Birley

I lived in Birley the first year the halls were open. Beautiful as they are, I find the town houses to be very unsociable: each floor in the house is like an individual flat of 4 rooms as you only have access to your own floor, and no access to neighbouring houses. However you share a house with 11 others which can make for very unclean common areas. The sofas were like rocks, the laundry facilities are in a separate building which means carrying your dirty laundry outside of your house for all to see/get wet in the Manchester rain. The location is convenient and the bedrooms are nice and big, however I don’t feel this accommodation is worth the high cost. Also MMU are extremely strict on basic wear and tear: my friend had her deposit retained for leaving coffee cup rings on the windowsill.

I didn’t enjoy my time at MMU’s Birley Fields. Firstly, the halls were brand new the year that we moved in but as they weren’t completed in time for September we weren’t moved in until October. MMU separated us from the flat mates we’d had in our previous temporary accommodation and gave us a reduced rate on Birley (as they still weren’t fully finished and actually weren’t finished until the next academic year). Despite the reduced rate, the halls were the most expensive of all of MMU’s student accommodation. I was in the town houses. I found the town houses to be highly unsociable as they are divided into 3 floors of four separate rooms with a shared living room and kitchen. You can not access any of the other town houses. Plus the accommodation is not central to any nightlife - not even a local pub or bar. It was beautiful accommodation, but as it was so new MMU were highly strict with regards to the upkeep and maintenance and at the end of the year a lot of people didn’t have their deposits returned due to blu tac stains or cup rings on windowsills - things that are easy to clean.