Tuesday, 23 June 2015

University of Exeter Halls of Residence ~ The Uncensored Truth

The majority of the information I will tell you is about Birks Grange.  This, I know about.  Things I cannot confirm are things from Lafrowda, Penny C, Mardon and all the halls on the Lemmy side of campus.  What I will tell you has been obtained from many years of investigation to help you understand the history of your hall.  These words have come from various sources and as such cannot be confirmed.  I have tried my best and I hope you will appreciate the work I have put into writing this. Contributions from current and former students are welcomed.


The History of Your Hall

 

Birks Grange, originally Birks Halls, was built a long time ago.  Probably around the 60s.  An old, grey building with shared bathrooms and toilets, it was a typical hall of accommodation for its day.


As part of its modernisation plan, the University of Exeter intended on knocking down and rebuilding the duryard and Birks Halls.  Birks was to be done first.

In 2007 the demolition of the Duryard Halls was almost complete.  One last hall stood, however.  It was closer to Birks Grange and so became part of this.  This hall, was Moberly House.  It remains as the last building standing of the Duryard Halls and adopted the slogan "Last One Standing" because of this.

There was a sense of loss of identity; Duryard previously had its own very successful bar called "The Welly" now it was alone, so the students insisted on their own sense of identity.  They were always known for their antics, sociability, open door policy and rowdiness.  They had a collective "we're all in it together" spirit, which I always found very admirable.  


The Layout of Birks Grange

 

Birks opened for its first intake of students in 2006.  Every room was en-suite, with specially adapted rooms for resident tutors, a studio for the senior resident tutor and accessible rooms for those with disabilities, although these rooms were also used for students who did not have disabilities.


The plan of the building was divided into blocks from A to E.  Each block had its own set of doors.  A 3D Model is shown below:

As opposed to being grouped into separate buildings, Birks Grange was one building, where to get from one block to the next, you would need a master key.  Of course I always found ways around this.  Picking locks became much of a much wanted talent here.  With the division of each corridor having 9 rooms and having a specific lock that only those 9 people could enter the corridor, this meant that it was quite a challenge for students to socialise effectively, but we always managed.  Blocks B and C were specifically designed as accessible and so have lifts.
One block that was not demolished was Central Block - it had simply been refurbished... really well.  This was the cafeteria, the Boot (The Birks Grange Bar) and the porter's lodge.  It used to have a TV room with a huge TV which would become popular during major football matches.  Although it had Sky TV, it was rarely used and was converted to a shop sometime between 2008-2009.  Central Block had both a Snooker table and a pool table.  
The Boot was the first hall bar on campus to adopt a non-smoking policy. There was talk of shutting down hall bars across bars since they were making a loss.  The pre-lash culture in corridors in the halls of accommodation, meant that the hall bar would suffer while students mixed their own drinks in the halls.  The Boot made the most money out of all the halls of accommodation in the year beginning October 2007.  Still every month Chris, the bar manager would discuss his worries about whether he would have a job the following year.  With my influence as President, he encouraged me to do more to ensure the bar stayed open, making money through events.  I did what I could.  The university reduced the opening hours, although I am unsure whether now any of the bars are actually closed.



The Setting



Birks Grange and Moberly are situated at the bottom of campus, on lower ground and students needed to climb up the steep Cardiac Hill (unsurprising name) to get to campus.  The design has changed since the introduction of the new buildings year beginning 2009 (but first intake maybe 2010 or 2011), known collectively as Birks Village.  Moberly students needed to take the long dark path past the University Catholic Church, past Birks Grange and Central Block up Cardiac Hill towards Campus.  In 2009 Grafton Hill was built as an alternative to Cardiac Hill to get to Campus while building commenced for Birks Village.  This was made of a series of long stairs.  While still an effort of a journey, there was nothing like seeing someone sprinting up Cardiac Hill.  I certainly recommend you don't sprint down either!!
Cardiac Hill is very deceptive in this Photo.  Don't be fooled.
 
