Jess's experience living in Pritchatts Townhouse

Hi, I'm Jess

Choosing where to spend your first year of university can seem like a daunting task. However, the University of Birmingham offers such a wide variety of choices, so there’s bound to be an accommodation type that meets your needs. For me, this was Pritchatts Road Townhouses in Pritchatts Park Village! 

Accommodation

When I first came to Open Days at the university, I only looked at accommodation in The Vale and Selly Oak; it wasn’t until the July open day after my A-level exams that I visited Pritchatts Park. We visited a few accommodation types across the village, but I immediately fell in love with the townhouses. From the outside, they look like terraced houses, rather than your typical student accommodation.

They’re brand new, so all of the facilities in the bedrooms and spacious shared kitchen are modern- I appreciated that the bedrooms are grey and white as it meant I could decorate my room with any colours I wanted to make it feel like home. The bedrooms are furnished with a small double bed with built in storage, a double wardrobe, a desk with built in drawers, two pin boards and plenty of other storage or décor space. In addition to the rooms being en suite, there is also a spare bathroom on the bottom floor of each house, which is great if you’re hosting parties or if you have guests over. 

Living in Pritchatts

The houses hold either 5, 7 or 9 people. My house holds 9, which I was very nervous about before moving in! Now I’ve settled here, though, I’m grateful that I have so many housemates as we have all become really good friends. Moving away from home was hard, but the fact that we’re all going through it together and we can talk about it makes it so much easier. Please don’t worry about not getting on with your flatmates: there’s bound to be someone you get along with, and I’ve made a lot of other friends through my course and societies. 

Location

I love living in Pritchatts Park because of how quiet it is! If I’ve had a long day of lectures, I’m grateful that I can come back into my room and enjoy the silence and the views of the gorgeous green spaces outside my window. It’s about a 20-minute walk to Selly Oak retail park (where the Sainsbury’s is located), and about the same to our nearest Aldi, as well as Harborne High Street, making it easy to do your weekly shop. We’re also only about a 10-minute walk from North Gate on campus and even less to the university train station- what more could you need? We have a brilliant on-site maintenance team across the village if there are any issues in your accommodation, as well as the helpful reception staff and well-being officers who you can visit at Pritchatts House. 

Overall, I would really recommend staying at Pritchatts Park, and more specifically, the townhouses. I’ve had an amazing time here so far, and I’m looking forward to spending the rest of my first year at UoB here!