The reality of living in Dorchester House

It’s certainly not the Ritz of Lansdowne for sure


The residents of Dorchester House don’t always get the best reps. It’s seen as almost the dumping ground for the big spenders of Bournemouth first years, with its modern interiors and expensive rent payments. But living here is not all the glitz and glamour that it may seem.

Location

Whilst Dorch is good for rolling out of bed and into the ASDA maccies, living directly opposite the train station has its pros and cons. Pros being you don’t have to trek under the subway to catch your 7am train home, and cons being the fact you make sure you don’t have anything fragile near the windows as the force of the trains going by is sure to make anything start to shake and fall. If you’re lucky enough to live in block D, you’re also graced with living above the More Bus station where you can be woke to the sounds of angry drivers revving their engines every morning at 4am without fail. We truly are the lucky ones.

Those late night or early morning treks to the shops

Facilities

Although they’re probably better than the Cranborne benches, a night on the sofa will most definitely lead to you never being able to look at a sofa again in the same way. The absolute bricks that are the Dorchester House sofas have actually been said to be the most uncomfortable form of seating known to man. #Fact.

There’s always one who leaves their washing in the machine all day long. With their being very limited numbers of working machines anyways, someone always has to put their clothes in before a day out and not return for them in the next 24 hours.

If the machines aren’t already full, you’re guaranteed to find a pair of socks that definitely aren’t yours when you pick it all back up. (Or a clump of hair if you’re having a good day).

Being on the top floor is basically asking to sweat to death and you can guarantee its not gonna get any cooler when you can only open your window by a centimeter.

Whilst the block is pretty modern you better pray nothing stops working as the maintenance guys are nowhere to be seen after 5pm.

Sorry but Kemo is currently unavailable

When you do spot them its often them finding you trying to bring in the road signs again. Sorry Phillip, you’re always on the night shift…

Despite all this, Dorch is a pretty good place to live. The Res staff have always got something going on and the guys working aren’t on your backs even when you are being a total prat and being sick in the smoking are or have lost your keys again at Cameo. Plus the lift has banging selfie lighting!