Manchester, Oak House

Since the last review on here was in 2010, I thought I would do a more updated version for those wishing to live in halls at the University of Manchester. Oak House is located in the Fallowfield Campus and is made up of 5 different courts - Maple, Sycamore, Beech, Chestnut and Holly (in descending order of size). As of 2015 prices, Oak House costs £92.50 per week (with the exception of Chestnut court which costs £104.40 per week as it is the only block with a basin in the bedroom). The entire of Oak House is self-catered and even though the green breeze block walls are not entirely appealing, it is by far the best halls to live in and also the cheapest! 8 people (4 boys and 4 girls) share 1 flat, which is situated over 2 floors (yes that does mean there are stairs within the flat itself). The first floor of all flats hosts 4 bedrooms, 1 toilet and 1 bathroom with 2 sinks and a shower for the boys and the second floor is again the same layout but for the girls. The kitchen varies on which floor it is on depending on the flat. The bedrooms are not the biggest but they by far do and each bedroom contains a bed (with mattress and protector), very large desks with 3 draws attached, 6 plug sockets, a large wardrobe with inbuilt mirror on the inside of the door, a desk lamp, Ethernet cable slot, window and radiator, hooks behind the door and a 2-tier shelf. All rooms are carpeted and each door has its own lock. The only downfall of majority of the rooms is that the window is NOT double-glazed (with the exception of a few random ones) so during winter the rooms can get quite cold - but nothing a hot water bottle doesn't fix. The girl's bathroom has a bath with a shower overhead whereas the boys is just a shower - THE WATER PRESSURE AND TEMPERATURE IS AMAZING. The kitchen is one of the biggest of any accommodation and contains 2 fridge-freezers, 8 double cupboards, 2 electric ovens/hobs/grills, 2 sinks, a microwave, a kettle, a large table, 6 plastic chairs, 3 large comfy chairs (like the kind in the headteachers office in primary!), a bin (including recycling bags) and a cabinet for a TV you may or may not bring. Cleaning equipment is also provided such as mop & bucket, hoover etc... Oak House is also one of the very few halls which has cleaners! Yes, cleaners! They come in 2-3 times per week and clean the communal areas of the house (i.e. not your bedrooms). The nightlife in Fallowfield is incredible, especially during freshers week. Therefore its the best place to come to make friends. However, despite how sociable the halls are, they are not as lively as some might have you believe - after the initial first couple of weeks, they only really become mildly noisy at night on the weekends and the odd weekday - I have not had any trouble sleeping/revising for exams and I need deadly silence for both of those things! Overall, Oak House is not the most attractive halls to live in, but you will meet some amazing people here and have the best first year at university without the added worry of accommodation costs because its cheap (unlike,lets say Richmond Park, which is also in Fallowfield but costs around £130 per week - even though it is en-suite).

Not recommended AT ALL. I live in Oak House.

Oak house isn't as social as everyone makes out...The only friend I have in Oak House is my friend from home....

My flat have unfortunately not socialized with anyone in our block.

People in my flat mostly go out with friends they already know from back home, so meeting new people is really limited.

Everything breaks.

People don't take care of the kitchen e.g. in my friends Oak House flat the unwashed pans are getting mouldy. In my flat there is squashed fruit and sauce stains that's encrusted into the floor so you have to wear slippers everywhere.

I would say that it is better to just have your meals cooked in catered because you wont know if you're put in with people who wont do things the way you'd like...at least next year you get to choose who you live with so you'll know whether someone is extremely messy,annoyingly pedantic about mess or inbetween and judge what type of person youd personally want to live with.

Extremely noisy at night from surrounding flats because they're packed so closely together with thin walls/ceilings/floors.

The positives are that the rooms are nicely furnished with wood-look furniture which is nice and modern. They're also cosy and they blast the heating on so its always super warm.

Oak House is a very noisy, uncomfortable, low value for money place to live. Poor ventilation, no insulation, single glazed windows. This is basically a prison for students, without the rules. For eight people sharing one 'flat' without sinks in bedrooms, this comes to £2338.40 collectively every four weeks. The staff don't care about the comfort of residents because they get to go home after their shift, the properties need >constant< maintenance, and shared areas are dirty.

If you're young and don't care about your degree or the comfort of others, then by all means come to the cheapest accommodation offered by the University.

