What your Exeter second year house says about you

The prison or the Co-op? You choose

| UPDATED

Freshers, you’ve just gone through the turmoil of picking a house for next year. The broken friendships, chaos and inevitable flatmate your dreading to live with are all in the past. You can’t wait to have your very own house next year. So, here’s your guide, or rather warning, of what’s to come. Second years buckle up for a truthful analysis of your humble abodes.

Vic Street

The so-called "it" road of Exeter student housing, notorious among freshers as the road they "have to live on". Unfortunately freshers, if you’ve chosen to live here next year, you have, like the best of us, fallen for "the curse of Vic Street".

What seemed so ideal due to its proximity to campus, notoriety as a social hub and the Vic pub, in reality consists of ridiculously thin walls, constant screaming and egging of houses that leave little to be desired.

Image may contain: Window, Home Decor, Brick

The egging of a Vic Street window that needs professional cleaning

What will your neighbours be like? Expect to live next to the loudest people you have ever met and prepare to become just as unbearably loud as them. Who knew shouting “GOOD MORNING VIC STREET,” after a TP Wednesday, at 8am, could feel so liberating?

What to expect: Aside from mould, bad plumbing and noise, waking up to a bag of faeces on your doorstep and slugs coming up your bath plug, become a weekly occurrence. And how can we forget the mattress and bath tub that lived on the road for weeks?

Image may contain: Bathtub, Tub

Theyre everywhere!

Quotes from Residents

“It resembles hell after a night out.”

“My housemate had to flush the toilet seven times to get rid of her poo. The plumbing is that bad.”

Image may contain: Shutter, Curtain, Window, Home Decor

What a lovely sight to wake up to!

Despite its unappealing exterior and the lack of sleep you’ll experience, anyone that lives on Vic Street is secretly, weirdly proud to live there. At the end of the day, the Vic pub, Saunders and the sociable aspect of it are what gives this road its reputation.

Image may contain: Bathroom, Indoors, Room, Shower Faucet

Safe to say, we quickly changed our shower head…

Pennsylvania Road

The big dog of Exeter roads, that links everyone, to everything. And how can you tell if someone lives there? Just like vegans, they’ll manage to squeeze it into every conversation. It’s probably in their Instagram bio. If not, they definitely have a house Insta where they bang on about how amazing living there is. “Did you know we have the co-op on our road?” Yes. You’ve told us a million times.

What will your neighbours be like? Mainly students who are too lazy to live any farther away from campus.

What to expect? Daily rituals of popping into the Co-op for milk and returning with three packs of Doritos, two dips, five varieties of cheese and two bottles of wine and proceeding to persuade yourself that you’ve had a hard day and deserve it.

However, the luxuries only go as far as the convenience of the Co-op, with more stories of egging houses, throwing condoms of urine and the contents of bins over back gardens, put Penny Road in competition with Vic Street for the dirtiest road in Exeter.

Image may contain: Shoe, Pants, Footwear, Brick, Human, Person, Apparel, Clothing

Attempting to return the condom of urine to its rightful owner

Quotes from Residents

“Too many boys.” – A female resident.

“Full of gorgeous alpha males.” – A male resident.

Despite all of this, the houses are generally enormous and location is ideal. The Co-op will inevitably become your best friend who you depend on all the time. Bad day? Co-op. Good day? Co-op.

Image may contain: Window, Door, House, Nature, Rural, Shelter, Countryside, Outdoors, Building, Housing, Person, Human

So close, yet so far

Longbrook Road

The proximity to town nearly makes up for people chucking their leftover takeaway in your front garden. Don’t bother doing a food shop – you can just eat their leftovers from the night before. Besides the advantage of living a minute away from town, there’s not much else to say.

Image may contain: Sneaker, Running Shoe, Person, Human, Shoe, Footwear, Apparel, Clothing

Any drunk person's worst nightmare

Danes Road

You’ve decided to live next to a prison. – smart move. Look forward to news of prisoners escaping and the sound of them laughing in their recess sessions.

Image may contain: City, Road, Street, Town, Building, Neighborhood, Urban, Car, Vehicle, Transportation, Automobile

Yes, it really is that close

What will your neighbours be like? Generally, an area for third years who want to escape the rowdiness of the Penny Road area, so if you’re a second year living here, you’re probably a bit boring.

What to expect? This year there was a guy who thought he was a DJ and would perform a daily set that was sure to wake up half of the road. In addition, having to endure conversations resembling:

“Where do you live?”

“Danes Road.”

“Where’s that?”

“The prison."

“Oh.”

Image may contain: Soil, Trash, Art, Painting, Bag, Plastic Bag, Plastic

Expect a few dead pigeon in your back garden

Quote from a Resident

“The best location in Exeter, but apparently not cool enough for BNOCs”.

Despite the downfall of living next to a prison, the road is ultimately in an ideal location, only five minutes from both town and campus.

Mount Pleasant

The Point Exe of second year housing. Seriously, how late did you leave house hunting? It’s so far away, you may as well wave those 8:30's goodbye. Constant complaining about how far away you live, whilst at the same time reassuring yourself that it's not that far, will become your routine conversation with yourself and fellow residents. Let’s all take a moment to think of the unfortunate ones.

Springfield Road

Image may contain: Building, Urban

Blame it all on the seagulls.

The picture says it all really. Generally, just as messy as Vic Street, but a lot quieter with slightly nicer houses. Sadly, the combination of seagulls and drunk housemates make waking up to what resembles a landfill for a back garden, no surprise. Furthermore, the fact that your gardens face onto Vic Street gardens, mean that privacy will become a thing of the past.

Some honourable mentions

Don't worry we didn't forget you Hillsborough Avenue, Powderham Crescent and Edgerton Park Road! You are the fortunate ones. Situated just off Penny Road, you privileged few, experience the perks of having the best location but with little noise and mess. Especially Powderham, your houses are practically mansions, that make the rest of us look like we live in boxes. Finally, Union Road, we get it, you have free parking! It's really not that ground-breaking.

In all honesty, wherever you end up, you'll insist is the best road in Exeter.