Are you going to study at the University of Aberdeen? Not sure yet where to stay? If you are considering staying with Unite Students at King Street Exchange and want to find more about it, then continue reading this post!
If you are still unsure about where to stay, or what options are available, then why not check out my guide to student accommodation in Aberdeen.
In this post, I´m going to tell you all about King Street Exchange and share my experience of living there. Also, I will include some photos of what it looks like inside. For more tips and some video footage, check out the video below:
Check out King Street Exchange and Other Aberdeen Student Accommodation in my Video:
I stayed at King Street Exchange during the first term of my second year at Aberdeen University.
I had initially planned to stay with Liberty Living in Linksfield Road, which is now also owned by Unite Students and called Linksfield House (check out my review here), however they were already fully booked when I tried to re-book.
That´s the reason why I needed to find a different place, which ended up being Unite Students – King Street Exchange.
Unite Students is the main provider of student accommodation in Aberdeen, and with 8 different sites in total, there are plenty of options to choose from!
Unite Students King Street Exchange Aberdeen – Review
1) Booking Process:
Booking a room with Unite Students was very easy. Since I was already in Aberdeen at the time, I filled out some paperwork on site, rather than booking online.
I did also have to fill out some things on their website, but that was also very straightforward.
2) Arrival:
I had a very pleasant experience moving into King Street Exchange. Over the summer, I had stored my things with Flexi Store (I´d really recommend them). However, they were only able to deliver my things on a weekday and move-in day was on a Saturday. I didn´t really want to wait until Monday to have my things delivered, but thankfully, Unite Students allowed me to have my boxes delivered a few days before my arrival. They even carried my things up to my room for me, which was great, because they were very heavy! So, when I got there, everything was already up in my room, ready to be unpacked! Excellent!
Everyone on site was very welcoming upon arrival. I was also grateful at how patient they were with me, when I had to go down several times to get someone to help me back into my flat. Haha, it took me a while to figure out how to use the fobs to open the doors to the flat and my room… 😉
In the evening, they provided pizza and drinks and had arranged a welcome event for people to get to know one another. So, all in all, a very good start to my time there.
3) Site, Flat and Room
a) Site
King Street Exchange consists of 4 blocks that have multiple flats. Between the blocks there is a small courtyard, with the carpark, bike storage and bins. When you come in, there is a reception area for enquiries and picking up parcels. The washing room has 3 washing machines and 3 tumble driers, which isn´t a lot for the number of people that stay there. It could be very hard at times to find a free machine.
Inside Tip: Saturday mornings are great for doing your washing, when everyone else is still in bed sleeping or curing their Friday-night-hangover.
They also have a vending machine with a few snacks and often had free tea/coffee/hot chocolate, fruit or snacks lying out for people to take, which was quite nice.
Unfortunately, there is no common room at King Street Exchange to hang out it, which makes it a bit harder to meet people from other flats. Events put on in the common rooms at other sites (e.g. Causeway View or The Old Fire Station), however, are open to students staying at KSE to attend, too.
b) Flat
I think all rooms at King Street Exchange have an en-suite bathroom. You share the kitchen and living room with 3-5 other people (i.e. they are 4-bed or 6-bed flats).
Careful: The King Street Exchange building is right behind the TSB bank. Some of the rooms (I think mainly in block 2) have a concrete wall 30cm in front of their bedroom window. That means the rooms get no natural light whatsoever.
I would make sure when booking that you confirm that you will not be staying in one of those rooms.
Blocks 1, 2 and 3 face the street and might be a bit noisier, as King Street is a busy road. I stayed in block 1 though, and as annoying as it may be at times, you tend to get used to it. Block 4 is furthest away from the main road.
c) Room and Bathroom
The bedrooms at King Street Exchange are a reasonable size (for student accommodation that is). They are laid out in exactly the same way as the rooms in New Carnegie at Hillhead.
The rooms are slightly smaller than the ones at Liberty Living Linksfield (now known as Unite Students Linksfield House), on the other hand the bathroom is slightly bigger.
The bathroom is an okay size for one person. Storage-wise, there is a small ledge above the toilet to keep your things. The shower has a shower curtain instead of a door and is very tiny. The most annoying thing about it though, was that you couldn´t move the shower head. And as I am not a tall person, the water just tended to spray over my head, hit the opposite wall and never reach me…XD
Oh well, first world problems….
The bedroom comes with a large desk, two shelves and bed-side table (yay!). As far as I can remember, a desk lamp or bin weren´t provided.
