Murano Street halls: Long live the true king of student accommodation

We love to hate it


Murano is a heaving dump that we all love to hate.

From flat parties that are shut down due to ceiling panels falling in, to foxes moaning for a mate in the night, Murano certainly is a very interesting place to spend your first year of Glasgow Uni life.

There’s never a dull moment

When Obi-Wan Kenobi took Luke Skywalker to Mos Eisley for the first time, he described it as a “wretched hive of scum and villainy”. Although it’s safe to say that there aren’t many bounty hunters getting shot up in the Central Services Building, Murano is certainly full of interesting characters. Where else would you see fire performers dancing around the street at 11 o’clock in the evening or booze-fuelled students attempting to climb shaky Sanctuary Students scaffolding at three in the morning?

But it’s not all fun and games

Not everyone is cut out for the Murano life…

However, it’s not all fun and games at Murano, as anyone who has had to attempt the walk to Uni will know. The dreaded Murano steps are enough to strike fear into the heart of even the bravest of adventurers. It’s rumoured that upon his visit to Glasgow, Bear Grylls once was overheard saying: “Out of all the challenges I’ve faced in my life, there’s two that stand out. A night sleeping inside a camel’s carcass in the Sahara and attempting to make my way up all the stairs to Murano Street on the way back from Byres Road.” Grylls managed to survive overnight in the Sahara but required Sanctuary’s assistance to make it up the final bout of stairs after he had ran out of water.

It’s not really that bad, though

It’s all good fun though…

Aside from the fact that the street itself is usually covered with rubbish and relics from nights out at the weekend, Murano really isn’t that bad. The social buzz is amazing and there are always parties to be found on pretty much every day of the week. Why spend extra on the fancy hotel that is Firhill or the luxury lands of Queen Margaret Residences when you can live in your own little apocalypse. This being said, I love living in Murano and when given the opportunity to leave, I turned it down, despite the fact I’ve had to deal with countless meetings with accommodation services, Sanctuary and even the police.

People Make Murano

It’s said that ‘”People Make Glasgow'” but in reality, People Make Murano. I was really nervous when coming up to Glasgow: moving 460 miles away to the other side of the United Kingdom and knowing absolutely nobody. However, as soon as I met my flatmates, I knew that Glasgow, and specifically Murano, was the place for me. Living in a 10-person flat does have its problems: the kitchen often looks like the remains of Hiroshima and the loud music of a 5am afters is often fairly grim but I wouldn’t trade it in for the world.

Even a single bed is big enough for four

Basically, pick Murano

To anybody thinking of applying to Glasgow Uni, I would highly recommend picking Murano as your student accommodation. Although it often feels similar to the zombie-infested world of The Walking Dead, at least it’s full of the living rather than the desolate graveyard of Firhill Court round the corner or Wolfson Halls (yeah, I hadn’t heard of it either until a few weeks ago).

If you can cope with a bit of rubbish, a series of horrifying fire alarms that burst your eardrums at 6am when Sanctuary decide that’s the best time or when a mysterious fire alarm smasher is scuttling about the wide range of parties on offer, and you don’t mind the odd morning spent walking past a small pile of somebody’s vomit left over from Saturday night, Murano is the place for you.

Long live the true king of student accommodation.