Hillside Woodside: An experience of a Bristol accommodation housing 35

Freshers’ halls are always a luck of the draw, and I truly did get lucky. However, not everyone would see it that way. I lived in Hillside Woodside, a large, beautiful, haunted-looking house over Clifton Suspension Bridge, with 34 housemates. Our house has been called an “urban myth” and ‘pure hell’ by many, yet my friends and I had the time of our lives.

Hillside Woodside is one of the cheapest accommodations for Bristol students, with two small kitchens and six shared bathrooms. The uni bus goes nowhere near the site and the public bus is a 15 minute walk, meaning if the bridge closed due to storms, which it often did, we were forced into hour-long walks into town or waiting for buses that never came. So, a lot of people have been shocked when my friends and I have told them we wouldn’t change a thing. 

Firstly, of course, it is the people who make your fresher experience what it is, and the freshers of 2024 brought a lot of wonderful people. Isolated as we were, we came together, freshers commencing with a lot of 6am afters in our living room. All those tedious factors this accommodation entailed quickly became hilarious. Even the long walks back in the sopping rain over the bridge from town became an anecdote for a good night out. 

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Our house parties quickly came to earn a name for our house amongst our year group (if I do say so myself). They were unbelievable, everyone spilling out across the garden and exploring our three floors. Even now, everyone I meet in Bristol either attended one of our parties or knows someone who did. 

My favourite event of Hillside Woodside was our very own Christmas. Exams had just finished, and we were halfway through our first year. It was tacky decorations, tables pushed against one another, a day of cooking endless dishes and a hundred toasts to our house.

Living in such a huge place with so many people, there were also pranks. Once we spent hours Post-it Noting someone’s room. Another time, the floor of my room was covered, every inch, in cups filled with water. The same day, my housemate’s room was tinfoiled, and I mean everything: Keys, bedding, pyjamas, light switches. Best of all was one room being filled to the brim with balloons so you could hardly move. 

Out of all, I think my favourite part of Hillside Woodside was the community. No matter what time it was or where in the house, someone was about. It was late-night chats and movie nights in the living room and classic drinking games. It was all of us cramming for exams in the dining room, surrounded by engineering students doing kettle experiments. At the same time, takeaway food was divvied out and we concentrated our efforts on distracting one another. The joys of immense domestic immaturity. 

The summer here was beautiful too; birthday parties in the beautiful garden, some of us having a kickabout and the others sunbathing. Sometimes we’d walk over to Ashton Court to see the deer in the sun. Once, we even did a sleepover in the living room, dragging all our mattresses downstairs together. 

 The event season marked the end of our year together and was all we could’ve asked for. I remember a lot of talk about how we already missed it when it wasn’t even over. Our friendships were celebrated and rekindled before even the stages of Winestock.

So, whilst many commend me for the strength it took to live in that old isolated house, I couldn’t be more grateful. I truly did love our house. The great windows, the cobbled walls, the proximity to Clifton, the high ceilings and the peace of always knowing your friends are always just there, whenever.