Close communities: living at Leicester
From lodgings in town to ensuite rooms in modern halls and a student village with rescued Edwardian villas and lodges, a great variety of places have been home to students over the years.
Back in the 1920s, women stayed in a campus hostel, while men lodged in the city. This continued until student numbers expanded hugely in the 1950s, when the University bought properties in Oadby for catered accommodation.
Miss Morley and Miss Hanson in the Common Room of the Women's Hostel, 1932.
The first included the Edwardian buildings now known as Hastings, Beaumont and Shirley Houses. Digby, Latimer and Herrick soon followed. Next, the University bought properties on Carisbrooke, Salisbury and Elms Roads.
Purpose-built housing included College Hall for female students, designed by Sir Lesley Martin and Trevor Dannatt and completed in the early 1960s. “Its design seemed to me to be a cut above most of the other halls,” recalls Colin Hyde. Accommodation for men was built at Stamford Hall in 1964 and Gilbert Murray Hall in 1966.
Alumna Mary Ridgway was a Hall Secretary: “Working at Stamford Hall was a splendid experience, not least the joy of working in some exquisite Arts and Crafts houses which had been saved from the bulldozer by the University.”
Backing on to the Botanic Garden, Beaumont Hall was such a beautiful place to live, study and socialise. When I was there, it had only about 250 students, communal dining, communal bathrooms and no self-catering or ensuites, which all made for a close-knit community.
Beaumont House, formerly Middlemeade, south-facing rear aspect, 1960s.
John Flynn lived in Oadby: “Backing on to the Botanic Garden, Beaumont Hall was such a beautiful place to live, study and socialise.
“When I was there, it had only about 250 students, communal dining, communal bathrooms and no self-catering or ensuites, which all made for a close-knit community. Individual hall identities and inter-hall rivalry were strong, which only went to reinforce the feeling of camaraderie.
“The happiest memories I have of Leicester are those of my time in Beaumont. I'm still in touch with many friends I made there.”
Allocating rooms was a mammoth task before computers, says Ridgway: “I used a manual typewriter, so much fun was had in September when rooms were allocated and lists had to be retyped endlessly. The warden and I spent a long time allocating students to what we hoped were appropriate rooms.”
Life in the Red Block of Digby Hall in 1981-82 was the “best time of my life”, says Roger Maddams, who remembers “falling out of bed onto the tennis court behind, the World Cup 82 recreated in Subbuteo… And the female charms of Black Block next door.”
College Hall is now a conference venue but a reminder of its previous life remains – a boulder dropped into its pond (now filled) in a prank by male students in the 1960s.
Some accommodation was less successful. The 1967 Villiers Hall buildings were “brick and concrete boxes with little to recommend them", says former resident Colin Hyde. They were demolished and John Foster House now occupies the site.
John Foster House staff were “always so kind and helpful”, remembers a former Oadby Student Village resident. “They even provided free food for us on many occasions." And Oadby’s “party bus, which picked us up from the student village and dropped us at Club Republic, played a huge part in my first-year experience – so many memories made on that bus that I’ll never forget."
Explore our range of accommodation for undergraduate and postgraduate students. We have a range of options, whether you want to be closer to the city, privately rent or be at the centre of the university.