What to bring to UCL halls: the actual list

An honest pack list for UCL halls — what you'll use every day, what you'll regret bringing, and what to buy locally.

An honest pack list for UCL halls — what you'll use every day, what you'll regret bringing, and what to buy locally. Tailored per hall by the interactive widget below.

Part one

Before you pack — know your room

Every UCL hall is set up slightly differently. Some include bedding packs, some don't. Some have en-suite bathrooms, others share. Some rooms are tiny, others are surprisingly generous. Before you go anywhere near a suitcase, read UCL's own page for your specific hall — the widget below covers all 27, but the hall's own page has the full room-by-room breakdown.

What's standard across UCL halls: a bed, a desk and chair, a lamp, a wardrobe, and some shelving. Kitchens are shared between flatmates in a flat. Utilities and WiFi are included in your accommodation fees, so there's no broadband to set up, no gas or electricity account to open, and no TV licence to sort unless you specifically plan to watch live TV in your room — Netflix, YouTube, iPlayer on demand and the like don't require one.

What every halls room has
  • BedSingle, small double, or full double depending on your hall.
  • Desk + chairSmall but enough for a laptop and a notebook.
  • Wardrobe + shelvingModest. Bring fewer clothes than you think.
  • LampUsually one. Bring fairy lights (battery-powered only) if you want more.
  • Heating + hot waterIncluded. No need to set up an account.

Bed sizes vary too. Most rooms are single (90×190cm), but a number of halls run some or all of their rooms on a small double (120×198cm, often listed as "3/4") — Goldsmid House, urbanest Kings Cross, Unite St Pancras Way, urbanest St Pancras and Venti House all use small doubles as standard. A handful of specific room tiers go up to a full double — mostly the one-bedroom flats reserved for postgraduates, and Prankerd House's double ensuite. Several halls mix sizes across tiers — Astor College and John Adams Hall both run single, small-double and double rooms side by side depending which tier you're offered. UCL doesn't publish one single bed-size table across every hall — check your own offer, or use the widget below.

The bedding rule: a single duvet on a small-double bed will leave you cold and uncovered. Match the duvet to the bed, not the bed to the duvet. The widget below figures it out for you per hall.

The most useful thing you can do for your first night in halls is sort your bedding out before you arrive. UniKitOut runs a UCL-specific student pack that delivers bedding, kitchen and bathroom kits straight to your hall before you get there — check their UCL page for current student offers. It's worth it for the convenience alone if you're flying in rather than driving down with the family car.

UCL halls in numbers
27halls across London
5areas, from Bloomsbury to Canary Wharf
9postgraduate-specific halls
£1.75single-fare cap on TfL buses

"London gets less rain than a lot of northern cities. What it lacks in frequency it makes up for in timing — pack a coat that handles it."

A&F field note
Part two

The bedroom, the kitchen, and the things nobody packs

Beyond the basics, the bedroom items that earn their suitcase space are short and unglamorous. A decent pillow — the one thing genuinely worth spending on, because bad sleep makes the whole transition harder than it needs to be. One extension lead with individual switches — not a multi-block adapter, those are banned in UCL halls for fire safety. A laundry basket or bag, because you'll be doing your own washing from week one and dragging a binbag down the corridor gets old fast. A handful of hangers — halls wardrobes rarely come with them.

Bedroom essentials worth the space
  • Decent pillowThe one thing worth spending on.
  • Extension lead with switchesNever a multi-block adapter.
  • Laundry basket or bagNeeded from week one.
  • 10–15 hangersWardrobes rarely come with them.
  • Small desk fanExam season gets warm indoors, no AC in halls.

One detail nobody mentions: plug-in fairy lights are banned in UCL halls, but battery-powered ones are fine. Candles, incense and anything else involving a flame are banned outright, and so is other mains-powered mood lighting. Posters, prints and removable wall stickers are the way to personalise the room without a word from your Hall Team.

The kitchen is where people overpack the hardest. You're sharing it with several flatmates. If everyone brings their own pots, pans, kettle, toaster and rice cooker, none of it is going to fit. Most flats end up with a group chat once allocations come through — sort out who's bringing what before you pack.

The kitchen rule

Bring just enough for week one. Buy the rest as a flat.

For your first week you only really need: one decent saucepan, one frying pan, a chopping board and a knife, a plate, a bowl, a mug, cutlery for one, a couple of tea towels and a bottle of washing-up liquid. Nobody packs the tea towels and washing-up liquid, and everyone needs them — be the hero.

