The KCL Accommodation Social Tier List

By Guy de Basto — Founding Editor, The Common Journal. Opinion. Around 6 minutes.

Full disclosure: I was far too nervous about making friends in first year, and I dealt with it by spending a lot more time talking to people about their halls than I spent studying. It worked out. For credentials, I was a ResiLife Ambassador and represented my accommodation at ResiLife meetings, so I know roughly what I am talking about.

This covers mixed undergraduate and postgraduate King's halls. For this piece I spoke to friends and acquaintances who lived in them, so some details — flat sizes, social spaces — may not be exact.

This is an opinion piece, not a ranking from The Common's data. The reviews on The Common are the verified part. This is one student's view.

The verdict

• Top of cohort — GDSA, SSA
• Comfortable first — Hayloft, Orchard Lisle and Iris Brook
• Scraping first — Wolfson House, Canada Water
• High 2:1 — Atlas, Moonraker Point
• Mid 2:1 — Battersea
• 2:2 — Julian Markham House, Vega
• Third — Angel Lane

Top of cohort

Great Dover Street Apartments (GDSA) — 769 rooms

GDSA is the benchmark for social accommodation at King's. It sits right next to Guy's Campus, and everyone knows about the courtyard. The Roebuck is a good pub nearby, and if that is too expensive there are two Wetherspoons close by (Pommelers Rest and the Sun Wharf under the arches at London Bridge). Tabard Gardens is just behind the building, so if organised sport is your thing you are sorted.

Kitchens are good enough for the five or six flatmates you will share with, and the sheer number of people — a lot of them medics — is what makes it tick. On a random Thursday there is someone in the corridor up for a chat, or pres two doors down you can wander into. It is not perfect: with that many people, cleaning rotas and noise complaints are inevitable, and the kitchen gets chaotic at dinner. But if you want the classic "everyone knows everyone" first year, this is it.

Stamford Street Apartments (SSA) — 550 rooms

SSA is GDSA's younger sibling: across the road from Waterloo Campus, with a different feel. The reception is genuinely nice, and it is close to King's Sport and the run club, so it pulls a sportier crowd. The kitchen is small, but you are usually sharing with five others, which means you actually get to know your flatmates rather than recognising faces.

The courtyard is a real selling point, and the Lion and Unicorn in Waterloo Station is the nearest Wetherspoons — handy for a cheap pint before a weekend visiting friends at other universities, given how easy Waterloo makes that. It is still busy and still full of first years finding their feet, just easier to keep track of who is who. Waterloo also has more going on than people credit, with the South Bank a short walk away.

Comfortable first

Hayloft — 570 rooms

I will try to be unbiased. This was my hall in first year — shoutout Flat 706 — and I loved it. The social spaces are excellent: pool table, ping pong, a karaoke room that was permanently in use. I lost count of the nights the games room had fifteen people in it at 1am. The social life was not concentrated in one corner of the building; it was everyone slotting together.

Kitchens hold up to ten, which is a lot when everyone is cooking at once, but it also means the flat is never empty. It is close to Liverpool Street, so it is one of the better-connected halls for getting anywhere in London and for getting home after a late night, and it is walking distance from every campus. One warning: the social spaces are popular enough that they get booked out, so do not expect the cinema room to yourself on a busy night. You will also be sharing with Northeastern students. Still the best hall I know, and yes, I am slightly biased.

Orchard Lisle and Iris Brook (OLIB) — 287 rooms

Almost in the middle of Guy's Campus, around the corner from Bermondsey Street, with Borough Market nearby. The location cannot be overstated — rolling out of bed a minute before a 9am lab will happen at some point, and you have some of the best food and drink in London on your doorstep.

There are two games rooms, and kitchens are for four or five people, so friendships tend to be tighter rather than wider. Plenty of people prefer that to the free-for-all elsewhere. Staff here are genuinely helpful, which gets people talking in reception, and the lounge is actually used. If you end up here, you have not drawn the short straw.

Scraping first

Wolfson House — 274 rooms

On Guy's Campus. Being on campus is a real perk: no commute, no excuse to skip a 9am, and you bump into coursemates without trying. Kitchens are up to four students, and events like the silent disco are a good way to meet people — it has a reputation as one of the better-organised nights across the King's halls, and it is a leveller, since everyone looks equally daft.