Birks Grange was surrounded by greenery however, and the views overlooking the city were stunning; although I am sure not so fine as Holland Hall from their french windows!!
View from Holland Hall
View from Birks Grange Overlooking the River and the Railway
View from Birks Grange Sun setting into the Green Hills
View from Birks Grange C-Block Overlooking the Hills, River and Railway
View from Car Park at Holland Hall
View from Holland Hall Dining Room
 While Holland Hall had great views, when it came to greenery, Birks Grange won hands down:
Back of Central Block
Facing the back of Central Block

Space between Central Block and Birks Grange before Building Work
 
View from C2-25 before building work (Great area for Sunbathing during the Summer)
The greenery disappeared when they built Birks Village... (a lot changed that year).


View from C2-25 during Building Work



The Emblems of Birks Grange and Moberly House

 

Birks Grange needed a logo.  Former President Jamie King (2007-2008) used an Executive Order to create a crest for Birks Grange.  He passed it through for the committee to vote on it.  Since he had already paid for it and sealed its design, the committee had no choice but to approve it.  I was appointed to the committee by Jamie King after losing to him narrowly in a controversial vote.  The first vote was said to involve fraud and results were not counted, the second one I contested as unfair since most of his friends were aware of a re-vote, but most people who voted for me the first time were not.  Regardless he appointed me as General Secretary.  My loss, and serving under him was a blessing in disguise.  I learned from him, but saw his mistakes.  As a result, the following year when I did ascend to Presidency, I was able to work miracles.

The design of the crest involved a mountain to represent the steep climb to campus and a boot to represent the hall bar.  In stash, the word 'Birks' has been sewn into the scroll.  "Exelsior" (Ever Upwards) is also an option.  See below:

The Birks Grange Committee MUST use this logo, set up costs of £60 have already been paid.
He designed a hoody for people to buy, although no one really got one until I pushed the idea forward the following year.
Although I was intent on the Moberly design being the same, I relented after pressure and allowed them to have their own logo as long as it incorporated some features from the Birks Grange design to unify the halls.  The crest uses the House Colour; Green, as a major part of it.  I never asked where the origin of each part was from.  It was designed by James Milne, and officially approved by the committee:
Moberly House Logo

It was incorporated into the stash design, creatively as shown:


The play with the words was done by the first ever president of Moberly House, Damian Jeffries the following year after the logo was designed.  (Formerly, the hall had an elected 'representative' but not a President.)  Moberly House did pretty much look like a prison.

This design was featured on the back of the Moberly hoody.


 Subs Cards

 

Jamie King, was ultimately a victim of his own success.  He sold less than 10 subs cards, over the year at £25 each.  When the recession hit, I did a radical and controvertial move.  Exercising my powers, I slashed the price of all subs cards to just "£10 each", thinking parents would not be able to afford the cost - I was wrong but still I felt it was the moral thing to do.  I raised in excess of £1,500 in less than 2 days.  Rumour had it that Holland Hall had calculated high amounts of savings and priced cards at £50 each the following year.  Pressure from my committee pushed me to charge £25 per card the following year.

I was the first President to order actual cards for each student, rather than just keeping records alone.  I asked Treasurer Scott Wilson and Summer Ball Organiser and Charity Rep Oliver Murley to find some deals for us.  I was taken aback by their speedy success.  I passed on the information to our publicist Johanna Bennett, who used drafts I had made to inspire her to design the incredibly attractive cards, shown below:





 Summary

 

Future committees must follow in our footsteps to renew deals with restaurants and clubs to enable the best experience for the students.

Future students of Birks Grange and Moberly, take the logos, the ideas from the subs cards, for the hoodies and go forth and continue our legacy.  Send this link to your hall President.  Indeed, much is to come.  My story has not yet even begun.  For the Birks Village Committee, take the Birks Grange Logo.  Add something into the other two yellow spaces to define your own hall and make it yours but unify the halls.  Keep an eye out for my experiences on how to run a hall committee, the challenges you might face, how to deal with them, my mistakes and successes.  Contact me if you need any help.

I wish you all the best.

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