Queens Hospital Close

Queens Hospital Close, also referred to as QHC, is a hall of residence in Birmingham, England.

It is located within the A4540 Inner Ring Road on Bath Row [http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&q=b151nh&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl] in the Edgbaston area of Birmingham on a plot of land adjacent to the Worcester & Birmingham Canal and opposite the new Park Central housing development.

History and facilities

Originally built in 1993 on the site of the former Birmingham Accident Hospital, the site was owned by the University of Birmingham until 2007 when it was sold along with The Beeches and Hunter Court for a sum of £47 million [http://www.libertyliving.co.uk/universities.php] to the private sector student and keyworker accommodation provider, [http://www.libertyliving.co.uk Liberty Living PLC.] The site comprises mainly of buildings constructed in 1993, but also makes use of two original hospital buildings, one housing the office, bar and sports hall, and the larger of the two buildings housing flats 46-54. The blocks constructed in 1993 are arranged so that each block houses either 6 or 8 flats, grouped as follows:
* Flats 1-8
* Flats 9-15
* Flats 16-21
* Flats 22-27
* Flats 28-33
* Flats 34-39
* Flats 40-45
* Flats 46-54 (Old Hospital Building)In each of the flats 1-45, there are six bedrooms plus a communal kitchen and living room, whilst in flats 46-54 in the old building, there are either 8 or 10 bedrooms. [http://www.libertyliving.co.uk/residence.php?id=21]

On purchasing the site, the new owners carried out a complete refurbishment of the newer buildings in the 9 weeks over the summer between the previous tenants vacating, and the new 2007/2008 intake arriving. This involved the complete refitting of kitchens, bedrooms and communal areas within each flat. It was also announced that K-Block, the old hospital building, will benefit from a full refurbishment starting from July 14 2008 due to be be completed by the end of September.

Links with the University of Birmingham

From construction in 1993 to its sale in 2007, the University of Birmingham had complete ownership of the site and therefore had complete control over allocation of places to its own students.

When the site was purchased in 2007 by Liberty Living PLC, the University entered a nomination agreement with the new owners to ensure that it still had the complete rights to allocate students as it deemed necessary, thus the site was still marketed by the University as if it was its own and applications for accommodation were still handled by the University's housing services department. This also meant that the site had all the features of a University of Birmingham Hall of Residence such as a funded Residents Association and the Student Mentor Scheme.

From 2008 onwards this agreement no longer exists and Liberty Living are free to market the accommodation and allocate places itself. This also means that the site is no longer affiliated to the University of Birmingham so will not have a Residents Association or the Mentor scheme. However, due to an unpredicted current lack of bed spaces in the University of Birmingham's own accommodation stock, approximately 225 rooms have been block booked for the 2008/2009 academic year, which will once again be allocated to students through the University's own housing department.

External links

* [http://www.libertyliving.co.uk/residence.php?id=21 Queens Hospital Close at Liberty Living website]