Which block have you got?
College life is a complex business. Colleges not only dictate which choice of hoody you’ll buy from Your Shop, but they will also dictate the type and state of accommodation you’ll be enjoying, or perhaps not enjoying, living in for the next year.
The thing about halls at York is that there are some really, really plush rooms out there but there are also some seriously unplush, possibly vomit inducing ones out there too. It just seems like luck as to which ones you get.
But fear not, young freshers. If you’ve got a room that makes the dorm you slept in Thailand for 3p a day look good, it doesn’t mean that it’s all doom and gloom because whilst Goodricke C block may send shivers down some of our spines, the slightly less than posh rooms do have some other secret advantages that you just might not have discovered yet.
Hastily hobbling down the corridor with your towel tightly wrapped across your vital parts does wonders for bonding with your fellow corridor mates.
To non-York students the simple word Goodricke may not have an awful lot of meaning but to those of us in the know, this term evokes all sorts of dastardly images: peeling walls, room size on a par with the cardboard box your new trainers came in, wobbly desk reminiscent of school probably kindly engraved with remarks such as ‘Woz ere ‘72’.
Cell Block CWhen it comes to washing, Goodricke bathrooms don’t really warrant love at first sight. However, their communal bathrooms do have their advantages; hastily hobbling down the corridor with your towel tightly wrapped across your vital parts does wonders for bonding with your fellow corridor mates. And if you ever wondered what the legs on the fit girl from two rooms down look like it is through this communal bathroom experience that you’ll probably find out (clearly there are other ways too but this favours a more subtle, less criminal approach than cutting the legs off all her trousers). The dodgy rooms means you must make friends to make the place bearable.
James however evokes a different style of life altogether. It’s the posh one basically. James College seems to boast the rather more attractive samples of Campus life, which is probably due to the very simple fact that their very beautiful rooms demand very beautiful people so they have little choice but to look suitably spanking before branching outside into the dangerous unclean world of campus life.
Their en suites will make the communal bathroom community weak at the knees as will their spacious, new, Holiday Inn style rooms. Just like the rooms, James college students just seem a little bit better than the rest.
But before you mug the bloke that spends his weekends fencing for his spear and launch a one man civil war against James College, just remember two simple words: college bar. James doesn’t have one. Oh well, can’t have everything.
Langwith College students will have to do daily battle with the ducks and their incessant crapping.
Alcuin is similar to James but it seems to be considered part of another world. Informing people that you live here will undoubtedly result in somewhat tiresome replies ranging from ‘Where?’ to ‘God that’s miles away, you must be fit’ to ‘Haven’t heard of that one’. Alcuin rooms are virtually identical to James and they’re en-suite but unlike James it does have a bar. Come night time admittedly it is one of the quieter, emptier establishments of Campus life, but nonetheless B Henry’s is fantastic at lunch time.
Vanbrugh on the other hand just seems to get better and better. Whilst Roger Kirk was for many the perfect lunch spot, Vanbrugh has now stolen this well deserved title. The rooms don’t really inspire the wow factor but they do boast the overwhelming honour that after Planet V it is only a very short stagger to your room. What bliss.
Langwith College students will have to do daily battle with the ducks and their incessant crapping, which covers the pavements across campus in a rather hideous shade of green and leads to swift sidestepping movements to avoid it. But it is one of the least grey looking colleges as it surrounded by trees and greenery and best of all it is the closest of the colleges to the Charles, that great saviour of Monday nights since the closure of Ikon.
And last but not least Derwent. The famous Club D’s where you will queue for what seems and will turn out to be endless hours, for the trusty wristband. Derwent accommodation, just like that of Langwith and Vanbrugh, is very much in the ‘just fine’ category; not too great but certainly not too bad either.
