What to bring to Imperial halls: the actual list

First-year undergraduates live in one of six halls across three parts of London. Beit Hall, Eastside and Southside sit beside the South Kensington Campus, five minutes or less on foot. Wilson House is in Paddington, around 25 minutes by tube or a 30-minute walk across Hyde Park. Woodward Buildings and Kemp Porter Buildings are in North Acton, about 40 minutes from South Kensington on the tube. Where you live changes what you pack, so check your offer before you fill a suitcase.

Some things are the same in every hall. The rent includes utility bills, internet, basic contents insurance, maintenance and communal cleaning. Nearly every room has a desk and chair, a desk lamp, a desk fan, a mirror, a noticeboard, a bookcase or shelf, hanging space, a laundry basket and curtains or blinds. The hanging space comes without hangers, though, so pack your own.

Bed sizes differ between halls, which is why Imperial's own list asks for flat double sheets rather than fitted singles. Beds in Beit Hall and Wilson House are 3 ft wide (0.91 m), and those in Woodward and Kemp Porter are 4 ft (1.22 m). Standard rooms in Eastside and Southside have 0.91 m beds; premium rooms go up to 1.37 m in Eastside and 1.22 m in Southside. A number of basement rooms in Wilson House use Study Beds, which measure 0.91 by 1.91 m.

Kitchens are shared, from cluster flats of six to ten others in Kemp Porter to big shared kitchens on each floor of Eastside and Southside, so whatever you bring is cooking for a crowd. Before you buy, agree with your flatmates who's bringing what. And if you're heading to Woodward or Kemp Porter, look at 'Room to Reuse' first: free, pre-loved household and kitchen items for new arrivals, cleaned and, in the case of electricals, safety-tested, while stocks last.

Past the furniture, you won't need much for the bedroom: a duvet and pillows, flat double sheets, hangers, an Ethernet cable and something that makes the room feel like yours. Put photos on the noticeboard, because the licence doesn't allow drawing pins, blu-tack or anything else that marks the walls.

Imperial's kitchen list runs to cutlery, utensils, crockery, glassware, a few pots and pans ("not too many - space is limited!"), oven trays, food containers, washing-up liquid, a sponge, tea towels and some mild cleaning products. The containers are especially useful if you have allergies, which is why the university singles them out. Kettles, rice cookers, coffee makers and air-fryers are allowed, but in the kitchen only, never in your bedroom. Sandwich toasters, hot plates, pressure cookers and deep-fat fryers aren't allowed anywhere.

Towels aren't included anywhere, so bring two sets, along with toiletries for the first week or two and some toilet roll; all three are on the university's list. Eastside, Southside, Woodward and Kemp Porter are en-suite throughout. In Beit Hall and Wilson House it depends on your room: standard rooms share bathrooms, in Wilson House usually by three or four students, so pack a shower caddy and a pair of flip-flops. In an en-suite, the only electricals Imperial wants used are shavers and toothbrushes.

Every hall has a 24-hour laundry room with washers, dryers, irons and ironing boards, paid for by card on the room's tablet or through the Circuit app. Bring detergent, and make it pods: the machines have no drawers.

For tech, bring your laptop and chargers, an Ethernet cable for the wired port and a pair of headphones. Some smart devices, from TVs to games consoles and smart speakers, may not connect to the halls WiFi, and a TV in your room needs a TV licence, which the rent doesn't include.

London gets around 616 mm of rain a year at Heathrow, by the Met Office's records, and October, your first full month in halls, averages 65 mm. A waterproof jacket with a proper hood and a warm layer to go under it will see you through most of the first term.

How you get to lectures depends on the hall. From Beit, Eastside and Southside, campus is a short walk, and Imperial's Ethos sports centre sits right next to Eastside and Southside. From Wilson House, it's 25 minutes on the tube from Paddington, a 30-minute walk through Hyde Park or 15 minutes by bike. From Woodward and Kemp Porter, North Acton station is two minutes away and South Kensington around 40 minutes on the tube, or 35 to 50 minutes by bike; a monthly travelcard for zones 1 and 2 covers the commute.

Leave the car at home. Imperial's halls, like most of central London, have no parking and only a short stop for unloading on arrival day, so plan the move around that, ideally with public transport for part of the journey.

Keep your documents together: photo ID and your CID number, and if you're coming from outside the UK, your passport, the sign-in details for the UKVI account that holds your eVisa, and your CAS. Imperial asks you to label boxes and cases in English with your full name, CID number, hall name and "Imperial College London", and not to send parcels ahead: before you arrive, halls accept deliveries only from UniKitOut.

Register with a GP as soon as you've moved in. Imperial points residents of Beit, Eastside, Southside and Wilson House to the Imperial College Health Centre, and Woodward and Kemp Porter residents to the Cloister Road Surgery; for anything urgent, NHS 111 works whether you're registered or not. And a few house rules to know before you pack: no smoking or vaping indoors, no pets apart from registered assistance animals, day visitors between 08.00 and 23.00, and no overnight guests unless your hall allows them. Beit Hall residents must be 18 or over.