Tip: Bring your own desk lamp. Even if a lamp is provided, they are normally pretty useless. I bought myself a desk lamp from IKEA when I moved to university and I absolutely love it. If you are interested, follow this link to the IKEA website (FORSÅ desk lamp). It´s probably one of my favourite things in my room, and I haven´t had to change the bulb once in the last three years!
The bed is ¾ sized and there is storage space under the bed, however it can only be accessed by lifting up the mattress, which can be a bit of a pain. What I also really liked, is that besides the big light for the room, they also had a small reading light above the bed.
d) Living Room and Kitchen
Kitchen in 6 Bed Flat 
Kitchen 
Sofas and Coffee Table 
Large Kitchen Windows 
Breakfast Bar
The layout of the kitchen and living room definitely varies from flat to flat. I am not entirely sure about other flats as I didn´t really go to anyone else´s flat at KSE, but our layout was arguably the best! Other flats sometimes only have one window, which makes the kitchen/living room area a bit dark. At least, that´s what one of the show flats I saw looked like.
I think that in all flats, the living room and kitchen are combined, which is definitely a plus. That means people can hang out in the living room as the same time as other people are eating or cooking their dinner.
We had a flat where the kitchen/living room area had very big windows, flooding the room with light. You could even see the sea from there! Not all flats have this layout though, it is only some of the flats in block 1.
Tip: If you are wanting to stay at King Street Exchange, ask to be in one of the flats in Block 1 that have the large windows. It makes the space so much nicer to spend time in, plus you have an excellent view of King Street, the MacRobert building and the sea!
Decent amount of kitchen cupboard space…
The kitchen felt very spacious, since it was combined with the living room. Everyone had 2 cupboards to store their food and kitchen equipment in. There was 1 hob and one sink for the six of us to share. As my flatmates weren´t too big on cooking that was never an issue though.
There was one large fridge freezer and a small fridge for everyone. That meant everyone could use one shelf in the fridge, however the space in the 4 freezer drawers could be a bit tight at times. But we found a way to work around it.
The kitchen and living space are separated by a big breakfast bar with six stools. In the living room area we had 2 large sofas and a small coffee table.
4) Events
As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, King Street Exchange hosted a welcome event with pizza and drinks on the first day of arrivals. Downstairs near reception they also had a small table, where sometimes they would provide free hot drinks and snacks for you to take.
However, due to the lack of a common room, there weren´t really any other events organised at King Street Exchange. On the other hand, as there are multiple Unite Student sites in Aberdeen, they often hosted events at the Old Fire Station or Causeway View, that were open for all residents of Unite Students to attend. You can find more out about the other Unite Students sites in Aberdeen in my Guide To Student Accommodation.
5) Staff:
The staff on site were genuinely friendly. Sometimes I felt like one hand didn´t quite know what the other was doing, but everything worked out in the end.
A lady came to give the kitchen a bit of a clean every two weeks which was good. 👍
6) Location, location, location:
Similar to Linksfield House (used to be known as Liberty House Linksfield), the location is probably King Street Exchange´s main selling point. It is located directly next to the roundabout where St Machar´s Drive meets King Street. Therefore, it is situated directly next to the MacRobert building – you can get to the lecture theatre in 2 mins! Perfect for a 9am lecture…
It is also only a 5-10-minute walk from the library, the Zoology building and Aberdeen Sports Village. Lidl is a 10-minute walk away and there is a SPAR shop directly opposite King Street Exchange. However, despite its convenience, it is severely over-priced and the selection isn’t great (in my humble opinion…). I´d therefore recommend walking to the Tesco Express next to the sports village instead.
The walk into town from King Street exchange is a bit further, I´d say it takes between 25 and 30 minutes. Morrisons is a 20-minute walk away. However, the bus stop is just outside the front door, making it easy to jump on the bus if you don´t feel like walking.
7) Conclusion:
I would definitely recommend staying at King Street Exchange. That is, if you can avoid having a bedroom with a view of the concrete wall of the TSB bank! And if possible, try and ask to be in the flat with the large kitchen window.
Apart from that, King Street Exchange is in a superb location for university and the sports village. It is also very close to Lidl and if you are not in the mood for a long walk, having the bus stop just outside the door is perfect.
If you have any other questions regarding King Street Exchange, feel free to leave me a comment below. I´d be happy to answer any queries.
Still unsure where to stay? Then why not read my guide on student accommodation in Aberdeen, or read about other places I would recommend staying including Linksfield House (also Unite Students) or the Student Roost on Pittodrie Street.
