Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Having never had a chance to see inside the Grecians' houses, anyone care to describe the good/bad/ugly about them???

J

The idea of preparing the Grecians for University style accommodation is a little misleading.... The Grecians' houses are many times better than that which I had and have since seen in University Halls.

i'm 1st yr at uni and in 'privately managed' place, it's ensuite with big room and kitchen!
looks a bit like a grecians house actually...

ben ashton wrote:i'm 1st yr at uni and in 'privately managed' place, it's ensuite with big room and kitchen!
looks a bit like a grecians house actually...

You are very much in the minority...

Having been around them, I do like the central space - dayroom or whatever... the rooms look good too...

But it is a maze and it was built by part timers - there are cracks all over the buildings...

I would have hated them becuase my year really didn't get on that well...

Re the building - Rumour has it that there was a lot of trouble with the contractors - especially once they lost the contract for the refurb of the boarding houses.

I quite liked them but:
They are a maze.
They're expensive to clean.
The rooms aren't uniform in size.
The matrons didn't like the storage facilities at first (don't know if that's still true)
I gather the staff accommodation in the blocks isn't too great either (or at least one resident moaned lots to me about how his windows didn't open, his living room was dingy et c)

Deb GP wrote:Re the building - Rumour has it that there was a lot of trouble with the contractors - especially once they lost the contract for the refurb of the boarding houses.

I quite liked them but:
They are a maze.
They're expensive to clean.
The rooms aren't uniform in size.
The matrons didn't like the storage facilities at first (don't know if that's still true)
I gather the staff accommodation in the blocks isn't too great either (or at least one resident moaned lots to me about how his windows didn't open, his living room was dingy et c)

The other thing that annoys me is that some of the lights have to be on all the time...

Oh and the staff accomoadtaion (the lego house on the side) is of a very bizarre size and the downstairs loo is such that a pregnant woman cannot fit in the room!

i liked being in them . however...

shabby build-quality. true. more cut corners than a pack of rizla green.
one of the toilets in the lego house - apparently you have to stand on the toilet seat to be able to close the door.
on a shooting comp once, met a 14yo who was employed to do the interior painting (a particular bone of contention with anyone who's been). did the school knowingly employ kids to build the grecians houses?

many of the kitchens have no opening windows, as such it is (more often than not) waaaayyy to hot to spend more than 2 minutes in there. and it smells. and sooner or later, sooner methinks, they will all be stricken with damp. kitchens generally awful. no cooker, hob only.

i had one of the corner studies. GrW was only 2 years old and already there was such a massive amount of damp spores on the wall of my room that the cleaners were genuinely concerned for my health.

the lights are rediculous, and very dangerous. they turn themselves off after a set amount of time. picture this (it's happened to me): you're at the top of the stairs and the lights are on. as in the avenue houses, you run down the stairs (bad CH habit i guess). the lights turn off when you're halfway down a flight. pain
is 'motion sensor lights' really such a hard concept to grasp?

like someone else said, architecturally crap. really, REALLY crap.

How much did these buildings cost? Anyone have the figures?

And will they still be going strong after a century or so, like the original buildings?

i heard that 19+million has been spent so far on the "Master Plan", and it's now been pit on hold.....

Anyone know any facts??

J

jtaylor wrote:i heard that 19+million has been spent so far on the "Master Plan", and it's now been pit on hold.....

Anyone know any facts??

J

I believe that the Grecians houses were about 6 months late and about £3million over budget...

The 'Master Plan' has been put on hold... probably because it was over ambitious in the first place...

Does anyone elsethink the school calling its redeveloment 'The Master Plan' a little unwise, after all didn't Hitler have a 'Master Plan'?

I liked Grecians Houses, the only real problem I had was during the gas replacement thing having to go down four floors and outside into a rather open area to use the showers! Hendrik is right about the Kitchens though they were stupidly hot and really did smell if something was burnt, and due to the oversensitive fire alarms opening the doors wasn't an option! On the plus side our kitchen was one of the few to retain its dishwasher!!!

There's now actually only one dishwasher left, in my pod, F pod. Two others died at exactly the same time when they both happened to be on, and there was a power cut, and the water got everywhere inside it and stuff.
Looking up at the ceiling now, my room has very few cracks and no leaks. I find it a nice building (shame about a few of the people though) but what annoys me is the thinness of the floors/ceilings between rooms. If, as it unfortunately is for me, the person whose room is directly below yours is one of those selfish, antisocial, general public nuisances who plays their music excessively loud despite never actually being in there, your floor vibrates with even reasonably volumed or quiet music.
Another disadvantage is the showers, which are like public swimming pool showers in the way that you keep having to turn them on again.

Another disadvantage is the showers, which are like public swimming pool showers in the way that you keep having to turn them on again.

Get a school sock or broadie and tie it around the shower button so it doesnt turn off, a luggage strap worked for me.

I personally went out and brought some velcro which I simply flipped over the push button, that did the job for me!!