Note: Official information for visitors, regarding open days, Keele's location and a map that will come in handy for this page of the site can be found here.

The buildings and scenery

Keele University is set on a picturesque hill in the middle of nowhere. It is around 40% woodland, and contains seemingly above all an abundance of squirrels. Keele is the biggest single-campus university in Europe - which seems a little daunting at first, especially given its encompassing area of more than 600 acres. But after a year or so, it becomes apparent that the place isn't that big after all, what with buildings conveniently arranged and easy to locate and access and what with a lot of it being woodland that you'll never have to walk through to get around campus. This is especially evident if you happen to be put in the Hawthorns hall of residence, which is located just off campus and around 20 mins walk from the Union. In this case, you'll soon find that most of the departments (which you'll walk past on your way from what is essentially one end of campus to the other) are arranged close together.

Most of the faculties and administrative departments can be seen down the central "spine" - a road virtually closed off from vehicles that runs at a 90-degree tangent from Hawthorns, from the Lindsay to Horwood halls of residence.

Speaking of the buildings, most of them were built in the late '50s and '60s and are not really much to look at. There are (to mind) three notable exceptions, listed here in order of interest, from least to most. One of these is the biology building, some of which has just been built/rebuilt and which accommodates much new equipment and space. The second is the

If you intend to visit and come to Keele, it might be a good idea to have some sort of guide so that you can see where all the buildings are as you walk around. Here is a guide of my own, which uses the loop-road that surrounds Keele and also the spine-road that goes down its centre. You will also find a this campus guide, in PDF format will come in very handy as a companion to this guide.

Start at Horwood Car Park. This is hidden behind the Students' Union, and is a long patch of tarmac (at the front) and gravel (at the back). The car park is usually full and difficult to park on during the working hours on week-days, but becomes uncannily empty on Saturdays and fills up again on Sunday. It's as if everyone who owns a car goes home for the weekend, presumably because these people have their transport paid for by their parents and like to go home to mummy and daddy on a regular basis rather than gaining a proper independence and doing things for themselves.
     Anyway, back on track, as it were. walk to the very centre of the car park and face the Students' Union building, downhill with its own car park at the side. This is the centre of most students' nocturnal cavorting, and the subject of much joy, sex, anguish or depression, depending on the sort of person you happen to be.
     Look 90 degrees to your right. This is the side of the Darwin Building, home of the prestigious, well-known and pretentiously entitled Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations Department. It is a strange fact that yours truly did an HRM degree, and one of the first essay questions we were set was whether HRM was simply "old wine in new bottles" - in other words, whether it is the same as Industrial Relations but with a new title that made it sound better than it actually is. The general answer we were given was that it was, and for this reason you can validly call it the Industrial Relations and Industrial Relations department. (Don't worry, this Guide stops rambling and gets more positive as you go along!)
     The Darwin Building is home to a few other functions as well. It has a 24-hour reception for people who get in at 3 in the morning and realise that they can't find their keys, and it is also home to the accommodation reception and manager.
     Finally, before we move on: If you were to walk past the Darwin building, you would meet the roundabout. The road that goes left from the roundabout is where you'll come from if you continue this Guide to the end. The road to the right leads to Keele's main entrance, which is where the buses go to go to Newcastle. Straight on are Barnes Halls of Rresidence, and past them is the terminus of this road, which is the old entrance. If you were to carry on and cross the road after the old entrance, then turn left down the main road (Keele Road), you would get to the Golfer's Arms on your right. This popular student-run pub boasts cheap food and drink, and offers on combinations are frequent.

From your position in Horwood Car Park, walk towards Horwood halls of residence, hidden behind the trees on the thin edge of the car park on the opposite end to the Darwin Building. You'll see a clearing where the trees stop (on the right) and the scrubland growth start (on the left). Stop when you reach the earth road. Uphill, it leads to the observatory. Look uphill but to your right and you will see one of the entrances to the Horwood halls - this one being a short-cut to blocks V to Z. The "zed sheds" are so-called because they're well-known to be delapidated, uncomfortable and in dire need of refurbishment (which the University has alleged will commence in 2004).
     Walk down the earth road to the end and to the right you'll see the curve of the loop-road that encompasses most of the campus. Get onto the pavement and keep heading downhill and along the same road. You'll go past more Horwood blocks on your left, then on the next junction also on your left you'll see the Keele Postgraduate Association (labelled 'KPA') hidden behind the trees. The KPA is well reknowned for its dedication to real ale - it is the local CAMRA centre, and changes the real ales it has on offer every two days.
     Slightly further is one of the bus stops which go to Newcastle (and usually as far as Hanley) and back. There are two bus services to use, FirstBus (formerly PMT) and Arriva. The former is the prediminant service, which abuses its near-monopoly by buses often arriving very late or not at all despite being supposedly half-hourly. The latter is slightly cheaper but buses are farther apart. Both circle the loop-road from Hawthorns right through past Horwood and towards Newcastle.
     Walk further up the incline and you'll see the entrance to Keele Hall on your left. Keele Hall is one of the top attractions at Keele University; you are strongly advised to visit the grounds (which include the grounds, lakes, woods and of course the Hall itself and its many antiquities and lavish woodwork) in your own time.
     Bear to the right. A pathway to the central spine-road of campus comes into view to the right and further on the edge of Lindsay Halls of Residence can be seen. Keep walking until you get to the bus-stop, which is on the main road into Lindsay, on the left and close to the top end of the main spine-road mentioned earlier. The other end of the spine-road terminates at the Union car park, just down from Horwood car-park where you started.
     Continuing down the same road, you will go past the staff blocks on your right and, later, to the Holly Cross halls of residence. Holly Cross is the most expensive and nice apartments on campus - a bit like S-block Lindsay, with its en-suite bathrooms, except slightly bigger.

