5 Bedroom House at 2, Crofton Street, manchester

Worst accommodation I have ever lived in. Not even close. If you happen to get the last ensuite room in a flat, congratulations — your bed (which is fixed and cannot be moved) is placed directly against the wall of another flat’s kitchen. This means you can hear EVERYTHING. Every conversation. Every laugh. Every cupboard door opening and slamming shut. Whenever someone grabs a bowl and closes the cabinet, the wall next to your head literally shakes like a small earthquake. People often stay in the kitchen and common area until late at night, and a single burst of laughter is enough to wake you up. The most frustrating part is that management simply doesn’t care. When I reported the noise, security came upstairs. By pure luck, the other flat happened to be quiet at that exact moment, so security marked the report as “No Noise Detected.” Apparently, if people stop making noise for five minutes, months of disturbance magically never happened. I then emailed management explaining the situation in detail. Instead of taking the issue seriously or even showing basic sympathy, I received a response that felt dismissive, sarcastic, and completely unhelpful. The message essentially boiled down to: “Security said there was no noise, so stop complaining.” The building itself has a serious design flaw, yet residents are treated as though they are the problem for pointing it out. Paying hundreds of pounds a month to lose sleep, be woken up by another flat’s kitchen, and then be mocked when you ask for help is not what anyone should expect from student accommodation. I would strongly recommend that future students avoid booking the end ensuite rooms, or better yet, look elsewhere entirely.

I've been here long enough to write an honest and completely transparent review of this accommodation Room Quality 1.5/5 - The desks are extremely small, not ideal for students. There are no study spaces here either. - The chair provided is basically a plastic school chair - physically painful. - You hear everything above you, all the footsteps and chairs. - You hear everything next door to you, all the flatmates speaking, snoring, laughing or cooking. And they hear you. - There is a good amount of storage space - The bathroom is smaller than a plane bathroom - The extractor vent in the shower doesn’t work for anyone. - As fancy and tall as the building looks, you might just end up with a room with a window view of a wall or someone else's window. - The flat door is extremely loud. Good luck sleeping in after a night out or on weekends. - You’ll hear loud ambulance sirens a few times a day Location & Surroundings 4/5 - You’re very close to campus, which is good - However, the walk to and from Grafton Street can feel dodgy, as it’s the same walk as where many homeless people stay near Morrisons. Social Experience 0/5 - Difficult to make friends here, a lot of people agree - 0 social spaces, staff don't arrange social events either, they don't care - There's a large roof platform at the accom but residents are not allowed to hangout there, complete waste of a massive space. It is painted like a playground too, but used for nothing. (pictures attached) - Most Sanctuary Student locations are student-friendly and host events/parties. Grafton Street does none of that. - Sometimes, UoM student's don't mix well with MMU students - Grafton Street is a mix of both students combined in one. - Most students here keep to themselves. Kitchen 1/5 - This is your only communal area and it's such wasted potential. It’s a large room, but the cooking area (most important part of the kitchen) is tiny. If someone is cooking, you have to squeeze in or wait. - Eating in the kitchen is basically impossible. The stools are ridiculously high, you'll get scoliosis trying to eat on those. (pictures attached) Staff 0/5 - Staff are grumpy, rude, and miserable. It's clear as day that they only work for the money and could not care less about the residents. - Room maintenance sometimes happens, they are supposed to leave a slip/notify when entering, but if nobody answers the door, they'll simply just come in and leave without a trace. - Parcels are often left out in the open on the floor, making them easy to steal whichever you fancy. - Esme seems okay, but Nigel just seems miserable and careless. - Staff very rarely will arrange a social event, but don't worry, it will not happen. - Massive lack of passion and very lazy, if you're a person who enjoys Halloween, Christmas, etc, you won't feel the vibe here. It's miserable and corporate. - Shamelessly giving out expired food/drink My Personal Experiences - This might genuinely be borderline illegal but sometimes the staff give out freebies for drinks, and many people have realised they are expired by over a year. Giving out expired drinks to young students? - When we moved in, the bins weren't emptied. They had old leftovers covered in mould. - We had infestations, but staff refused to help, and tried to fine us (as if we’re qualified pest control). - A large lack of cleaning equipment, had to spend a lot of money to clean up after the last people and often after my own flatmates - Flatmates are a hit or miss, you can either have some okay ones, or ones that'll give you headaches no in between - My friends have been warned not to socialise on the big platform area? Overall, as I said this is definitely not an accommodation that is ideal for students - ESPECIALLY if you're looking for a good uni experience, this is not the place for that. (Coming from someone who lived in Whitworth Park for a year). For the price, you're only paying for the location, nothing else. It somehow makes me miss the trenches of Whitworth Park.

Worst accommodation I have stayed in. The bathroom is unbelievably small and so are the bedrooms (see photos). They look nothing like they do on the Sanctuary Students website. Terrible build quality. The walls are paper thin and you can hear every cough, sneeze and phone call conversations all day and night. Every door slams shut. I was put in with an awful flatmate who played computer games all night whilst shouting and screaming at his computer. The staff did absolutely nothing to help me despite numerous complaints. The building was full so I was unable to change rooms. My room was directly opposite the hospital which constant ambulance sirens all day and night. It was impossible to sleep and impossible to concentrate while studying. I was forced to find alternative accommodation because I could not bear the living conditions any longer and the staff offered me no compensation at all. Some days were so bad that I often stayed in the Premier Inn across the street, particularly during exam periods. The staff came across as rude when I asked for help in reception. The building really smells as there is no circulation of air and there are large areas of the flat with no windows at all. This building is built for profit, not for students.

Lack common areas for residents to hang out or do their schoolwork in. Bathrooms for an en-suite room are small. But considering its price, the place has a pretty nice cost performance ratio.

Someone kidnapped me in order to give me a fine dining experience. Would do again. Accom nice. Bathroom pitiful.