Wilkins Gustave Tuck Lecture Theatre, UCL

M9

Marko 907

15 Aug 2026

If you’re a UCL student this is the last place you want to be. In some cases there is a singular shower in a block of showers, (yes like in an old school building or outdated gym), that actually works, this is between 10 people. They are cleaned irregularly, have mould, ventilation is awful (alongside ventilation in the entire building, which makes summer here unbearable).
The canteen staff are lovely, the actual accommodation staff are largely unhelpful although it’s a classic situation of being made helpless by “higher ups”, which means during a heatwave, all the heating stays on, when there’s issues with your room, kitchen or the shared bathrooms, these won’t be looked at or solved for at least a week.
Overall, the Ifor experience is one which you can’t even call character building, it’s genuinely awful and unfortunately does not get any better.
If you’re unlucky enough to be in these UCL halls, lodge complaints very very regularly and early on so hopefully positive changes are put in place, keep food in your room to avoid thieves (there are no flats here, once you’re in the gates of the buildings you can enter any accommodation, any bathrooms, any kitchen). The buildings essentially look like corridors with each room along it, then a bathroom with 2 toilets and 3 showers to be shared among 10 and a kitchen at the end of the corridor, no living room or sofas of any sort, it’s nothing like a typical uni halls flat and this makes Ifor Evans much less social.
The canteen gives Ifor more sociability but the food is underwhelming at best and pretty plain, although having catered at times can be quite useful.
The positives are that it’s about 30mins on the bus to main campus, near Camden which is enjoyable although quite touristy and dodgy at times, you meet a lot of people from around the world here, it’s very international and takes in a lot of exchange students and there’s a 24/7 Tesco Express 2 minutes walk away, it’ll rinse your bank account but it’s very good to have.
I wish this review was dramatic but it’s not and barely even captures what living here is actually like, Ifor isn’t for the weak but should hopefully encourage you to get out, explore London and lock in on campus.
If you’re after student halls I would highly recommend looking at private halls instead but this makes meeting other UCL students much less likely.
I genuinely believe that some form of inspection or student protest will have this building closed, demolished and rebuilt in the near future, try make this a reality for the betterment of our successors.

CE

Charlot E Local Guide

5 Jul 2026

Old building which is quite frankly no longer fit for purpose. Mice in the kitchen and some rooms. Issues with the radiator on full blast during a heatwave and springs poking through the mattress, however the maintenance staff were very responsive and helpful. Stinky corridors and generally grimy building, with a dirty carpet. Rooms were poorly ventilated and would hardly cool down overnight. The temperature of the cold water tap in the room was dependent on how sunny it was (the “cold” water was more often than not upwards of 35C, even in the evening and even after running for minutes), and because of this and the age of the building I was a bit concerned about the potential for legionella (although no issues in bathroom and kitchen). Toilets and showers in cubicles. Don’t think the fridges in the kitchen were cold enough. Bed linens were clean, but was only given a single pillow which was too thin, even if folded in half.
(Two-week summer stay - survived the experience but would recommend staying elsewhere)

MM

mike mike

3 Jul 2026

Dreadful place apart from location. First off- Leafblowers start at 8.30 in the front yard- electric then petrol powered 170 decibles- for 10 to 15 minutes, destroying the morning calm. Just to blow a few leaves that nicely decorate the front seating area. Secondly, fire doors banging constantly. There are 6 between my room and the exit for the building, I can imagine this when the place is full of students- constant door banging on. These then trapped heat in the building during the summer heatwaves- it must have been over 40 in those corridors. A true health and safety concern- not the one in a million chance of a fire. Thirdly all the locked windows which open 3 inches ( for your safety) again meaning the place massively overheats in summer and cant be properly aired. An environmental disaster of a building.

HB

Harry Baldock

26 May 2026

Kitchen literally had rats all year, smells awful, and I asked to keep my stuff packed 5 days after my leaving date to avoid spending £120 on ucls storage service which also involves a bunch of unnecessary driving and traveling and risk, which they denied even though they have a 2 month period until new people move in. The staff I’ve actually met for the most part are lovely. The facilities are pretty bad, the toilets never flush and are always disgusting. The hot water is sporadic at best and the heating is either broken or boiling never in between. If you have you’re freshmen year here I highly recommend you transfer to another accom.

