UAL Accommodation Open Day 2024

Are you already thinking about where to live next year? Join us at our Accommodation Open Day on 13 April 2024 to find out everything you need to know about living at a UAL Halls of Residence.

Georgie Ralph is in her first year of BA (hons) Fine Art at Chelsea College of Arts, she lives at Glassyard Building and is also the marketing lead for the hall as part of the Halls Life student committees. Georgie shares her experience of visiting several halls of residences last year and gives advice on how best to spend your day.

How did you find your open day experience last year?

I was a bit nervous about moving away from home and into a completely different place as I was moving from the countryside, but looking at each accommodation made me feel much more reassured about moving to London.

Student accommodation has a bit of a bad reputation when it comes to housing, so I was pleasantly surprised by the ones that I looked around last year. After looking around it was clear to me which one I wanted to live in and this made me much more excited to go to uni.

Another thing that made me feel more comfortable moving to London was seeing the level of security in my accommodation. I looked at how many locks there were, how easy it was to get in and out of the building and if there is security onsite 24/7.

Did the open day answer your questions about life at UAL halls?

My mum and I had a lot of questions going into the open day and the halls’ reps were very helpful answering all of them. Most of our questions were answered whilst we were walking around the building and looking into some of the rooms on our tour. We were shown a lot of different rooms and bathroom options as well as being shown around kitchens, common rooms, laundry rooms and any outside areas.

We also got to speak to the halls’ reps about how it was living in the area of each accommodation, the events they put on each week and even about the job possibilities working inside of halls.

What advice would you give prospective students attending the open day?

I would definitely recommend going to view some of the halls before making your decision as my mind changed after I went to look round them. They all vary in layout and size and it's hard to get a feel for them when you are looking at them online.

Make sure to look at a few different halls to make sure you pick the best one for you. I chose to look at the three closest to my Uni site and the one that I expected to choose based on what I saw online wasn’t the one that I ended up loving.

Something that I did last year, that I would recommend to anyone that doesn’t know London very well, is to walk around the area local to each accommodation to make sure the area is right for you, not just the building itself. Check everything that you’d want nearby is easy to get to, such as supermarkets, public transport, parks and gyms.

Last thing you should definitely do is see how easy it is to get to your college from each accommodation so that you aren’t travelling too far almost everyday or spending too much money on travel.

Applications for the 2024-2025 academic year open in April 2024. If you would like to visit our halls before applying, register for our Accommodation Open Day on 13 April 2024.

All 14 of our Halls will be open for visitors on the day, you’ll have the opportunity to speak with our friendly Accommodation Services team, current students and discover each hall and their unique locations.