The A-Z of Durham lingo: Your guide to ‘JCR’, ‘Gilesgate’, and ‘SNK’

Starting at Durham (woo!) means learning more than just your course content — it also means picking up a whole new vocabulary. From “Billy B” to “bops” to “Cardiac Hill,” here’s a quick guide to the words and phrases that will soon be in your own personal dictionary.

Bailey

The area home to the “Bailey” colleges: Hatfield, Castle, St. Chad’s, St. Cuthbert’s, and St. John’s.

Billy B

An affectionate nickname for the Bill Bryson library – Durham University’s main library.

Bop

College based parties – often with dress-up themes and lively music.

Cardiac Hill

The hill between the Science Site and Mountjoy.

Claypath

The hill heading towards the Gilesgate roundabout. There are so many takeaway places on Claypath; plus, it’s right next to Spoons.

Doxbridge

A coping mechanism and portmanteau of Durham, Oxford, and Cambridge.

Durfess

An (actually very fun) online community for Durham-based confessions.

Easter

The name for the third term at Durham. Ironically, commences quite a bit after Easter.

Elvet Riverside

A place where baddies hang out (the lecture building for loads of arts and humanities students).

Epiphany

The second term in the Durham academic year. Not sure how many epiphanies will be had in this time.

Exec

The shortened name for the executives of a sport or society. This will include people like the president / captain, vice presidents, treasurers, publicity officers, social secs (social secretaries), and welfare officers.

Frep

Literally a Freshers’ rep. They help with ensuring your Freshers’ Week is as fun as possible by organising events, club nights, and icebreakers. Oh, and Freps are the ones who will escort you home from Freshers’ week when you’ve taken it a bit too far in Jimmy’s. Be nice to your freps!

Gilesgate

An area of Durham home to cool people and Big Tesco.

Grindur

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A Facebook group where LGBTQ+ students can submit love confessions or submit anonymous stories. See also: Tindur.

Hill

The name for the big hill where you will find colleges like Grey, Mary’s, John Snow, and Josephine Butler.

Hust

If you apply for an exec role, you will usually be required to make a short speech. This is called a hust.

JCR

Abbreviation for Junior Common Room. JCR can refer to physical space for undergrads and also a student representative body within a college.

Jobo

A name for Josephine Butler college. Used by everyone except people who go to Jobo, who insist we all say Butler.

Level

The word the Uni uses to refer to a year group. “Level one” is first year, et cetera.

Maiden Castle

Officially known as the Graham Sports Centre or Durham University Sport and Wellbeing Park, this is the name used colloquially to refer to Durham’s main sports centre.

Matriculation

The ceremony through which you are officially enrolled in the university.

MCR

Like JCR, MCR refers to both a space and a student representative body. This is the name for the space for / student body of postgraduate students.

Michaelmas

The rather cool name for Durham’s first academic term, between October and December.

Overheard

Overheard at Durham is an online space for both submissions of outrageous things people have heard others say at Durham and for things like selling items, selling train tickets, asking for participants for research, and for general questions and advice.

Prerequisites

Prerequisites are requirements for certain modules. For example, you may have to have taken another module in order to enrol in another.

Pres

The shortened name for a college or society president.

Pres

No, it’s not an error with my typing. “Pres” can also refer to wonderful activity of getting utterly slammed at someone’s house before you even leave for the bar or club. One can also pre at a bar, if the final destination is the club. Definitely the more fun “pres.”

SAC

A Serious Adverse Circumstance. This is a situation that impacts your learning or examinations in some way. In the event that you need special consideration because you’ve experienced difficult circumstances, you can submit a SAC form for consideration when undertaking assessments.

SCR

The same as a JCR and MCR, except this is for academic staff and fellows.

Sharepoint

Potentially the hardest to navigate website ever created (in our humble opinion) and home to lots of information about things like exams timetables, information about essays, and other resources.

SNK

Sunday Night Klute – the biggest event of the week at the nightclub Klute.

Spags

A loving name for the iconic La Spaghettata, the Italian restaurant beneath the perhaps even more iconic Fabio’s (Fab’s).

SRC

If you go to a cool college like Hild Bede, you may have an SRC, which stands for Student Representative Council. Instead of having a JCR, MCR, and SCR, Hild Bede has a single, unified body that represents all students within the college.

Stash

The name for the merch made by Durham societies and colleges. Includes items like the famed puffer jacket.

Stash drop

A stash drop refers, unsurprisingly, to the drop of the stash. Whenever college or society merch goes on sale, this is called a “stash drop.” These often last a limited amount of time and usually only happen every term.

Tilly C

Inspired by the “Billy B” nickname, Tilly C refers to the Teaching and Learning Centre – a space for independent and group study as well as lectures and teaching.

Tindur

Like Grindur, Tindur is a Facebook community where people submit anonymous confessions. To have a Tindur written about you is an honour most Durham students dream of.

Ultra / Blackboard

The online portal that the university uses for uploading teaching resources and marks.

Ustinov

An urban legend. Nobody has ever seen it. (The postgraduate college near Sheraton Park).

Viaduct

The loving name for the student housing by the viaduct and train station.

Now you know your bops from your pres and your Freps from your Grindur! Welcome to Durham, where the slang is almost as important as the lectures.