GCSU Housing Guide

Welcome

Welcome to the GCSU Housing Guide. This guide is composed of room reviews submitted by students over the last few years to help other students select their rooms for the next year. As such, the information may not be accurate and GCSU accepts no responsibility for its content. In light of this you are strongly advised to visit a room before selecting it.

When reading reviews from previous years please bear in mind that some things are likely to have changed (e.g. furniture, removal of hobs from gyp rooms and bedders).

Please email the GCSU Housing Officer (see GCSU Website for e-mail address) with comments or suggestions, or to report inaccurate information.

Rents

Please note that the room rents quoted correspond to the charges for the current year (2007/8). The figures for the year in which you will occupy these rooms are not yet known (as they are likely to be subject to a slight rent increase), and will be determined in a few weeks time. As a result, you should use the figure only for comparisons between different room options. (Dr D. Holburn, Senior Tutor, Feb 2008)

Noise

Certain rooms are in situations with direct access to city-centre facilities, being adjacent to the market place, Great St Mary's and soon. It is to be expected that such rooms will experience higher noise levels than those sited in suburban areas, and the pattern of noise may change with the time and day. Noise is a highly individual thing, and what is insignificant to one person may be objectionable or disruptive to another. If you are not prepared to tolerate the bustle and raised noise levels that are inevitable in such circumstances, you should not choose such a room. (Dr D. Holburn, Senior Tutor, Feb 2008)

The Ballot System — An unofficial explanation

The ballot is the system by which most undergratuate rooms are allocated. Every first- and second-year undergratuate in Caius will get a 5 minute slot to select a room for the next year. The order in which this is done is dictated by the ballot. All second-years choose before the first-years. First-years enter the ballot either on their own or in a group of friends and all slots were randomly assigned. In the following year the list is reversed and scholars are put to the front, followed by exhibitioners. This means that Scholars choose first and are hence likely to get the best rooms.

Choosing rooms is done on several days with the first-years choosing their rooms some days after the second-years. At the end of each day, a copy of the up-to-date room list can be seen in the Porters’ Lodge, which can be used to find the rooms that are still free at that point as the taken rooms will contain their future occupiers’ signature.

The Room List

As of 2006, some changes were incorporated:

• All first-years (as of 2006) will live in Harvey Court B, C and K blocks plus the Stephen Hawking Building.
• Hence Harvey Court A block and Springfield as well as most rooms in town will be available to the ballot.
• The only undergratuate out-of-centre-of-town rooms available will be in Mortimer Road and Glisson Road.

Find Your Room Function:

By specifying a few basic criteria the Find Your Room function can help compile a short-list of rooms that may best suit you requirements.

General advice when choosing a room

Visiting rooms

Sometimes, the only way to get the measure of a house or staircase is to visit it, knock on a few doors and see what you think. However, if you wish to do this please ensure that you only knock at reasonable times and do not disturb any housekeepers, bedders or any other College staff.

Phone lines

Most College rooms have an NTL phone line fitted, and for those that don’t it’s quite easy and cheap to arrange for a line to be installed. However, this may not be the case in properties that are not owned by College.

Network connections

Almost all the Old Courts, St Mary’s Court and St Michael’s Court are networked, along with 4a Rose Crescent and 5–8 Mortimer Road. Houses 1–4 Mortimer Road and 43, Glisson Road are expected to be networked by October 2008.

Individual room reviews indicate whether or not the room is networked. GCSU does not, however, accept any responsibility for inaccurate information included in the Housing Guide.

Housekeepers

A Housekeeper lives in a flat in the houses that he/she looks after, and can help you out with all sorts of housing problems. If you sometimes have guests or play music in the evenings then it’s worth finding a room that’s not near the Housekeeper’s flat to avoid disturbing him/her.

Old reviews

When reading reviews from previous years please bear in mind that some things will have changed. Bedders also change frequently.

Recently added photos

A picture is worth a thousand words – as of 2007, photos can be added to show a room’s good and bad features.

Reviews

Click on a location below to see the reviews: