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The Uni University niversity t of Bristol's Aw ty Award A ard Winning Independent p Student Newspaper spap
Eve Davies
Creating safer homes for students
Arts Subeditor
T
01.02.25
he summer before I started university was a heady mix of excitement and preparation. I spent hours scrolling through TikTok, eagerly watching videos about Bristol’s vibrant nightlife, quirky cafés, and buzzing student societies. I pored over my reading lists and dreamt of decorating my first student flat. What I didn’t anticipate, however, was that most of my student loan would evaporate into paying for damp, subpar accommodation— and that I’d end up living alongside an unwelcome, fungal housemate.
Mould. For students, the concept of ‘making yourself at home’ feels more like a joke than an invitation when your walls are speckled with black spots, your wardrobe is infiltrated by green fuzz, and you’re frantically Googling ‘Can mould kill me?’ at 2 a.m. Mould has become the unofficial mascot of student housing in Bristol—an uninvited guest lurking in damp corners, creeping through cupboards, and slowly digesting everything from poetry anthol-
ogies to Christmas jumpers. For many students, it’s more than just an eyesore; it’s a health hazard. Take, for instance, the experience of one second-year student who asked to remain anonymous: ‘When [the letting agency] moved my wardrobe, it was completely covered in mould. I had to throw some of my clothes out too,’ they explained. But the impact went further than ruined outfits. ‘I started getting tightness in my chest and headaches before bed.
When I changed my sheets, I found a massive patch of mould on the wall that had transferred to my pillow. I had to throw it away and replace it.’ For Molly, a second-year student, the effects of mould were even more severe. ‘I ended up needing four rounds of antibiotics, an inhaler, and even more antibiotics for my ribs because it hurt too much to breathe’, she recalled. Yet when students turn to landlords or letting agencies for
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help, the response is depressingly familiar: ‘Just open a window.’ The neglect students endure is astonishing. On Bristol based letting agency, which was mentioned to us multiple times, seems to have become synonymous with mould-related horror stories amongst the student body. One student shared a particularly vivid account: ‘Avoid [the lettings agent] like the plague.
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Editorial News Opinion Features Break the Mould Arts 16 Film & TV 18 Music 20 Sci-Tech 22 Sport 24 Mould Poster
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