St Anselm Hall

St Anselm Hall is a hall of residence in the Victoria Park campus of the University of Manchester. It is one of the probably rare remaining 'male only' halls of residence in the UKFact|date=February 2007.

St Anselm Hall was founded by the Church of England in 1907 and licensed by the University of Manchester as an official hall of residence. The University bought it in 1956 and subsequently extended it to achieve the current capacity of 130 students. The hall building is a Grade II Listed building [http://www.manchester.gov.uk/planning/heritage/listed/streets2.htm#Kelvin%20Street]

Although boasting the greatest reapplication rate of all halls in the University of Manchester, first year applications are exceptionally low. Because of this, many first year residents in St Anselm are those who applied late, or had problems with their original applications. Due to this low application rate, the accommodation office is considering making the hall mixed, however the majority of current residents are against this.

Ashburne Hall and St Gabriel's Hall are both sister halls to St Anselm, with excellent links especially with St. Gabriel's.

Although not stated in the brochure, the hall hosts formal dinner every evening where all residents must wear gowns, and the table is struck with a "spoon" three times by one resident to invite the senior residents into dinner. This timeless tradition lives on, although most residents are unaware of what the spoon represents. Suggestions have been made that instead a fire extinguisher should be used, in memory of a fire which destroyed part of the hall. The spoon went missing at the beginning of the 07/08 year and still has not reappeared. Instead, students are having to use Ketchup Bottles to bang the table.

External links

* http://www.slems.org.uk Home Page