We snooped around the slickest cribs in Exeter

Their halls have a private cinema

9 years ago

Upstaging Holland Hall sounds like an impossible coup. The shining jewel on Cardiac is without doubt the apex of ritzy fresher living, where water becomes wine and Exeter becomes Exetah.

Few Holland Hallers could imagine city life being anything but a stoop down from the palace’s balconied heights, but that trustfund won’t dry out anytime soon. We’ve sourced the best student pads in town, and they blow Holland out of the water.

Picturehouse Apartments

The accommodation is carefully designed to minimise study distractions

Armed with a private cinema, ground floor gym and swish studio apartment on Sidwell Street, postgrad Jespreet Virk confesses to blowing £100 a week at Waitrose – despite Tesco Express being next door.

Residents of the luxury accomomodation pay a dirt cheap £190 a week – almost twice as much as an average landlord let. 20-year-old resident Casey Chan believes Picturehouse is “nice but not amazing”, and doesn’t make use of the facilities.

Jespreet is considering joining the local gym, as it’s better than the one on the ground floor.

Neighbours aren’t always there for one another in Picturehouse. Jespreet once walked into the shared cinema room to a cold greeting from a hallmate who was annoyed that she had disturbed her film.

When shown photos of an eight-person house, whose tenants pay 60% less than her, the 22-year-old said it “didn’t look clean”.

Of the eight bed Jespreet said: “The way they’re living is really bad…I have a bad perception of people who are not clean”

Where is the cinema?

They don’t need to pay 50p

Archibald Road

Living the high life are Lord Theo Ronay (yes, you read that title correctly) and Ollie O’Carroll. They’re often sighted from the streets below pondering their superiority and playing “spot the pleb”.

Theo is the grandson of pioneering food critic Egon Ronay, and will judge your caviar like Katie Hopkins judges overweight children.

Ollie looks on his way to getting sponsored by Ralph Lauren, spent £80 in Unit 1, and once gave his debit card to a homeless man.

You can’t sit with us

When they’re not drinking Kahlúa on the rocks, the pair can be heard playing Fifa on their 100″ projector and driving around town in a BMW 3 Series.

Don’t let it mar your perceptions of the duo though: they’re hard-working, honest people. Theo wants to be an investment banker.

The housemates modestly describe their terrace as “reem as fuck”

Iron Bridge Studios

When they’re not having BBQs in the courtyard, Harut and his hallmates “play video games and shit”

Labelling his £169-per-week studio apartment “pretty nice”, Harut Avenyan from Armenia told me how much he spends per week.

“Depends on the week”, he murmured as he sipped on a stainless steel coffee cup. “£80-90. You mean grocery shopping, right?”

Poor quality net and the stools are too high 1/10

He’s a stone’s throw from Mosaic, and his accommodation includes a courtyard, common room ft. table tennis table, and a reception desk.

“They have everything essential you need in the office,” he said. “Like, everything – football pumps, wine openers”.

Ritzy, but the oven’s a tough reach from the desk

Although he’s lived in studio accommodation for two years, the 19-year-old fancies living in a house next year.

He predicts it “will not really be different” to Iron Bridge, “as long as everything is neat, it’s fine.”