Here’s what it’s actually like to live in Grand Central

The prospect of moving out of your home to student halls really is an exciting one. You can come in and out when you like, without your parents watching over you like a hawk, and your room can be as messy as you want without anyone complaining.

With what seems like every other building in Liverpool being some sort of student accommodation, you hope you picked the right one when you came to the open day when you were a naive sixth former. But almost a year later and you’re in Grand Central wondering exactly what drew you to the narrow corridors and paper thin walls.

But I guess it’s not all that bad.

Welcome to Grand Central

Location, Location, Location

You could argue Grand Central is probably one of the best located halls in Liverpool. Right in the centre of town and just a five minute walk to most uni buildings, it allows you to be that lazy student you’ve always wanted to be. It still doesn’t stop people ordering their weekly shop to be delivered though, like seriously, Aldi and Tesco is literally a minute down the road?

It’s even possible to start getting used to hearing the tannoy from the train station through the window. Your mate from home doesn’t even have to text you that they’ve arrived in Liverpool, Julie on the microphone lets you know “The 17.54 train from Birmingham has just arrived at platform 8.”

Not a bad view hey

The lift

You may think living in a building with 12 floors fulfils your city life dream, but believe me, when your flat is on the 9th floor and the lift decides to stop working, you wish you never started uni in the first place. You’ve come back from a 9am lecture and all you need is your midday nap, but you realise the lift is broken and a little bit inside of you dies. There is no other option but to climb the stairs, which is basically the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest, and all you can do is hope you don’t pass someone on the stairs whilst your panting like a dog searching for an inhaler you don’t even own. Just a little tip, take a sit down break on every other floor, it helps.

That moment you realise the lift isn’t working

Free food in the common room

Unless your a sports fan or enjoy the odd game of pool, the only time you’ll really spend in the common room is when you’re collecting your latest clothes order from reception. However, every so often, you’ll get an email telling you there is free pizza or cake. But hey, you deserve it, you’re just about to walk up nine flights of stairs.

Cheers Grand Central

Grand Central, more like Party Central

If you’re looking for a good party, you’ve come to the right place. You can almost guarantee there will be a flat party going on somewhere every night in Grand Central, and as long as you’ve got booze, you’re invited. People come from far and wide for a good Grand Central party, but in the words of Drake, they come for a good time, not a long time. AKA, they come for the party and never return again, shocker.

Love a good pre at GC

The Curtains

The sight of the curtains are enough to make your stomach turn. Those poorly designed pieces of fabric against the monotone beige walls really is a little distressing. For the amount of money we pay you’d think they could bring in some decent interior designers.

The very well designed curtains

Security are life 

I take my hat off to the guys who sit on the security desk every night watching every other drunk student stumble past them. If your music is ‘too loud’ they’ll come and pay you a visit and use their Scouse charm to ask you to turn it down nicely, and how can you say no to that? Truth is, I bet they didn’t even get a complaint, they just wanted to get down to some drum and bass with you.

The noise comes from everywhere

You want a quiet night in? Think again. The walls may as well not even be there, you can literally hear the guy in the room next to you sneeze. Oh, and if someone at the other end of the corridor shuts a door, expect it to feel like theres a mini earthquake in your bed.

Want to sleep past 8am? Well you can’t. Just because you’re nocturnal, doesn’t mean people with real life jobs are, so building work on the site at the bottom of the road starts just as you begin to hit a deep sleep. Cheers Mr workman.

The building work that wakes us up every morning 🙂

The electrics

You’ve woken up late for a lecture, and all you want is a piece of toast to get you through. Well good luck, because the toaster no longer works and all of your bread is frozen. Three toasters later and maybe this one won’t cut off the electrics, you hope…

Toaster why do you do this to me?

There is definitely pros and cons to living in Grand Central, the pros you may just have to dig a little deeper for. There are some days when you come back from your mates, living in what seems to be 5* accommodation made out of actual bricks, with a stove big enough for more than two pans, where you wish you had picked somewhere else to live. But when you really think about it, (think about it hard), there is no where else you would have wanted to spend first year.