Royal Holloway Nightlife and SU Venues

Royal Holloway's nightlife works differently from a city university's. The campus sits in parkland outside a small town, which means the Students' Union is not one option among many - it is the centre of the whole thing. That turns out to be a feature rather than a limitation, but it is worth understanding before you arrive expecting a strip of clubs.

At a glance

• The Venue: the SU's 1,440-capacity nightclub, and the main club nights in term time.
• Medicine: indoor bar plus an outdoor beer garden, part of the SU club-night programme.
• The Packhorse: the SU pub, and the cheapest food and drink on campus.
• Tommy's: a more relaxed bar and lounge for a drink with a DJ rather than a full night out.
• Crosslands: bar, pizza, pool table and regular live music in the Founder's Building.
• Off campus: pubs in Egham and Englefield Green; clubs mean Staines, Windsor, Kingston or London.

The Students' Union venues

The SU runs the main nightlife on campus, and your student ID card is your union membership, so it is what gets you in.

• The Venue is the big one - a 1,440-capacity nightclub that hosts the weekly club nights during term. This is where the large events land, including most of the Welcome Week programme.
• Medicine has an indoor bar and an outdoor beer garden, and sits in the SU's club-night rotation. The beer garden makes it the obvious early-evening choice when the weather allows, which on this campus is a real consideration.
• The Packhorse is the SU pub: food, drink deals and a pub atmosphere rather than a club one. It is the reliable answer to "somewhere to sit and talk".
• Tommy's is the lounge and bar end of the SU building - a smaller space with a DJ, good for a drink that does not have to turn into a night.

Club-night names, days and line-ups are set by the Students' Union each year and genuinely do change between cohorts, so a name you heard from someone in their third year may not exist any more. The SU's own listings are the source, and the events feature in RHUL Mobile carries the same listings as they are published, so you can see what is actually on this week.

Crosslands and the quieter end

Not every night out is a club night, and Crosslands in the Founder's Building is the best thing on campus for the other kind. It has a fully stocked bar, does pizza in the evenings, and has a pool table, table football, board games and regular live music. It works for a Tuesday when nobody wants a big one, and it is the venue most likely to turn a coffee into an evening. The food side of it is covered in the campus food and drink guide.

Societies are the other half of this. A great deal of Royal Holloway's social life runs through society socials rather than through the SU's own programme, and those are often the cheaper and more sociable nights. The societies feature lists what is running, and the Welcome Week guide covers the freshers fair, which is where you sign up to most of them.

Off campus: Egham and Englefield Green

Set expectations correctly: Egham is a town with pubs, not clubs. There are good pubs in Egham and up in Englefield Green, and they are a pleasant walk or a short bus ride from campus - genuinely worth doing, particularly for a Sunday rather than a Saturday. But if you are looking for a nightclub, you are looking off campus and out of Egham.

Getting back matters more here than it does in a city. The Diamond Bus RHU runs between Egham Station and the Founder's Building at a £1 flat fare and runs late, and it is tracked live in the bus times feature. Details of first and last departures are in the RHU guide, and the Egham station guide covers the walk up the hill if you have missed the last one.

Staines, Windsor, Kingston and London

For a proper night off campus, the realistic options are:

• Staines, about 2 miles away, is the nearest town with bars and clubs, and the usual default.
• Windsor is a short train ride and a nicer evening out than a heavy one.
• Kingston has considerably more going on and is a common destination for a bigger night.
• Central London is reachable from Egham, which is the real advantage of this campus over a genuinely remote one.

The thing to plan around is the return. Egham's train service thins out late, and the difference between catching the last train and not is the difference between a night out and an expensive taxi. Check the last train before you go, not at midnight. The getting to Royal Holloway guide covers the routes in both directions.

Tickets, ID and staying sensible

• Bring your student card. It is your SU membership and your entry.
• Buy ahead for big events. Welcome Week events and the larger club nights sell out, and the door is not a reliable backup.
• Know how you are getting back before you go out, especially off campus. It is a dark walk up Egham Hill.
• The SU is the safest option going. On-campus venues mean a short walk home, staff who work with students all year, and no last train to miss.

If a night goes wrong, or the drinking culture of the first few weeks is not something you want to be part of, the wellbeing and support guide covers what support exists. Plenty of societies run entirely dry socials, and nobody at this university will think less of you for it.

Check the SU listings

This is an independent guide, not an official Royal Holloway or Students' Union page. Venues get refurbished and renamed, club nights change names every couple of years, and opening times move with the term. The SU's own channels are authoritative for what is on, and the live events feed in RHUL Mobile mirrors them as they publish.