Accommodation
Peterhouse is one of the colleges of the University that can guarantee you college accomodation for all years of your course, if you want it. All colleges (I think) will accomodate you for a 3 year course, but NOT all will accomodate you for 4 year courses. Peterhouse does.
The general pattern is for first years to live in specialised accomodation in the gardens of college so they get to know each other very quickly. Third years (mostly final year students) generally get to live in the ancient college buildings themselves - a real once in a lifetime opportunity - while second and fourth years live in college owned houses nearby.
The college owned accomodation is a huge benefit of coming to study at Cambridge, as you never have to deal with an external landlord as you would after your first year at other universities. This could lead to something of a sheltered existance, but it's great not to have to worry things like that. Also you only pay rent while you're in Cambridge, so you're not paying for your accomodation while you're on vacation back home or elsewhere. This can make Cambridge significantly cheaper than other universities, meaning your student loan budget can stretch to some very nice accomodation compared to your friends elsewhere! It does mean, however, that college sometimes lets out student rooms to visiting academics and conference guests over the holidays so you have to pack all your stuff away and can't just drop in outside term when you feel like it.
The first year rooms Peterhouse provides are in a single area of college, so all the first years (freshers) get together and build up a great community spirit.
The first year accomodation is in two builidings; a row of 7 large terraced houses (Saint Peter's Terrace, or almost universally know as SPT in college) and a mini tower block (the William Stone Building, likewise always called WSB).
Saint Peter's Terrace
An average room in SPT >>>
Each of the seven houses that make up SPT have between 7 and 15 rooms for first year undergraduates. The rooms vary between slightly larger than average for first year halls in UK universities to much, much larger, and are very well looked after. There seems to be a rolling scheme of redecoration in SPT, with each house being repainted in turn over the summer vacations - so there's a good chance you'll have a newly renovated room to move into! It has been said that Peterhouse has the best undergraduate accomodation in Cambridge, and first years certainly get some very nice rooms.
There are normally 2 kitchens (called 'Gyp Rooms' in Cambridge jargon) and 2 to 4 bathrooms shared between the residents of each house. This seems to work quite well, as there's rarely a queue for the bathroom in the morning - probably as the houses seem to be balanced between arts and science students, so some get up at 8am and some never seem to be out of bed! The kitchens are small but useful; most of your meals will probably be eaten in Hall so the kitchens are mostly used for snacks and the odd quick lunch. The kitchen is also a natural place to catch up with your housemates and have a chat.
Some rooms have wash basins, but the majority don't. As far as I know, there aren't any en-suite rooms in SPT either, but normally the bathroom is just a few paces across the landing so that doesn't really matter.
William Stone Building
<<< A room in WSB (not average, they all look like this!)
The William Stone building has 8 floors, each with 4 student rooms, a kitchen and a bathroom (with a real bath - some SPT bathrooms only have showers!) While it might seem an ugly second rate building compared to the homely style of SPT, the rooms are a good size and the facilities are excellent. Every room has wash basin, and above the 3rd floor you get some pretty impressive views over the fens behind college. Some people in SPT would also remark that the best thing about living in WSB is that you don't have to look at WSB, but the views really are impressive.
The small groups of four with a shared bathroom and kitchen make WSB like a true block of flats, and if you get on well with your flatmates it can be a really nice place to live. Each floor/flat has it's own front door, which makes the building nice and secure but can make it awkward for visitors as you have to let them in on the intercom.
View from a room in WSB
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