Catherine House

Hello everyone! My name is Mikael. I've just finished my second year of Computer Science at the University of Portsmouth.

However during my first year, I actually stayed here in Catherine House. Catherine House is one of our newer halls and for that you're gonna be looking at a price of between £145 and £154 pounds a week, which is bills included and self-catered.

Catherine House itself is in a really good location within the city. As I turn the camera around, you can see that it's right next to Portsmouth & Southsea train station which means you have direct links into London St. Pancras and London Waterloo as well as in the other direction up to Cardiff. So that's really handy if you're wanting to go up and down the country and come home late you can just instantly come home and chill.

In terms of where it is in respect to our other halls, you can see Greetham Street is just up here, the big yellow building. Some of our other halls like Rosalind Franklin, Margaret Rule, are literally about five minutes around the corner. So you'll never be too far away from your friends, people on your course and that sort of thing.

In terms of shops, just around the corner is Commercial Road.  There you're gonna find things like Gregg's, Tesco, Matalan, Primark... whatever else you can need. That is literally all round here.

So in terms of location you're in a really good spot, right in the heart of the city, and realistically you're about 10-, 15-minutes away from any academic building you could want to get to as well. Portsmouth itself is rather compact so you're not gonna have a long commute to uni or anywhere else in the city.

So coming inside... we can head into the reception and you're immediately greeted with the reception desk. In terms of admin staff, they're here during working hours during the week. They're able to answer any questions you may have help with any issues or take in any parcels that you might have. 

In terms of post, every flat gets their own post box. But your bigger things like your parcels would just go to reception and you can collect them when you come home.

In terms of laundry, that's also located on the ground floor. That's literally just through this door here that the tour doesn't let me go in. But you've got plenty of washing machines and dryers, despite the amount of people that are in the building, there's enough machines to go around. The whole year that I was there
there wasn't really a time where I couldn't do my laundry because there wasn't enough machines. So you would always find time for doing your laundry and that sort of thing. 

Around the corner which I unfortunately can't go around on the tour, there is a pool table and a table tennis table, as well as a TV. Again these are for you to use anytime you could want and just through this window here, there's actually a small courtyard that events and that sort of thing are held throughout the year.

So I know when I first moved in the staff at The Student Housing Company brought in a bucking bronco as well as some free pizza. And around Christmastime they had an owl, all the reindeer that sort of thing out there which is really nice.

So if we head up into the bedrooms... This is what a standard bedroom is gonna look like in Catherine House. All the rooms are roughly identical. You might see there might be mirrors to the cupboards on one side but as a whole they all look exactly like this. 

So you get a small double bed, a nice pin board above your bed, as well as a pin board above your desk, which means you can put things like your photos on one side and your work on the other. You've also got plenty of plug sockets. Your under bed is entirely hollowed-out for storage so you can fit things like your suitcase under here so you can make good use of the space despite the tour making it look quite small. These rooms are actually relatively spacious.

In terms of space you've also got a full size wardrobe to hang up your clothes as well as a nice shelving unit here. You've also got a thermostat in each room, ethernet ports and light switches everywhere you could want. There's also a mirror here and coat hooks.

On this tour I can't actually go inside the bathroom, but you've got a shower cubicle that's newly kitted out. These halls were only open from 2017 and they're newly built so you're gonna get a relatively brand-new room that few people have ever stayed in. So you get a nice high quality at Catherine. You've also got things like a sink in there as well. But it's a really nice bathroom.

If we head out into the kitchen... This is what a flat will look like for six people. In Catherine you'll share between four and six so could be four, could be five, could be six bedrooms to the one kitchen. And for that you're gonna get two sets of ovens, grills and hobs as well as a microwave and plenty of cupboard space.

So as you might be able to see from the picture, every person gets a column, a cupboard space to themselves so you don't really have to fight over cupboard space and that sort of thing. You just know that this column is yours, this column is someone else's and it really sort of gives you that like, private space in a kitchen that you might not otherwise have. You also get a full-size fridge and a full-size freezer. 

As well as an extra bonus for Catherine, that not a lot of other halls have, is a TV. The TV is included as a part of your rent with a TV licence already paid for the kitchen. If you wanted a TV in your own room, the TV license would come as a separate thing so that's what you might have to think about.

Outside the windows you can just about see town outside. These windows are really soundproof. When I lived here I was on the second floor and there was construction across the road from me but the second I closed those windows I couldn't really hear any of it and I'm a relatively light sleeper. So... you don't have to worry about noise and that sort of thing too much.

And on the other side of the room you can see that these kitchens are really spacious. This tour doesn't really do it justice on the website, but you could easily fit 20-, 30- people in here without too many issues. And on our non-virtual Open Days we often do.

So if I head back down into reception... I should also touch on cleaning for the kitchen. In Catherine House you do not get a cleaner for your kitchen. That's something that you and your flatmates would have to sort out between you. But you're able to do that between you, it's a nice easy to clean kitchen, and you do get things like a mop, bucket and a broom included so you don't have to worry about that too much.

Heading up to the Sky Lounge... the Sky Lounge being a communal space that we have on the I believe 13th or 14th floor of Catherine House, that really overlooks the city and is a nice, chill space that's always quiet for you to go study, revise... do coursework with friends... and it gives you sort of another place to hang out that not every hall has. So obviously keep that in mind.

Just outside of the window you can actually see Portland Building and Anglesea Building. All of these are, optimistically, a ten-minute walk at max. So again, you don't have far to go. If you're doing Business, Law, Maths... sort of the more technical subjects you'll likely be over here on what we call the Northern Quarter. And again that is a nice quick walk through the park. I mean, Victoria Park, which Catherine House borders onto and that has things like guinea pigs, bunny rabbits in the center which is really nice walking through first thing in the morning and you can just about see the sea through this window as well. I might actually be able to see on the other side of the room... a little bit better... not really. 

But the beach itself is about ten minutes away from here, as well as Gunwharf Quays, which is our designer and outlet shopping center which is really nice for you to go with your friends. During Freshers' Week, Gunwharf Quays put on a student lock-in so they close off Gunwharf to anyone else and a lot of the stores put on discounts, promotions, that sort of thing. So it's a really good opportunity for you to go make friends, hang out with friends and get yourself some nice cheap stuff.

That's about it for the tour. I hope this has been informative and helpful. I do suggest that you check out a few other halls on the tours today. 

Cool, thank you very much!