TA

Togrul Abbasli

26 Jun 2025

Night inspector keeps us awaken.like bro.who th are u.like im sleepin u cant hust knock my door furiously and wake up then say why re u awake.worst part is they can enter your room without any permissions.bro... i paid here and its my property now.u cant disturb me like u want.not even police can enter ur house without legal permission from the judge.
im not recommending it

LM

Laurence Myers

11 Sep 2024

I am honestly astounded at how poorly managed this place is. I will leave a longer review when I have time but as I have just moved out, I wanted to give you an idea of the chaos of this accommodation by talking about the moving out process. We had to move out at 10am the day after most dissertations were due. An email was sent out saying we could leave things we wanted to donate in the kitchen, but apparently it “didn’t apply to our accommodation” even though this was not mentioned anywhere in the email. As a result, every floor ended up leaving things in the kitchen, and everyone—staff and students included—was stressed out, with people having to throw things onto carts and stuff themselves into the lifts to get everything out, even with a few hours extended to our card access. The lift broke, boxes were scattered all over the place, and most people just gave up and left, accepting any fine they were charged just to be done with the place. This place has a terrible combination of very strict rules and complete mismanagement. PLEASE do not stay here!!!!!!!

On a side note, the cleaning staff are wonderful people—frankly they are the only good thing about living here. I have only had pleasant and helpful conversations with cleaning staff and am so sorry to leave a mess!

KH

Karrar Hashim

7 Apr 2024

UCL Cruciform Building Reception Team:

This is serious! If UCL takes its students' feedback seriously, I would appreciate it if they could take action on this matter!!!

I am a UCL student, and today, Sunday, April 7th 2024, at 10:48 AM. I showed my ID to the reception guy, and I wanted to go to the hub, but he didn't open the main door, although it was just 12 minutes before the hub opening time (not the building opening time)! The problem is not here, and the problem is that guy was "Very Rude" and not nice or a normal person at all!!!

Speak to you in a way as he is fighting with you!!!!! This guy and there's another one; their place should not be at a world university like UCL. Other staff members are friendly and big respect for them!! I included the date and time to allow them to investigate who that guy was! I very much hope that UCL management can kindly take this matter seriously and give them some training on how to be nice or at least normal with students. I want to study with good mood not with someone get you upset in the main door for no reason!!!!

FB

Francesco Bacchini Local Guide

14 Mar 2024

Unfortunately, I cannot recommend this place, despite its appealing exterior. The rooms are very small (especially in Tower 1), and the luxury of having a 'private' bathroom does not necessarily compensate for that. The heating system also has its flaws: it's centrally regulated, meaning your room could be extremely cold or extremely warm, with no way to adjust it manually. You need a magnetic card (similar to the ones used in hotels) to access every space of the building, including your room, which can be troublesome at times - especially when going from the kitchen to your room, since you constantly have to remember to carry the key with you. The same key is also used to open the multiple security doors present at every level and in every space, making the space feel overly secure at times to the point where the extra security becomes more of an annoyance than a benefit. Clearly, the designers of the building and its policies did not consider the user's perspective. From a user/student perspective, it may feel that this won't be a place you could call a 'second home,' primarily because of the extreme security and the hierarchical distance between the personnel and the occupants of the building. Last but not least, as someone mentioned in another review: the security is so strict that you can't literally bring anyone from the outside in or have any guests. Despite this being possible (by signing up for guests to stay overnight for a maximum of 7 nights per month), the process is made so complicated, with many caveats, that it almost feels like that's a no-go. Essentially, my suggestion is to opt for this place only if you're in extreme need of a place to stay or you value the location as a significant selling point.

Edit: All these details and information were not revealed to me prior to arriving here, that's why I'm warning potential future tenants.

AS

Alex Sazonov

20 May 2023

On May 19 2023 UCL cancelled a Cruciform Building booking by a fierce Putin critic Viktor Shenderovich, without any explanation, an hour before the concert start time. This can be seen as supporting Putin's war in Ukraine and an act of suppressing the freedom of speech, which is a shame for UCL.