Walk to the end of the pavement, then cross the road. There is a long, straight walkway which ends at a roundabout. When you reach the roundabout, notice the bus stop in front and to your left. This is where the campus bus route starts, turns around, and goes down the road you came in the opposite direction, right around the loop road past the Darwin building, then right towards Newcastle. 90 degrees to your left is 3-mile lane. Half way down this lane and o the right, overlooking the M6, is the service station.If you ever want to escape campus (at any time - it's open 24 hours), this is (in my view) the best place available at walking distance. It takes around 20 mins to get there at a leisurely pace, and features two petrol stations, one each side of a bridge over the motorway, and a series of confectionary and food stores including a KFC on the bridge. If you go in the daytime, the view over the motorway is interesting and everywhere is open. If you go at night, the lights create a dazzling neon effect and some of the shops are shut, but it's still worth it. Beware that if you do go at night, cars come down the road very fast, there are no street-lights, and if it's cold then wrap up, as the wind howls straight down the road.
     Anyway, back to where you were standing. Cross the road to your right and walk towards the Sneyd Arms pub. This pub is nice inside, the food is generally qualitative and at a reasonable price, and the drink is just about average for this area (around £1.80 to £2.10 per pint). Rumour has it that the landlady who took it over about 2 years ago disliked students and many of the locals also stopped using it as their local for reasons of the atmosphere, but students (especially from Hawthorns halls of residence - see later) often go down there for a change. Note that, in case you arrange to meet people there, that there are two Sneyd Arms pubs - the other one being on Keele Road, down (relative to Keele University) from the Thistleberry pub and on the right-hand side.
     If you went further down the main road you've just crossed (away, rather than doubling back, from where you've come), you'll come to the Post Office, behind the Sneyd Arms. The box-office reception in the Students' Union building accepts parcels up to 1Kg in weight. Anything larger than this, and anything requiring recorded delivery, must be taken elsewhere, and this is the closest place to the campus to do it. If you're also conscious about supporting the community rather than the expensive on-campus Thoroughgoods, the Post Office also sports a general store where you can buy bread, milk etc.
     If you were to continue past the Post Office, then to the right you'll meet up with the Town Hall and to the left an entrance and the Keele Management Centre, which eventually leads to Hawthorns blocks

Turn right and go down the road which is off the main road, so that the front of the Sneyd Arms is to your left and the main road is tangentially behind you. This speed-bumped road contains the permanent, non-student residents of Keele Village, who often complain about the raucous and noise behaviour of the occupants of Hawthorns Hall, whose blocks mainly occupy the end of this road, to the left. Keep walking and you'll go past "Hawthorns Hall", the purported centre of Hawthorns activity. Since Hawthorns is so far off campus, many students living there prefer to use Templar Bar and its pool table an the music room. It also has an adequate computer room with Internet facilities and public phones.
     Note: If you don't like children, try and avoid living in Hawthorns. The village's school, St. John's, is situated down this road you'll probably walk down towards campus, and it's popular and very busy.
     Go down the road to the end, until it turns into a dirt track and there is a road going off to the left. The road to the left goes towards the back end of Hawthorns, which mainly comprises of blocks W to Z. The dirt track goes towards a small town called Silverdale, which has various pubs and the now-closed colliery.
     The Hawthorns blocks are mainly comprised of four-room flats with one kitchen and bathroom each. The blocks and their facilities, for the money and relative to the other blocks on offer, aren't too bad, but the huge down-side to and reason for this is that, given the distance away from campus, people prefer not to go there. The main two reasons for this is that living on campus brings with it the student atmosphere as opposed to Hawthorns' isolation, and of course it takes ages to get on campus. If you apply to live on campus late, you're most likely to get a place on Hawthorns rather than anywhere else.

Double back and go down the way you came. Go down the long, straight path, past the picturesque view to your right in the clearing (if you're observant and it's light you will have noticed it on the way up - I wanted you to notice it yourself as a surprise), past Holly Cross, until you get to the next junction, on your left (before the bus stop and Lindsay Halls). Cross the road and go down this road, opposite the car park you can see to the right of the pavement you were previously walking. Continue down this road, past the Covert (family residences) on your left, the back end of the Computer Science department on your right. Eventually to your left you will see the Leisure Centre, which houses a gym, sports track and various indoor courts. It also contains a place that sells pizza.

Continue to the end of the road, where you'll meet the roundabout mentioned at the start of your voyage. To the left is, to refresh your memory, Barnes Halls of Residence. If you walked on the path behind these halls, obscured in the middle of nowhere is the Pig and Rat, another popular student-run pub-like entertainments building with a bar.
     Turn right at the roundabout and walk once more down the road. To the left you'll go past the Darwin building, with its green arched entrance, and eventually you'll get back to the car park from which you started, situated on your left. You have walked down the main link-road round from one end (the roundabout) to the other Hawthorns), becoming acquainted with all Halls of Residence, then you went down the road supplying a direct route between Lindsay and Holly Cross to the Leisure Centre and Darwin Building.

If you have time and it's a reasonable hour, I suggest that you:

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