Ivy Hall

The appearance of the halls from the outside isn't the most pleasant, as most compared it to look like a prison. Although, the rooms are a decent size, with cleaners that keep the kitchen pleasant by taking out the bins weekly, clean the surfaces daily, replenish products in the toilets twice a week roughly. The reception was generally helpful, but sometimes were very slow with their response to the issues we would have and only provide a temporary solution. Also, I think the biggest problem was the fact that the only sociable area we were provided with, was an outside area which wasn't appropriate in the winter, and was very distracting during upcoming summer when exams were present and others were outside with music during the day and during the night when others would have university early or for nurses & midwifes who may have had night / day shifts to prepare for. Additionally, even though Cricklewood was in zone 3 which is close to central, but as students, it is more beneficial for us to live closer to our university. Overall, ivy halls was good, but didn't encourage occupants to be very sociable due to a lack of events and no inside room for everyone to gather in.

Unfriendly staff bar a couple of security at night. Noisey. Stunk of weed. Not a good mix of students, everyone didn’t mix and had little cliques.

Its great location with a not so great management. Its 40 minutes to central London but it a bit far from the university

Always clogged kitchen and shower. Kitchen is okay but some people loves to steal and touch things that arent their stuffs. Social experience = they have different groups of friends but people in ivy hall are nice but some are just cranky and abusive in terms of noise. Also, the wifi is shitty at some point.

It's not the best looking out of all the options I had, but it was the cheapest and it's still pretty comfortable accommodation. My room is only a standard, but it's still bigger than all of the rooms I've seen in other halls so far. Aside from that, the room isn't all that special, it gets a little cold sometimes and there isn't a lot of shelf space, but I don't have much to complain about. In short, Ivy Halls sort of looks like a prison, but it's a prison with heart. Cricklewood is a bit shabby, but we have a Poundstretcher, a B&Q, a Co-op, an Iceland, a Tesco Express, and a Lidl, all within walking distance from the halls, as well as a load of take out options. On top of that, there's a 24 hour Tesco a short walk and bus ride away, and a bus stop right round the corner that takes you straight to Brent Cross. The two closest tube stations are Willesden Green (15-20 min walk, 10-15 by bus) and Golders Green (15-20 by bus and the quickest way to Camden). In terms of social experience, mine has been great, my block mates and I always hang out in the kitchen together. In fact, earlier on today, a bunch of my block mates agreed to be my cast for one of my film assignments and everyone was so patient and nice about it, despite it being super hot and lasting ages. The one thing about my halls is that the only social space we get is the kitchen. There's also the courtyard, but the only time it's really used as a social space is right before groups of people go out to drink for the night. The internet is pretty good. Faultless the majority of the time, but sometimes it can be a bit meh. The only thing I actively dislike about my halls is the laundry situation. There's only three washers and three dryers for what must be 200 people, and one of the dryers has been out of commission for a while. On top of that, the provider for the washers and dryers suck and is actually quite expensive. Overall, I'd say Ivy is worth it by a lot.