I wish I would have known how small and noisy this accommodation would be, but this is a cash-cow for the University of Manchester. At capacity, this house brings in around £3-million in rent per academic year.

If you don't like noise, then you >don't< want to live here under any circumstances. This is not an exaggeration! If you must, then bring earphones and your best angry voice.

Oak house is definitely the best place to stay at manchester uni..Its proper sociable like owens park but its so much cheaper and you can cook for yourself.

I think that because there are only four flats to a block you meet everyone who lives in it. Most of my friends from Richmond dont even know theyre next door neighbours because there are so many flats in each block.

Everyone is really laid back and up for a good time. Theres pretty much always something going on and everyone i have met has been well sound.

I would recommend it to anyone (maybe except if your not into going out a lot). It is sociable, cheap and has massive kitchen/living room. Can be a bit noisy if your not in the mood and the bedrooms are quite small

I wouldn't recommend oak house to postgrads - although it's cheap, it's incredibly noisy during term time and you're unlikely to get too many full nights' sleep. The nature of a massive undergrad population, mostly leaving home for the first time, is that things can get out of hand pretty often, so don't expect respect for people or property either. Also, once the undergrads are gone for the summer, they rent out the accommodation to all kinds of randoms, so if your summer plans involve a quiet few months with your thesis, I think you are unlikely to get that either.

I'm currently living in Maple Court in Oak House and it's completely fantastic! I know so many people in other halls who wish they lived here. Yeah, people joke about the sixties' monstrosities that are the buildings (not as bad as the OP tower though!) and being the cheapest halls in the uni they're fairly basic, but I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

The best bit about living here is the social side. You live in a flat of eight (usually mixed) in a block of four flats, so it's very easy to make friends with the people you're near. Especially when the weather's good the grassy areas and trees all around are wicked and there are constantly flat parties going on! Being on the Fallowfield campus is great cos there are about 3000 students living so close together there's always stuff going on, but there's loads of space as well.

I definitely recommend going self-catered in your first year as not only do you get eased into the cooking/generally looking after yourself bit, living with flatmates also has much more of a 'family' feel. Most people in oak house end up living with their flatmates of blockmates in years two and three, as I am. You feel like you have your own house from the start, which is cool.

The flats are split level, with four bedrooms and a bathroom on each level, and a big kitchen/living room on either the lower or upper floor. Girls always get the upstairs rooms. Four people to a bathroom is actually really good for uni accommodation, and the showers are amazingly hot and powerful! I initially wanted en suite but as soon as I got here I realised it's really not something you need. You're unlikely to have it next year, so why pay loads more for it in first year? Likewise, not having a sink in my room really isn't an issue.

If you end up in Chestnut Court you do get a sink and a bigger bedroom to go with it, but the flip side is that the kitchen/living rooms are quite a bit smaller. I love Maple as the living areas are massive. A big double bedroom will be brilliant next year but for now I've got quite attached to my little oak house one! They seem to keep amazingly warm too.

On a practical note, across Oak House you get a massive freezer, a fridge, microwave, kettle and toaster in the kitchen. We have two hobs and one grill/oven but this seem to vary a bit - you'll always have two hobs though. And if anything breaks they are wicked at getting you new stuff right away. In the bedrooms you have the bed, a little wardrobe, desk with three drawers, couple of shelves, swivelly chair and some hooks on the wall and door. Storage space as a result isn't great and you should bring another lamp....but the beds are incredibly inexplicably comfortable!

The walls are mostly just painted breeze blocks in an (un)lovely pale green....but cos the halls are old there is no problem with you sticking up posters, photos fliers and all the rest and just generally making more mess than in newer, posher halls, which is great! All the flats end up really personalised. Who wants sterile white walls anyway?!?!!

Overall, the best bit about Oak House is the vibe here. Massively sociable, laid back and fun, I couldn't ask for a better place to be!

