Warwick University Claycroft Residences Review 2020/21: For Shopping Lovers!

The Warwick University Claycroft residences feature the best location on campus. Claycroft is located on the Eastern border of the main Warwick campus. It features 679 rooms in three blocks, namely Claycroft 1, Claycroft 2, and, you guessed it, Claycroft 3. It offers mid-range accommodation with 40-week lets for undergraduates and 50-week lets for postgraduates.

The official Warwick Accommodation website for Claycroft can be found here.

COVID-19 Update 2020/21: Please double-check the information on this page with the University of Warwick’s Accommodation Services directly. Especially letting periods might change due to the special circumstances.

Our Warwick University Claycroft Review

tldr; Claycroft’s main feature is its location: situated between central campus and the Cannonpark shopping centre and Aldi. It makes life easy – as long as you are not into sports. You also have to share a bathroom with one person. It is a cheaper alternative to en-suite rooms as found in Heronbank or Lakeside.

Students often have a love or hate relationship with Claycroft. Many students love its location. It’s just a five-minute walk to buy groceries at Aldi, an Asian store, Iceland, or Tesco. Boots, Wilko’s, and a pound store are also found nearby. This makes shopping easy and convenient and you will appreciate this a lot during the typical dark and wet British winter. Central campus is also not far with the library being not more than a five-minute walk away from Claycroft either.

However, the Western side of campus, in particular the high-end Warwick Sports Hub, is a good 15 minutes away if you walk. You can most certainly take a bike of do a warm-up jog to get there, but let’s be real: are we really going to do that just before a gym session, a cardio class, or an exhilarating climbing session (read more about the Warwick Sports Hub on their website)?

Think carefully whether this is an issue for you. Are you a foodie and need fresh groceries every day? Can you not live without exercising daily? In case both applied to you, you have a tough choice to make – and might want to get a bike or use the Nextbike bike rentals on campus.

The other question students face is: what to think about shared bathrooms. In contrast to Heronbank or Lakeside with their en-suite rooms, in Claycroft you share your bathroom with one other student. This is not as bad as in other residences where you might have to share these with up to ten students, though. Still, for some of you this might be unacceptable, while for others this is not going to be a big deal – especially, if it can save quite a bit of money in rent.

Claycroft generally attracts quieter students compared to other student residences located closer to the Student’s Union such as Rootes Residences. Still, noise does occasionally erupt and sharing a bathroom may also lead to issues over time. In these cases, feel free to get in touch with the local Residential Life Team. These are volunteers that life in your block and help you figure out living in the halls of your choice and what to do when all sots of problems arise.

The Claycroft kitchens and lounges are one of the biggest on campus and provide ample space for students to gather, chat, and socialise. The fridges and freezers are also exceptionally large!

Overall, the Warwick University Claycroft Residences offer a good price-value ratio. As always, there are trade-offs, and in this case you need to decide how important it is to have your own bathroom and whether you are going to make regular use of the Sports Hub. If you want to shop for fresh groceries on an (almost) daily basis, living in Claycroft will make your life much easier throughout they ear. If you are going to largely rely on food and grocery deliveries, go with a more social (e.g. Rootes – cheaper) or quieter (Heronbank, Lakeside – more expensive) option instead.

That said, it is always an option to live off-campus. Especially if you like lively surroundings, living in student or private accommodation in Coventry or Leamington Spa offers you a range of entertainment venues, shops, and a more extensive social life in general terms.