The Student Guide to Lenton

12 things you definitely need to do as a student in Lenton

For a lot of Nottingham students, Lenton is the place to be after first year. It’s super convenient for campus, town and your friends and has an amazing buzz about the place. As you emerge from the comfort of halls into the exciting world of living off campus, there’s a few things you need to experience before being able to call yourself a Lenton local.

1. Watch as the 34 Bus drives past you

Or if it does stop, passively aggressively push your way to the front of the 9am crowd because you know not everyone’s going to fit on.

2. Decide to walk to/from your lecture and get very sweaty

Unless you’re super-organised (let’s face it, you’re not), you’re probably late and had to employ your fastest speed walk to get in on time, meaning on even the coldest of mornings you arrive a hot sweaty mess.

3. Or decide to walk to/from a night-out and get very cold

The best thing about living further up the hill is the shorter walk home from a night out. The higher you are, the greater your bragging rights.

4. Make the walk 10 times more bearable with an Ocean Burger

I defy anyone to not be tempted by the amazing smell coming from the Ocean Burger stand outside Rock City. Ask for onions AND cheese and I can promise you, it will warm your heart all the way home.

5. Watch a film at the Savoy Cinema

Cheaper than the cinema in town, this retro venue is a must do on the Lenton Bucket list. Whether it’s for a house trip, or a romantic date, is up to you.

6. Spend a Thursday night in the Bag O’Nails

If you don’t have at least one conversation about how the prices have gone up, did you even go?

7. Have your bin stolen…

…Or kicked over. Please don’t be that kind of person, it won’t be funny in the morning.

8. Walk to Jubilee gym (and regret it immediately)

It’s a good job you got some exercise done on the walk there, because there’s no room for you to do anything effective once you arrive. Taking the bus to David Ross is always the better option.

9. Teach a confused friend to make an omelette

Believe it or not, I’ve had to do this, he didn’t even know what an omelette was until a few weeks ago. Or maybe you do believe it, because you too operate on a ‘pizza-only’ policy when it comes to cooking for yourself.

10. Rush to Sainsbury’s when you hear Ben and Jerry’s is on offer

It’s true when they say it’s the little things in life, or the big things if you choose to eat the whole tub in one sitting. No judgement here, don’t worry.

11. Bump into someone you’d rather not see on said Sainsbury’s trip

Whether it’s because your ice cream has melted by the time Izzy from Primary School has finished telling you her life story, or because you’d rather the fit boy from your seminar (who you may have pulled last week) didn’t see you in your trackies, we’ve all been there.

12. Persuade your friend with a car to drive you to Aldi

In order to avoid such encounters and to save up for those “extortionate” Bag O’Nails pints, everyone needs to befriend someone with a car. We’ve all tried to walk back from Aldi with too much shopping and promised ourselves never again.

So, there you have it, once you’ve shivered, sweated, eaten and drank your way around Lenton, you can truly call yourself a local and look forward to the next few years of living in the best place to be a student.

Here’s some other recommendations of things for students to do in Nottingham.

Main image credit: Bag O Nails, Lenton cc-by-sa/2.0 – © Chris Whippet – geograph.org.uk/p/4593152