Then and Now: Student accommodation at Frenchay | Alumni blog
- ️Alumni Team
- ️Tue Aug 02 2022
Love lost and found, riotous parties, beans on toast, late night cramming before deadlines. So many experiences big and small have unfolded on Frenchay’s student accommodation over the years.
A huge part of a student’s university life is the accommodation. Whether you chose to live on campus or not you will likely have been a visitor to these buildings. Throughout the decades both the exterior and interior of these spaces have changed vastly. Let’s take a look back.
Ashley Village to Student Village
When Frenchay was first built in 1975, the accommodation was known as Ashley Village. It held 252 students, seven per house, in 36 separate structures. Accommodation at Ashley village cost around £10.20 per week in 1979 and £42 by 1994.
30 years later in 2005, work began on a new £80 million student accommodation, Student Village. Rather than lots of little houses, Student Village consists of four high-rise blocks, Brecon, Cotswold, Mendip and Quantock. Within each are flats for six students to share.
Also added was Wallscourt Park, it currently provides both townhouses and flats with shared shower room facilities, en-suite flats, and studios available.
A look inside the flats
In Ashley Village, each flat had a shared kitchen, dormitory style bedrooms and shared bathrooms. Now each room in Student Village has an en-suite bathroom (with the option of a superior en-suite) as well as a communal lounge area attached to the kitchen.
Carroll Court
Built in the 1980’s, Carroll Court was added as a second Student Village. It had 50 houses with six bedrooms each as well as a communal kitchen and living space.
In 2021 the houses of Carroll Court were demolished to make way for three, six-story accommodation blocks that will house still more students. The last students to ever live in the beloved accommodation created a video detailing their rather unusual last day.
Looking to the future
Work for the new accommodation is expected to be completed in 2023. It will be one of the largest low-carbon certified developments of its kind anywhere in the world.
To help address issues of climate change and sustainability it is being built to the highest sustainability standard of ‘Passivhaus’. A first for the university sector in the UK. The buildings will yield a 54% reduction in running costs and carbon emissions compared with a typical ‘good practice’ building.
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