Southside “far exceeded our expectations”
The new Southside halls were handed over by contractors to College earlier this week. Wardens have already moved in, along with the “re-apps” (re-applicants, or students who have been granted another year in halls but in return they have to help out with running the residence) before around 400 freshers descend upon Southside this weekend.
On wednesday morning Felix was lucky enough to be given a tour of Southside, namely the Falmouth-Keogh hall. The other two halls are also named after the previous Southside block – Selkirk hall and Tizard hall. Together, the three halls fall under the umbrella name of Southside. Felix met with Falmouth-Keogh warden Dan Read, who would be our guide on the tour.
Students gain access through the main entrance door via the RFID chip in their College ID card. Keys to rooms are also a thing of the past in Southside, however they are still required to access some things such as the mailboxes. Similar RFID security is in place when gaining access to students’ rooms, creating even more incentive for students not to lose their College ID cards unless they want to spend a night sleeping on the hard kitchen floors.
After passing through the main doors of the entrance, you are immediately swamped with bright red colour. It is stylishly lit with lights set into the floor and even the stair rail.
Felix was then taken to the fourth floor. Stepping out of the lift, it was apparent that the hallways are vast, potentially raising the question whether this space could (or should) have been used to make the bedrooms larger.
Felix was shown a single en-suite room facing south. Each room comes with the standard items a resident would expect. There are tall, glass panelled doors that stretch from the floor to the ceiling allowing in plenty of light. The doors are locked however, preventing students from accessing the faux-balconies, presumably to prevent people from leaping to their death.
The next destination of Felix’s whistle-stop tour took us to one of the communal kitchens. Brushed metal is the order of the day here. The kitchens are designed to hold a maximum of 24 students. Aside from the usual lockable cupboards and various kitchen appliances, Southside halls have a specific area for recyclable waste. The kitchens are also fitted with infra-red lights that turn on and off depending whether someone is in the room. College has obviously been thinking green and whilst the kitchens may look the part, the old fashioned induction cooker hobs seem greatly misplaced in an otherwise very modern building.
Next up, Felix was shown one of the en-suite bedrooms facing north: the side with the much discussed view of the portacabins next door. The portacabins are in place until building work on Eastside is completed in 2009. Students assigned rooms with a restricted view have been given a £5.00 per week reduction on their rent, taking the cost of a single en-suite room down to £150.61. Over the course of a 38-week contract this equates to a £190.00 discount. The decision to reduce the cost of the affected rooms was made earlier in the month after negotiations between College’s Commercial Services department and the Union, namely Kirsty Patterson (Deputy President Education and Welfare).
The views from the north side are certainly restricted, but plenty of light still fills the rooms. With the window open, the drilling of noisy builders could be heard but when shut, the double glazing was effective enough to ensure near silence.
Falmouth-Keogh is the westernmost hall and unfortunately Felix couldn’t get access into Selkirk or Tizard on the day. This meant we weren’t able to compare the portacabin view with views over the Eastside building site itself. If there was anything sinister going on in the other halls, it will become apparent in the coming weeks. Perhaps Felix was lucky in being spared the sight of some impressive builders’ bums.
Finally we were shown a twin room and also a twin disabled room. The rooms differ in size depending on their location in the building and in this reporter’s view the twin room we were shown seemed too small for two people. The pair of desks were situated side-by-side which seemed a bit too close for comfort and privacy. However, the twin disabled room was vast with a huge, fully equipped bathroom designed for wheelchair users. Pillows that vibrate during a fire alarm are also available for the hard of hearing.
From what we were shown, Southside looks good and far exceeded our expectations. Our tour was only of the Falmouth-Keogh hall so Felix was not in a position to search every nook and cranny of Southside, so our trip may have left a few stones unturned. The main areas that we weren’t allowed into are the unfinished areas, most notably the social room. Falmouth-Keogh, Selkirk and Tizard will each have their own common rooms and additionally there will be a larger social room capable of holding all of the students from one of the sub-halls. The social room will not be finished when the freshers arrive this weekend. College has said that it will be finished during October.
Students lucky enough to get a place in Southside will be living in luxury accommodation. Whether £155.61 per week is too much for a single en-suite room in Southside is open to debate.
