Anna shares her positive experience living in Tennis Court accommodation - covering comfort, community, and campus life.
I'm a second year student and I am studying Liberal Arts and Natural Sciences. When coming to university, accommodation was a worry. I decided to live in Tennis Court on the Vale, and it turned out to be the best decision for me!
Tennis Court is a single-bed, shared bathroom accommodation, housing around 700 students. The flats are for 5 people, so the facilities are shared between your flatmates, which include a kitchen, a bathroom with a shower, and a bathroom with just a toilet. Personally, sharing a bathroom did not bother me, as we had a cleaning rota set up (which meant I only had to clean the bathroom once every 5 weeks!), and I never found myself waiting to use the shower.
We had support creating this rota from our hall reps, who came round to our flat during Welcome Week and prompted us to make cleaning rotas and create a set of flat rules, so we knew each other’s expectations and boundaries.
The kitchen has a great layout, and includes 2 sofas to sit on, which creates a sociable environment. There is an oven, microwave, and stove to share, and we all got at least 2 cupboards each, so space was not an issue.
In terms of the bedroom, it comes well equipped with a single bed, wardrobe (with a full-length mirror), large desk and drawers, pin board and shelves. I found once I had pictures up on the pin board and some fairy lights on the walls, it felt very homely and cosy – a room I looked forward to coming home to every day!
The location of Tennis Court is brilliant, being the closest accommodation in the Vale to campus. The walk is under 15 minutes, down a pedestrianised path that is well lit and feels very safe. Having the Vale lake nearby was so nice. We often went for a walk around the lake for some fresh air or had a picnic there in the summer. The nearby facilities are also great, with Shackleton’s (an accommodation in the Vale) Costcutter supermarket being less than a 10-minute walk away, which was really helpful for picking up bits and bobs. I did my main food shop in the Selly Oak Aldi, which is so close to campus, so it was convenient.
I lived in an all-girls flat, and had a really positive experience, as I got on well with all of my flatmates. We decorated our flat for all the seasons, including creating a DIY Christmas tree and creating paper snowflakes for the walls. We also had a movie night every Sunday which was a nice opportunity to wind down from the week and catch up with each other.
In general, Tennis Court is a sociable accommodation, particularly due to the layout, with blocks including 6 flats of 5. This meant that we arrived at university with a pool of 30 people to get to know, which wasn’t too daunting, but it was also very likely you would find people you get on with well. Now, in my second year, the people I live with are all people I met in Tennis Court, showing how great your accommodation is for making friends!
I felt very safe in my accommodation, particularly as we needed to use our student ID card to not only get into our flat, but also into our whole block.
I'm Anna, a second year studying Liberal Arts and Natural Sciences student. Next year I am going on a year abroad to Can...
