Sheffield halls

[Tom]

I saw the thread about the accom in Edinburgh and thought it was a good idea to get peoples opinions.

I am hoping to end up in sheffield next year which halls are good and which are shoddy? its hard to decide without going and visiting them.

thanks for your help in advace.

[Rhys]

Are you only looking at Catered Halls? I can tell you much more about Self-catered but here's what I know about the big catering halls:

SORBY - Complete eyesore and pretty minging inside but does have shop on ground floor, cafe and 24 hour internet room. Also, has restricted (i.e. to Sorby resident ) music, pool and table tennis rooms and very sociable place as you're practically living on top of each other. However I hate the site of the place so don't listen to me on this one.

STEPHENSON - The best in my opinion. Really nice in general.

TAPTON - New and nice. Only been there once and that was St.Patricks Day and they played a horrible dance version of Mr Brightside. But still, nice enough.

RANMOOR - Very densely populated, lots of rooms, lots of floors, lots of peopple. Very sociable. BUT the furthest from the campus!

Or you could ignore me and look at the link:

http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/housing/halls/earnshaw.html

Hope this helps

[Mr. Furness]

well, here goes. i have intimate knowledge of 3 halls as well as having friends in others

Stephenson- very nice hall. the bar is smallish but is just like a pub. lovely. the grounds are also very nice. where the hall is is more like living somewhere posh, and the building does't look like a prison from the outside. folks will say your posh, and it is maybe one of the harder halls to get into. has a big tradition and holds good formal meals. good location for being close to parks for running. fairly close to broomhill. ex peeps- me, andy hodges, tom randall (won cambr sprint B and elite alc-o in first atempt!), probs a few others.

Tapton- A wicked hall. worst part is the prison exterior look, and the large (not really !?) walk uphill to get home. it also has some lovely grounds, the bar is more working-mans-club-like. close to crookes parks for running as well as crookes and bromhill (broomhill biggest student area for shops pubs etc). ex folks- mat-d, charlie daniel , ?

Ranmoor- the biggest hall. the best bar, like stephensons but much bigger. also nice gardens. the longest trek to uni (bar self-catering). good room sizes. excellent organized parties, some exams are there- very short walk! ex peeps- Craney, laura daniel, tessa harrison, amy pennington, ?

Sorby- don't go.

earnshaw- don't know much , think sorby now share their bar. ex peeps- eleanor west (?), suzy robertson, ? . quite nice though

halifax- a nice hall, nice old building and more similar in style to stephenson. hard to get into again, houses many of the overseas students. (i'm not being racist they seem to be accepted more).

there are a few self catering halls around the halifax-sorby-earnshaw campus, with nice fields/gardens. rob little and chris sellens defo went somewhere around there.

well, i'm bound to have missed people and places out but my knowledge of those top three is correct. i imagine you'll get lots more feedback off others too.

[Matt p]

As an ex member of the Tapton Massive I can reccomend it. It is up a hill, a steep hill, but the good thing about that is that if you ever wanted to run out through Rivelin (which is a nice valley type thing) you were halfway up the hill already. I wouldn't recommend the en suite rooms either however posh you are - they're in a seperate building to everything else.

When I was there a few years back Stephenson had a bit of a reputation as being a bit Posh - don't know whether thats changed or not.

Also Ranmoor is based on a Swedish Womens Prison, and I believe they have a race round it every year where people have to knock on every door - and theres over 1000 rooms.

[lilywhite]

I wouldn't recommend Matt P's room either. It stunk of cheese. Or maybe that was just when he lived there.

[El]

If you're thinking self-catered (which is surely better for training - no worries about being back for dinner) then Crookesmoor House is awesome. Right next to the gym, 10 minutes from the union/arts tower area. And it's an ex-church so looks well cool (particularly at night when it's lit uo) and the rooms are huge.

[Mr. Furness]

sorry eleanor- did i get it wrong saying you had gone to earnshaw? after thinking it would be good to show people who had gone where, i realised i was actually fairly rubbish at knowing who and where!

