Wood Green Hall - Campus Accommodation

The main drawback is the residents. It can get noisy when you're trying to work, and some people show little regard for their neighbours. I had kitchen equipment stolen and broken, food thrown away without permission, and food wasted when people left the fridges open. Some won't help with shared jobs like taking out kitchen waste, and bathrooms can be left messy. People also smoke various substances in their rooms, leaving the corridors and neighbours' rooms smelling. Maintenance is slow too: the shower on my corridor was broken for over a month, and cleaning doesn't always happen on schedule. Laundry costs £4.80 to wash and dry. There are good points. The rent is very cheap for London, and rooms are small but fine, with suitcases fitting under the bed despite limited storage. Bathrooms and showers are kept clean. Kitchens have what you need to cook and a large fridge and freezer, though the cupboard is too small for dry goods like oil bottles. Some kitchen panels are shabby and aren't maintained, and the fridges leak now and then. Dara, the manager, is helpful when residents have problems. It's a convenient spot: two minutes on foot to a supermarket and the tube, plenty of buses nearby, and five minutes to the railway station, which is useful for getting into London during a tube strike. If you're happy to live farther from the centre and keep to yourself, it can work. I wouldn't recommend it if you're doing a demanding degree with lots of work.

For London, this is the cheapest halls you'll find. The location is handy too: the tube, cinema, cafes and shopping mall are two minutes away, Morrisons is right next door, and brilliant Ally Pally is a 15-minute walk. There's a lot of old negative feedback online, but the building has been brought up to date as much as you can expect for somewhere this old. The kitchens and showers are fine.

I've called it home for a year, and honestly, the rooms are so tiny you can't take more than 5-6 steps. There aren't many events, and the bathroom isn't en suite, though there are plenty of bathrooms. It worked for me as budget student housing away from central London's glory. Sometimes I liked being anonymous and at a distance; other times I felt down about living with a bunch of random students from lesser universities. That's my honest take.

Dara, Elizabeth and all the security staff have been really welcoming, friendly and dependable. I'm staying at Wood Green Halls now, and it's a lively, comfortable place. The rooms are just right for relaxing and studying, and I couldn't have asked for a better place to begin university!!!