Inside Aberdare Halls: Cardiff’s only all-female residence

Aberdare Halls is Cardiff University’s only all-female halls of residence. You never really hear about it, go to pres there or even meet anyone who actually LIVES there!?

So here's your exclusive insight into Aberdare Halls.

The building is beautiful

The building was built in 1893 and is absolutely breathtaking. If this doesn’t do it for you, it’s super close to the university’s lecture halls making it perfect for when you don't want to get out of bed very early in the morning.

Solid 10/10

En-suites isn't a thing

The halls are divided into three wings, depending on whether you are self-catered or part of the meal plan.

Each wing has clusters of individual flats where students live with their flatmates and share bathrooms and a kitchen. The bedrooms have the usual single bed, pin-board, and desk – just like most student halls.

One (and probably the only) perk of having shared bathrooms is that the en-suite doesn’t take up a ton of space in the bedroom which makes it feel slightly bigger than the average room.

They like a good party almost as much as Taly South

"The flat above me has no concept of a quiet time"

We all thought it: Aberdare Halls is the place to be if you like your quiet time, it's what most people know it for and so, it's the 'quiet types' the halls attract.

But if you're keen for a night out, pres actually do happen at Aberdare but since it's pretty small (only 130 students), people usually go to their mates' house for pres.

It's super close to the Student's Union so if you're stumbling home at 3 AM you can expect to be in bed in less than 10 minutes. Imagine having a less than a 5 minute walk to lectures? Can someone remind us why we chose Taly please?

They have a courtyard

Aberdare Hall residents don't always just hang out in their kitchen like Taly peasants. There's a ton of common rooms and a COURTYARD. On a sunny day (or dry day for Cardiff), students chill out in the courtyard.

You can have male visitors

The hot question on everyone's lips, are men allowed in the all-female residence? Although they're not allowed to live there, women are human and a little male attention doesn't go unwanted.

Residents are allowed male visitors to stay overnight, making tinder meet-ups waaay easier than we may have thought.

They offer catered accommodation

Students can opt for catered accommodation, which consists of set meal times. Breakfast is served from 07:45 to 9am, I guess lie-ins are rare at Aberdare?

If you were expecting Aberdare Halls to have a canteen and some crappy tables for the meal times, then you my friend were wrong. The dining hall is where the catered students eat their breakfast and evening meals.

Self catered students are also able to score some cheap meals on nights they don’t feel like cooking for themselves.

So there's your cheeky insight into Aberdare Halls.

If you're a resident and want people to know how sick your halls are, DM us on Insta.

Feature image via @simyinsy on Instagram.