Student Soapbox: I have a feeling we’re not on campus anymore

Being booted out of halls is met with an air of heady optimism by most second-years. The excitement of living in your own house brings with it many promises: no more 5am fire alarms, or buses on nights out, and the glowing prospect of 24 hour greasy takeaways on your doorstep.

Leamington Spa, famed for the medicinal qualities of its water, is generally where most ‘returners’ end up. Ordained with a ‘Royal’ prefix in 1838 by Queen Victoria, today it is home to over a quarter of Warwick University students.

One may wonder why students are attracted to live over ten miles from campus, in what is essentially a seaside town without a coast. Perhaps it is an outpouring of architectural angst after a year of enduring Warwick’s somewhat Stalinist structures that makes students yearn for white façades and Georgian terraces.

[pullquote style=”left” quote=”dark”]Bills, boilers and buses are enough to drive most students to the brink.[/pullquote]

The reality of escaping ‘the Bubble’ is far from the halcyon image presented at first glimpse. Bills, boilers and buses are enough to drive most students to the brink.

Particularly when said bus drives past without you, making you miss your appointment with that cruel mistress, the 9am seminar. Catching a coy smile from the driver leaving you stranded is an effective alternative to caffeine to get you pumping in the morning.

Shelling out £300 for the privilege of standing on a bus makes you feel like a mug; and, ironically, one comes free with your bus pass (for a limited time only). As for landlords, the less said the better – this is a sensitive time in the world of press standards.

There is a strong North-South divide in Leamington, with the mainly student Southern areas categorised as ‘ghettos’ by some townsfolk. Such territory is marked out by ambiguous pools of vomit and recycling bins full of last night’s misdeeds.

Of course there are some advantages: it only takes five minutes to walk to the queue for your favourite nightclub now. Plus you can also occasionally see Sammy, Warwick’s former Big Issue vendor, flogging his wares to the rallying cry of “Scooby-dooby-doo, buy the Big Issue.”

It is hard not to miss the perks of campus life, whether that is rolling out of bed five minutes before a lecture, or having water, gas, electricity and even internet sorted out for you by a higher being.

In the end, however, what you will truly miss is being able to wander the corridors of halls at any hour of the day to say hi to someone. Despite 14% of residents in Leamington Spa being full-time students, the sense of community on campus is difficult to replicate amongst the disparate student populace of Leamington.