St Regulus Hall | Accommodation Overview

One of the smaller halls in St Andrews is St Regulus Hall - Regs. Found just off South Street - ideally located for Jannetta's Ice Cream - is the late 19th century building that is home to less than 200 students. Regs used to be a hotel so as a building, it's older than even Old Wing at University Hall, but it wasn't purchased by the university until the 1950s. Like Uni Hall and Sallies, Regs is a catered hall so everyone will have meals together in the main building and have to fend for themselves for weekend dinners.

The hall is split into a main building, next to the new Music Centre, and just down the street, the Regs Annexe. Annexe residents will eat in the main building (even when it rains so bring a coat - although it is Scotland so you'd be silly not to). Eating together makes finding friends really easy in halls, and because there's such a large number of returning students in Regs, you'll find the community feeling to be really strong as many people here have been living in Regs since they started in St Andrews.

As far as location goes, Regs is in a really nice place. It's right next to St Mary's Quad making it perfect for anyone with lectures there and also for the King James Library which is alwasy popular during exam season. As far as location for socialising, it's a very short walk from the Student Union and there are plenty of pubs on South Street as well. It's also extremely close to the Byre Theatre where student productions are frequently held, and to the famous Jannetta's Ice Cream shop which has 30 flavours of ice cream out at a time (and I spent so much money in over the last year).

As always, I reached out to the Hall Committee for a bit more information about the hall. Regs Secretary, Geraint Morgan, who's spent 2 years in Regs already had this to say [as always my clarification are in square brackets]:

"St Regulus Hall is a really lovely community close to the heart of town but positioned in a quiet residential area. Generally, the small nature of the hall (we’re the university’s second smallest after John Burnet Hall) really lends to it a strong community spirit.

Overall, accommodation is split pretty evenly between shared and single rooms, with almost all rooms having a basin. The long history of the Hall buildings (which stretch well back into the 19^th Century for parts of the Main Hall and Annexe) mean that no two rooms are alike, but essentially all are well proportioned, with picture rails for decorating, and good sized windows providing natural light. Each floor in the main hall has 1-2 kitchens, which are somewhat small and shared between around 20 people (very roughly, please don’t count). They can end up in a bit of a state [a problem not unique to Regs], but as you only have to fend for yourself for two meals a week (providing you make it to all the catered meals) this isn’t too bad.

The Annexe is around 100 yards down the road from the main hall. As someone who’s spent two

years in the annexe it is somewhat annoying walking down the road to get breakfast, especially in the depths of winter when it’s not really light at 8am, but you get used to it and its definitely normal to see people heading over to breakfast in their PJs and a coat. The annexe is split into two halves; in the west the ‘Dark side’ which houses the annexe laundry, whilst the ‘Light side’ houses the main annexe kitchen. In addition to the main Annexe kitchen each floor has a pantry, with at least a basin, fridge and microwave, but also often a kettle (dependent on migrations) and toaster. The Annexe kitchen has fully induction hobs, so make sure that your pans are compatible, and its also probably best to get induction friendly pans [if it's compatible a magnet will stick to the base] if you’re in main hall as their kitchens are slowly being renovated to induction.

With regard to hall community Regs is one of the closer knitted halls. The Committee is really quite active (well as secretary I would say that wouldn’t I!), having events every day during freshers week, organising parties throughout the semesters (including St Regulus Day, Halloween, and others), wellbeing events (including Alpaca (!!) visits), and two balls (Christmas and end of year- Regs Christmas ball is really just a party out of hall, but well worth delaying leaving after your exams for!). Additionally, Sandra and the rest of the Warden team are absolutely fantastic, hosting a wine and cheese in freshers week, as well as regular Sunday evening movie nights. Whilst having a lot of traditions (including the gong), Regs is definitely one of the more irreverent halls: compared to other old halls we don’t really do formals to the same extent, and have something of a reputation as a party hall – Regs parties are fantastic opportunities to socialise, often with Regs Alumni who come back from their flats, and make use of a somewhat inordinate amount of free booze.

If you’re lucky enough to have been allocated to Regs, you’re going to have a fantastic year, meeting new friends and finding your roots in the most wonderful university town in the world!"

In case it's not clear, Regs is one of the most tightly knit halls, so much so that a lot of people return to it. I'm sure if you've been allocated to Regs you'll have a great time so I'll leave you with the comments of a Regs resident from this past year.

"I would say my favourite thing about living in Regs was that although it is one of the smallest halls this only means that an even closer community and bond is created between the students living there. University life can be quite hectic at times and it was just so nice being able to live in an environment that was almost like having a second family even if it was a tad crazy at times 😂 It was super easy to make friends as we all saw each other practically all the time!"