My former hall of residence, Allen Hall, was not used this academic year and speaking to the accommodation office, I learnt that almost certainly it will remain shut for the next academic year too. It would be a shame to see the hall unused for another year as the building is quite nice with big sized bedrooms, large common areas and nice grounds.
The hall is divided into 4 buildings:
3 of which are residential: 3 floors each, 12 bedrooms per corridor and shared bathroom and kitchen.
1 hosts the common rooms: TV room, PC cluster, large chapel, student-bar, conference room, music room, canteen kitchen and dining area.
The location is ideal as it is on Wilmslow road, less then 5 minutes walk from Fallowfield, 20 minutes from University and 10 minutes from Victoria Park.
The residential buildings, after some refurbishment work, could become part of the SU run accommodation.
The Main building: could potentially be used as an extension of the Student Union, as it would have the advantage of being located inside the student community. It could be transformed into a possible venue in which societies could hold meetings and socials as an alternative to the Steven Biko building.
So what could be the function of the venue?
- A Student Bar (a combination between a bar/pub and a café) open for long hours and a perfect location for people to meet up with friends or catch up with some studying.
- Host a weekly club night using the entire building.
- There could be a ‘student restaurant‘ that could offer weekend brunch and weekday lunches (open to everyone, including MMU students who have one of theri campuses right in front of the hall).
- Open a student-run second hand shop.
One Reply to “The Allen Hall Project”