I would recommend Oak House to anyone coming to Manchester Uni to study. I'm in my first year and have lived here for 6 months now. Oak House is divided up into 4 blocks - Beech Court, Holly Court, Sycamore Court and Chestnut Court. Unless you're lucky enough to end up in Chestnut you won't have a sink in your room, but that really isn't as big an issue as you might think!The courts are divided up into blocks of 4 flats. Each flat is set on two floors, with 4 bedrooms and a bathroom on each floor. If you live in a mixed flat then the boys will be downstairs and the boys upstairs. The kitchen ( Oak House is all self catered) is either upstairs or downstairs depending on which flat you live in. I live on the top floor, which involves 5 sets of stairs. It sucked having to carry all my stuff up when I moved in, but I love living at the top now.I live in Beech Court, which is the largest block. Its directly behind Oak House's bar, Squirrel's, which isn't bad if you want to watch a bit of sport or go for a (very) quiet drink. Having said that Oak House is in the heart of student land Fallowfield, so its only a 2 minute walk to various other bars, pubs and restaurants. Squirrel's also houses squash courts and the laundrette (£2 to wash, £1 to dry). Oak House is also only 5 minutes walk away from Sainsbury's, which is pretty handy!The best thing about Oak House has to be the price. The accommodation is basic, but you really don't need any more than it gives you. I have friends who pay £30 more a week than I do for my room, and they wish that they'd chosen to live here instead. Also, you don't have to move out in the holidays here. That can be a good thing as it means you can stay longer and leave all your stuff here and your room in a mess, but if you do go home for the holidays it means you're still paying for your room even though you're not living in it.Oak House is a really social hall to live in and you'll get to know loads of people though living here. Its a well known fact that people who live here in first year generally end up living with flatmates or people from the same block in their 2nd and 3rd years, and that holds true for most people I know here. Oak House on the same campus as Owen's Park, Sheavyn House, Ashburne Hall, Woolton Hall and Richmond Park, so there is generally someone to get the bus/taxi home with from a night out.I think that's about all I have to say really, but if you're coming to Manchester, put some serious thought into applying to live here, its awesome.

The courts in Oak House at Manchester University are set out like mini flats. You walk into the main door (from outside) and this leads you to a corridor with a door on your right and one on your left, and then a flight of stairs. Each entrance door in Oak house has 4 different flats, each housing eight students, so in your block you will be with 32 people. However, you will "live" with eight. Each of these doors have numbers, so you have to find the right door number, and this is your flat. You open the door (with its lock that goes the opposite way to other locks, you do get used to this though), and there's a corridor in front of you with 6 doors, and to your left there's a flight of stairs. Four of the doors on the bottom floor are bedrooms, one of the doors leads to a shared bathroom area, with a shower, two sinks and a toilet, and the fifth door leads to your shared kitchen. The flight of stairs leads up to another corridor with 5 doors again; four of them being bedrooms, and the other being the bathroom area. The top floor is normally designated to girls, and they also have a bath as well as a shower.

Your kitchen consists of a large fridge and an even bigger freezer. It is so big that a 6ft Swedish guy can get in it and you can close the lid; not that we ever did that?! You are also supplied with a double sink and a rinse area, plenty of cupboards for everyone to store their things individually or together, and an oven with 4 hobs, a grill and an oven, and also another 4 hobs on the opposing work surface. Also supplied with a kettle and a microwave. You then have a small communal area with two small tables, which are your dinner tables, and 8 cushioned chairs and another cabinet. So there is plenty of storage available.

In your bedrooms you are supplied with a bed (that's a good start), a good sized wardrobe, a desk covering most of one of the walls, a chest of drawers and two large shelves. There's plenty of room for storing things, but I'd advise you buy some big flat boxes for underwear etc., so you can store more underneath the bed, and also for the top of the wardrobe. You are also supplied with two coat hooks on the back of your door and two on a free wall!

I would recommend Oak House to anyone who is planning on studying at The University of Manchester. It is a great place to live, right in the middle of student life. Oak House is surrounded by other halls of residence, such as Richmond Park and Owens parks; right in the heart of Fallowfield. So for first years it's a great place to live, as you can easily meet new people. Oak House also has its own Bar (Squirrels, with which, if you live here you will become very acquainted with). It also has its own launderette (very handy, and FYI it's £1.80 for a full wash, and £0.50 for the dryer), and there is also a pool room and squash courts.

Overall, my time at Oak House was brilliant, and I wouldn't have wanted to stay anywhere else. It gives you the opportunity to meet at least 7 different people that you may not be friends with otherwise, and one of two people you wonder how you lived without! As student accommodation its minimal, but it's all you need. You will be in the centre of student life, and after someone in your block throws the first flat party, you're guaranteed to feel right at home!