Opal Gardens

Opal Gardens now 'Manchester Gardens' is located in the nice student area of 'Victoria Park' which has some of the nicest Student accomnodation for the uni. The location is great in general term as it's located directly along a bus route and not too far from uni. However the bus '50' which currently run along there can be extremely unreliable . It's a good day when the bus arrives to schedule or 10mins late. I've too many times had to wait up to 30-40mins for the bus and most times it's quicker to just walk the 15-20mins journey to uni. The rooms were great, single or double rooms with ensuite where you only had to share kitchens with between 2-4 other students. Quite mixed in terms of the number of undergraduate and post graduate students. I wouldn't say the social life was up to par. This was mostly due to the fact that the hall was 'uncatered'. The only real common space was a common room which had a couple of games and a ping pong table. This was only really used during freshers week and was abandoned in the months after. You're more likely to find a resident hosting an event for a uni society there than you were to find a group of hall residents just chilling there. However, the ResLife and RA did put on some decent events and trip every so often.

My experience in opal gardens so far has been great. The room is fairly big for one person and includes an ensuite. The kitchen is also very big. I would of liked it if each cabinet had a lock or something since there is always someone who uses my things and leaves it dirty or eats my food. It's slightly frustrating living with individuals who just don't care sometimes. These accommodations do not have WiFi and give you an Ecable which works pretty fast. I hated it at the start but it's actually not bad when because the common room and the computer room also have WiFi that you can connect to for free. The social aspect in opal gardens is the part I dislike. People are nice and he Res life group are lovely but it seems that there's really not much exciting things that happen down here

Location is decent. About twenty minute walk to the uni. There's a couple supermarkets nearby but none less than 10 minute walk. The bus that passes by it (50) is quite unreliable, specially later in the afternoon. The rooms are a good size, as well as the toilets and kitchens. The common room is quite good. It has a ping pong table, foosball table, a projector and sofas. It has good security and it is a quiet place.

This hall of residence is about 15 mins walk from the main uni campus! NO WIFI IN ROOMS!!!! ONLY ETHERNET which I found it extremely bad - students needs wifi right?! Quiet environment around the hall, so it gets quite dark at night which can be slightly scary for girls walking alone when it's dark. Quite a distance from the city centre, but easily accessible by bus. Room is decent, but kitchen needs to be refurbished soon - dont fool by the pics online, the hall doesn't look that good in reality. Small bathroom, but each room has a big table which is good for studying. No social life at hall, everyone was quite quiet. No shops nearby.

Nice area, excellent security, maintenance problems fixed quickly. However, it's insanely overpriced considering the facilities, and for university accommodation to not have Wi-Fi is absolutely ridiculous.

Room is quite big compared to most; the bathroom is okay but wetroom layout isn’t ideal. Also the ventilation in it is poor so you have to constantly dry the walls to prevent mold from building up. The kitchen has everything you need to function, common room is decent for the amount of people in a flat. The social life isn’t very good because every flat and block is closed off to only residents of that particular area- which is obviously safer but means less socializing in larger common rooms. Main problem is that there is no WiFi which is realllyyyy inconvenient especially if your Ethernet cable stops working. To use WiFi in a common room or kitchen you constantly have to have your laptop running or plugged in which is annoying. Laundry room is standard, security hut has very friendly people who are kind. Location to University is not awful, walking to University is convenient enough and keeps me more active than using a bus if I were further out.

Location is great, loads of good bars nearby and takeaways. Bit noisy, small rooms, old and dirty but good people

Decent sized rooms with an en suite, plenty of storage and good internet access. Lacks WiFi. Good common room but could do with more social events.

Very quiet location however good for study time and exams. Very good security and maintenance service.

Decent location about 15 minutes walk from main campus. Close to a few other halls but not nearby many shops apart from a Tesco petrol station.

Very old facilities in the kitchen and there was no Wi-Fi available except for Ethernet which is not worth for the price of rent, considering there is no full shower in the bathroom as well. However there was an efficient maintenance service, security and the wardens are very lovely and a lot of great events were organised for residents of Opal gardens.