corridor are all first years.