It is also the cheapest hall going, which brings a real mix of people, and socially I think that works in its favour. It will not match the higher tiers for buzz or polish, but for the price, location and community events it punches above its weight.

Canada Water — 399 rooms

The outdoor basketball court is good for a 1v1, and there is mini golf, so the shared spaces are a genuine selling point. The catch is distance: you are on the Jubilee line rather than on campus, so spontaneous socialising takes more effort than it does at GDSA or OLIB. Canada Water itself is quiet but well connected, and the people I know there made it work.

High 2:1

Atlas — Vauxhall

Vauxhall is one of the better-connected parts of south London, and Atlas benefits from that. Flats are usually four to eight people, and the social spaces are consistently busy, which is a good sign in itself — people actually use them. It is also one of the halls still available to second and third years, so you get a mix. That is a positive in my eyes: they know the best spots, and they are more forgiving about techno at 3am. Not the wildest hall on this list, but dependable.

Moonraker Point — 200 rooms

The smallest King's hall, which cuts both ways. Fewer people means the community feels familiar; it also means a flat that does not click is harder to escape. Kitchens are shared by anywhere from four to twelve people depending on where you land, so ask around before committing if you can.

The social space is better than you would expect. I had friends of friends here and, whatever else they complained about, the social life was never it. Do not write it off for being small.

Mid 2:1

Battersea — 452 rooms

My first controversial call: Battersea is overhated. It has a reputation for being quiet and for social spaces nobody uses, and a lot of that is structural rather than about the people. When much of the building is self-contained studios, there are fewer shared kitchens for people to bump into each other in, and no common room fixes that on its own. Flats go up to eight. Block B is reportedly where it happens.

Battersea Power Station has had a proper glow-up, with shops, restaurants and a riverside walk on the doorstep, so there is plenty to do. The hall just does not force socialising the way SSA or Hayloft does. If you want your own space, it may suit you better than its ranking suggests.

2:2

Julian Markham House — 232 rooms

All en-suite. You can share a kitchen and lounge with five or six flatmates, or take a self-contained studio. There is a common room with sofas and a TV, a study room, and a courtyard with a ping pong table, and Elephant and Castle station is very close.

The dealbreaker is distance: around 25 minutes to Waterloo and the same to Strand, so you are less likely to run into coursemates, and society events or the trip home after a night out take more planning. The area has been redeveloped a lot and is decent now — go and see it before you commit. I have not lived there, so I cannot tell you how social it is in practice.

Vega — 841 rooms

An interesting one. On paper iQ Vega's shared spaces sound strong: sky lounge, cinema room, games room, gym, rooftop terrace. It only opened a few years ago and it shows. But flashy common spaces do not always translate into people using them, and the small flat sizes make it luck of the draw.

The building is shared with UCL and LSE students as well as King's, which changes the dynamic compared with an all-King's hall — you may not recognise faces from your course or societies. Whether that adds up to a social flat, I genuinely cannot say. If you have lived there, tell us, and we will update this with something real.

Third

Angel Lane — 759 rooms

You may be surprised. My reasoning, shared by my friends, is Stratford: a night out in central means an expensive trip home, and that shapes the social life more than anything inside the building.

In fairness, Stratford has come on a lot, with Westfield right there and the Jubilee and Central lines on the doorstep. The issue is distance from everything King's-related, not the area. Kitchens are shared with up to nine people, which should mean plenty of built-in socialising if everyone is around at the same time. I have never lived there, but the social spaces are reportedly fine, and there are two of them with pool. The real cost is making evening society events or getting back at a reasonable hour. If you are happy making your own fun locally, it is not the disaster this ranking suggests.

Two final notes

This is an opinion piece. Everyone's experience at King's is different, and yours will depend on your flatmates, your course and what you actually want from first year.

And being in a lower-ranked hall socially does not mean you cannot make friends. The good thing about London is the sheer number of people in it. You will find yours.

Guy de Basto is a second-year student reading History, Politics and Philosophy, and Founding Editor of The Common Journal.

A note from The Common: if you disagree with Guy, that is probably a good thing. Tell us where he got it wrong, and tell us what your hall is actually like.