[J]

I was in Earnshaw a good few years ago and I think if I had to choose again I would either go there - large bar, ok grounds, near to broomhill, eccy road and good for running up the porter brook out to the peaks and up to burbage.

wouldn't choose ranmoor (far too many people and as has been said it was based on the design of a swedish women's prison - bar is ok though)

or stevo - too posh boy.
halifax - too girly.

tapton is nice because it's a bit more "in the real world" than earnshaw/halifax/sorby as it's in crookes rather than in a little world of their own.

I'd argue that earnshaw is better for running, just because I prefer the porter valley to the rivelin valley (sometimes).

food is probably crap in them all, if you're the sort of person who is going to try and go to lots of training things and away to events at weekends I'd think self catered might be the better option. As El says crookesmoor is good for this (especially if you have that long 2 minute walk to lectures)

[Matt p]

My room (1D17) smelt of dirty 'o' kit/trainers not cheese. There's a difference.

Tapton has the massive advantage of having the Grindstone pub next door, which comes in useful especially during the 1st year - has a Snooker table, pool tables, table football, some golf game, Quiz's, and a selection of beverages. Nowhere else quite like it in Sheffield (apart from Snooker Club on eccleshall road)

And it's near the Law department if that's your specialist subject. Also pretty close to gym.

[mat-d]

All I have to say is that I have many a good memory of Tapton and its "barmy army" as the chant goes!

Plus at the end of the year you get the best looking hoodie - its much better than that ranmoor or stephenson pish...

And Tapton has the best JCR (Junior Comittee People) - They are the most active out of all of the halls and give you a chance to make a complete fool out of youself either through quality nights, called FEVER nights (open till 2 in Tapton Bar - i.e. 50meters from your room) and put on great music events and pool parties etc.etc.etc....

And my old room is now occupied by a quite attractive female (3D18) so i have heard. (not to be recommended -- one of my mates tried this: the room phone numbers don't change, why not ring up your "new friend" who is staying in your room and invite yourself round?)

Tapton is my choice, but Ranmoor and Stevenson have a much better bar area, it is only much better because it is much bigger as Tapton has 350people compared to the Ranmoor and Stevo 900-1000 people.

As i am living opposite Tapton next year (well near enough) i might pop in for a couple and see you there on a "Mat's Monday Madness" Night - as its called in Tapton.

However i agree with Furness that it looks like a prison from the outside....but hey beggars can't be choosers...

[Domhnull Mor]

Getting away from the subject for a bit but

Ranmoor is based on a Swedish Womens Prison

I remember this being said about Hillhead Halls in Aberdeen too. Judging by the amount of escapes from prisons here recently then it could well be true but the prisons I have seen don't look anything like student halls. The cells in Swedish prisons are bigger than the rooms that I had at Hillhead and they don't have a heavy duty door mat material for a carpet.

Is there actually any truth in these rumours or are they just another in the line of urban legends?

[Ed]

Since the Castle Leazes Halls in Newcastle were allegedly also based on a Swedish womens prison then I'd guess it's an urban legend. Either that or a Scandinavian architect got some serious value for money out of one design...

[El]

au contraire, people seem to forget about crookesmoor ("the old church one"), a lot of people in when I lived there had it down as second choice and got put there when their first one was full. Of course they realised pretty soon that it should have been number one on their list in the first place . . .it's really cool, and you get your own garden with brick barbeque and everything!

[Guest]

JCR=Junior Common Room (for some reason)

[J]

Self catering places:

Haven't stayed there myself but I'd say crookesmoor is pretty good for distance to uni/gym, in nice area, ok for shops.

endcliffe vale flats are fairly nice - near the halls so you can go to the hall bars and stuff - and near the porter brook.

riverdales flats aren't very nice.

i think clare leventon was in woodvale - also near earnshaw and sorby, but without a big hill up to broomhill - don't know much else about them.

broad lane are modern, very near the union/engineering department but not the nicest area in sheffield - i reckon for social stuff you're better further away the union, then there's union social stuff and hall/local pub social stuff.

crewe flats i think are ok, next to stevo. There are some others next to stevo too but I think most of the rest tend not to be very big - not have many people in.

hope that helps