A home away from home
HALLS ON OUR STREATHAM CAMPUS
Leaving home to go to university is a big moment in our students’ journey to becoming alumni.
The places that they call home are often a space where friendships are formed, and independence explored. The halls of residence experience gives an opportunity to meet a diverse range of people, and provides the background for many adventures.
Despite having changed over the years, these ‘home away from home’ of halls often loom large in the memory and play an important puzzle piece in alumni connections; here are just a few of those pieces.
Birks Grange Village / Birks Halls
Birks Grange 1960
Birks Halls were in place from 1966-2004 before completing a redevelopment in 2005. The halls included a bar named ‘The Boot’ until 10 years ago when it closed, which has lived long in alumni memories. Due to its proximity to ‘Cardiac Hill’ (the steep path leading from halls up to the main Streatham Campus), its residents left not only with a degree but also with excellent cardio!
In 2011, we completed building works providing enhanced self-catered accommodation which collectively became known as Birks Grange Village. The University is currently converting the remaining catered halls to self-catered, and a new accommodation block will be constructed on the site of the Central Block dining hall. This is part of the wider West Park Student Residences project.
Birks Halls 1960s
Memories include:
“I remember the white pudding for breakfast, and the lovely porters like Jock. Cider 14p a half. Queuing to use the pay phone...” Yvette Staelens (Archaeology, 1981) lived here from 1978-79.
“My dad was in Birks back when he was at Exeter in the 70’s. I accidentally also came to Exeter and ended up staying in the brand-new Birks Grange the first year it opened. Cardiac Hill though, I still wheeze just thinking about it.” Katharina Rayner (BA Drama, 2010 and MA Applied Drama, 2013) lived here from 2006-07.
“Great memories of The Boot and formal dinners in the dining hall. Some of the best years of my life. Would go back in a heartbeat.” Anne Kidgell (German, 1997) lived here in her first year.
Hope Hall
Hope Hall / Hartwell House 1922
These halls accommodated around 60 students in three converted family homes. Originally opened in 1915 as an all-girls residence (later expanded to all genders) and named Hartwell House, it was reopened and renamed Hope Hall in 1925 by the Duke and Duchess of York after Helena Hope, due to her generous donations.
It was a catered residence with a small kitchenette on each floor, and, in 2013, it was refurbished to provide additional office and research space for university staff.
Did you know that alumnus Thom Yorke (English and Fine Art, 1991) was resident there during his Exeter days?
Hope Hall c.1926
Memories include:
“I made some lovely friends there and have fond memories of the breakfasts in Hope Hall – hash browns and scrambled eggs in particular.” Lucy Harvey Gay (BA Music and French, 1996 and PGCE, 1997) resided there during 1992-93.
“As President in my third year I could chose my room and picked one meant for two students, upstairs overlooking the tennis courts. When I went back for a reunion, my old room was the manager’s flat and it had become mixed sex accommodation, which it always was, but covertly in the 1960s!” Mave van der Werff (English, 1967) lived in the Lazenby Annexe and then in the main building.
Mardon Hall
Mardon Hall menu 1969
Designed in a ‘country house’ style by E. Vincent Harris, Mardon Hall opened in 1933, and was extensively refurbished in 1996, but retained its wood-panelled library (now used as a study room) and grand staircase. It was the University College of the South West’s first purpose-built hall of residence. This was 22 years before the University gained its charter, becoming the University of Exeter in 1955, and the halls are still used as accommodation today.
Mardon Hall 2025
Memories include:
“Formal meals...five each week, were ‘formal’, and academic dress was obligatory; woe betide anyone improperly dressed. Invitations to High Table were by rota, and those invited either took sherry with the Warden, Frank Oliver, in his flat before the meal, or coffee afterwards.” Ryder Cowan (Mathematics, 1971) lived in Mardon Hall, 1967-68, and 69-70.
Alumnus Pete Renaut (Geology and Geography, 1972) got in touch recently to share a copy of a Christmas dinner menu from 1969 which was signed by many Mardon Hall residents at the time (pictured). He lived in a shared room in Mardon from February 1969 – June 1970 and recalls, “If it was someone’s birthday or special occasion we used to bang our spoons on the table. Hence all Mardon’s spoons had flat bottoms.”
Images credited to Special Collections: University of Exeter Archive.
