Lairy Common Room

The LCR reveals its dark side with a spate of violent clashes leaving students seriously injured


With a name like “The Lower Common Room”, UEA’s beloved music venue is perhaps the last place you would expect to see a fight.

However, a series of violent incidents recently have marred both club and gig nights and left people seriously injured and traumatised.

An assault after The Enemy played at UEA on Friday 5th October left one person seriously injured, whilst members of the bar staff were asked to give witness statements by police.

Happier times in the LCR. Photo: Shane Allen

There has often been tension between students and members of the public who attend gigs at UEA, however recently this has led to violent attacks.

This has led to a number of students bemoaning the ease in which these situations arise.
However, it has not just been at gigs that there have been these sorts of incident.

During welcome week, there were a number of incidents where older students clashed with first year students. This left one person tweeting “UEA freshers sure know how to get in fights. I guess they have to do something to make paying 9 grand a year worth it #wasteofmoney”. This confrontational attitude towards freshers is sure to have been a part of this sudden surge in violence at our university.

Second year Business Management Josh O’Brien resents the attitude taken by a number of UEA clubgoers.

He said: “It seems like there is an incident happening every five minutes this year. Last year there was nowhere near this number of fights. It’s ridiculous!”

Serious questions must be asked about the security presence at these events if students no longer feel as safe as they used to.

Stacey Knapp posed the question a few weeks ago: Do we really live in the UK’s safest city? 

She concluded that, based on recent evidence, it would seem not, and following the violence on campus recently, I would have to agree.