The rest? UCL's own student guide points new arrivals to Poundland and Lidl for cheap kitchen kit, both an easy walk from Bloomsbury. Coordinate the kettle, toaster, air fryer or rice cooker with the flat once everyone's moved in — and note that none of it is allowed in your bedroom regardless. UCL bans all cooking equipment, including kettles and toasters, from bedrooms; it has to live in the kitchen.

Bathroom-wise: two towels minimum — you always want one available while the other's in the wash. If you're in a shared bathroom, bring a shower caddy or waterproof toiletry bag for carrying your stuff back and forth. Flip flops for the shower are not optional. Bring enough toiletries to last your first week or two and no more. Boots, Superdrug and a Sainsbury's Local are all a short walk from Bloomsbury halls.

For tech: laptop and charger, obviously. Beyond that, an ethernet cable is worth its weight — UCL's eduroam WiFi is generally solid but gets patchy at peak hours when half your block is streaming. Most halls rooms have a wired access point. A good pair of headphones is the other essential — for library sessions, lectures you're catching up on, and the inevitable evening when your flatmate decides 1am is a great time to video-call their mum at full volume.

Part three

UCL-specific + the documents nobody warns you about

More important than anything else in this article: a proper waterproof jacket. Not a fashion coat with "shower resistant" written in tiny print on the tag. An actual waterproof, with taped seams and a hood you'd genuinely put up. London gets around 112 days of rain a year by the Met Office's own numbers — less than a lot of northern cities — but it arrives without warning, often while you're ten minutes into a walk with no coat. A coat that handles it is the single best thing you can pack.

Bring a compact umbrella for your bag too. Walking back from the library at 9pm in unexpected rain without one is a rite of passage you only need to experience once.

The UCL essentials
  • Proper waterproof jacketTaped seams, real hood, not a "shower resistant" coat.
  • Compact umbrellaFor your bag.
  • LayersA T-shirt + jumper + waterproof beats one heavy coat.
  • Comfortable shoesFor halls that mean a tube or bus commute rather than a walk.
  • £200–£300 in cashFor the first few days before your UK bank account opens (international students).

Layers. UK weather turns quickly enough that one heavy coat won't cover you across a whole day. A T-shirt, a jumper and a waterproof jacket are more useful than one heavy coat for most of the year.

Comfortable walking shoes, if your hall isn't one of the Bloomsbury cluster. The halls further out — Camden Road (Ann Stephenson House, Max Rayne House, Ifor Evans Hall) at around 30 minutes by tube, or further still at Stratford, Canary Wharf or East Finchley — mean relying on the tube or a bus most days rather than walking it. TfL's 18+ Student Oyster photocard gets you 30% off Travelcards and Bus & Tram passes, and a single bus fare is capped at £1.75.

For international students, the documents section is the one that UK-focused packing lists tend to skip. Get a folder, label it clearly, and keep your passport (with the entry vignette sticker if you've been issued one), your eVisa access via a UKVI account at gov.uk/evisa (the UK switched to a fully digital immigration system in late 2024 — physical BRP cards are no longer issued), your UCL offer letter and CAS statement, your accommodation contract (banks accept this as proof of UK address), and your insurance details all in one place.

Register with a GP in your first few weeks. If you're within reach of Bloomsbury, UCL's partner practice is Ridgmount Practice on Gower Street — register online before you arrive. Halls further out (Camden Road, Stratford, Canary Wharf, East Finchley) fall outside its catchment, so use the NHS website's GP finder instead. Either way, don't wait until you're actually ill — without a registered GP your only options are A&E, a walk-in centre, or NHS 111.

What to leave at home

A car — there's no parking at UCL halls except for blue-badge holders. Candles, incense, anything with a flame — banned outright. Anything mains-powered for mood lighting — banned (battery-powered fairy lights are fine). A multi-block adapter — fire risk, banned; one extension lead with individual switches is what UCL allows instead. A mini fridge, a kettle, a toaster, or any other cooking equipment in your room — all banned from UCL bedrooms, kitchen only. Doorstops — fire doors have to close on their own. An e-scooter or throttle e-bike — lithium battery fire risk, banned from every UCL building; pedal-assist e-bikes are allowed but must charge outside. A printer, a TV, anything irreplaceable — you don't need it.

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