Let’s be real, the Piazza is utter shite

Who'd have thought it? An inanimate area of concrete has pissed me off. In case you haven't guessed, I'm easily annoyed. And the Piazza is my latest victim/target. That's right, I don't like the Piazza.

It's convenient, and can be great fun for things like Eurovision and the World Cup, and I loved being there for those events. But, unfortunately, other than that, it just gets in the way and is just a bit of a pain in the arse. And there's no denying that the Piazza is just shit. Here's why.

Can we get rid of the screen?

Please can I mute it?

I've been at Warwick for just over a year now, and, I'll be honest, I really don't understand the Big Screen. Most of the time it's on a continuous loop with glossy exciting videos showing us why Warwick is perfect, and why living in on-campus accommodation is the best thing you'll ever done. To be fair, they are pretty good propaganda videos. Sorry, did I say propaganda? I meant PR…. But they're consistently being played to students already at Warwick…. what on earth is the point? The music just drives you crazy and there's only a certain number of times you can hear that 'living in Warwick Accommodation changed my life'.

It's quite cool to be able to watch football and other events on the Big Screen, but other than for 90 minutes three or four times every couple of years, the mindless, endless content on the Big Screen is enough to drive us Warwick students crazy. Sit outside Curiositea or on the terrace of the Terrace Bar and you won't be able to last 5 minutes without it getting into your head and never, ever, ever leaving. So please, let's just turn it off.

It's just too bright

Don't forget your sunglasses!

Now, this might be a smaller or niche point, but the white Piazza stone (presumably mined from deep within the Coventry area?) is just too bright. It's almost blinding.

When I was a meek and unassuming sixth former, I visited an Open Day at Warwick, and remember the bright light of the Sun being reflected off of the Piazza stone and making the area much too bright to see around. This is just completely impractical for a university campus, I'm afraid, and actually makes it unpleasant to be there in the Sun in the summer, which is when it is nicest to be outside. Crazy, right?

The food market is really impractical

£8 for a couple halloumi fries? No thank you

As you may know, once a month, the local food market rolls down onto the Piazza. And there really is loads of good food – from pizza to pancakes, noodles to nougat, there's a bit of everything. But, I have two big problems with it.

Firstly, it's pretty expensive. It's good food, but a lot of it isn't worth the price. The falafel was okay, the brownies are too rich, the halloumi sticks are a bit much and the pizza is extortionate.

Secondly, the queues are just ridiculous. I'm British and so I do love a good queue, but this is just something else – potentially worse than Smack, I dare say.

If you want to eat anything there between 12 and 2 (aka lunchtime), you'll be waiting 25 minutes – at least. And if you want to eat something after 2 (aka a late lunch), well most of the stalls have run out of food or some have even gone. So really, unless you have all day to waste, you'd have to have a super early lunch at about 11:30 just so it doesn't take you half an hour to get to the front of the queue. Impractical, right?

Look, I'll be honest. The Piazza isn't a huge deal in my life. It doesn't keep me up at night (I'm looking at Juicy here). But it really bugs me when I have to walk past or through it, which is basically everyday I'm on campus.

It just gets in the way and actually offers very little, while creating a number of different issues. It's too bright, the screen pisses me off, and the food market is just very impractical. And that is why I don't like the Piazza.