Owens Park
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Owens Park is one of the major student accommodation blocks in the Fallowfield Campus, Fallowfield, Manchester. It houses 1,056 students from the University of Manchester.
Owens Park comprises five main residential blocks (Tower, Tree Court, Green Court, Little Court and the Mall), an entertainment block (referred to as The Tower Bar), where the weekly Owens Park BOP ('Big Old Party') takes place, and an administration/library block. It also contains a computer cluster available to all students of the University.
The residential blocks are internally sub-divided into 'houses', each housing approximately 30-40 students of mixed sex, though any given floor in a house is single sex with exception to the tower. Each house has a supervising tutor and a common room. Each floor in a house has its own bathroom and kitchen (though the kitchen closest to a common room is often used by the whole house rather than its intended floor). However, the halls are catered during the week.
There are generally rivalries between adjacent houses and other halls of residence, these can be contested in sporting events such as football as each halls of residence generally have a team. Football matches are held each Wednesday and the occasional Saturday (for cup matches).
The 61m high [1] Owens Park tower is a local landmark. Plans on the part of the University of Manchester to demolish the tower have been abandoned as a result of protests of current and past residents at its iconic status. As of 2005, a refurbishment programme is planned, however as of yet no action has been taken.
The Owens Park tower is plagued by frequent false fire alarms. These are mostly intentionally set off, often by intoxicated students activating the push-buttons on the walls or smoking underneath smoke sensors, but can also result from cooking. Throughout the year more students choose to ignore the fire alarms due to their frequency, putting themselves in danger. It is rare that the tower will go a week during term time without a false fire alarm.
Radiohead guitarist Ed O'Brien was a resident during his time at university in Manchester. The Chemical Brothers played their first gig at the Owens Park BOP.
[edit] Bop
The Owens Park BOP (Big Old Party) is a night held in Owens Park every Friday in the Owens Park tower's ball room for students of the University of Manchester. The BOP generally has a theme and is free for all residents of Owens Park but has a charge of £3.50 for all other entrants. Only students are allowed to enter the BOP and a student card must be presented at the door of entry.
The BOP is a popular student night out due to its low cost on drinks and transport as most of the BOP's customers are residents of local student halls of residence, however Owens Park residents have been known to become disgruntled at the high level of students from other halls of residence coming to the event due to the large queues it creates to gain access.
The BOP usually has a theme each week such as a western theme or a dead celebrity theme causing large amounts of students to dress up for the occasion.
The BOP is set out very much like a classic school disco except with the inclusion of the sale of alcohol. As a customer enters they are greeted with the main tower bar with its own DJ and a vast amount of seating, however the main draw of the BOP lies in the large hall upstairs. Upstairs there is a second bar and a foyer like drinking area, and next door there is a large conference hall. The large hall has a disco-like atmosphere and professional DJ on the stage, with small amounts of seating at the sides. The BOP is generally open from 8pm till around 2am, however times have been known to vary.
In 2001, a group of OP residents were involved in the theft of the popular nights iconic Bop Sign. Familiar to generations of Bop goers, the 4ft high individual red lettering spelling out the words, ‘The Bop’ was removed from its home above the DJ booth where it had hung since the early 1970’s. The elaborate plot saw the kidnappers proceed to hold the organisers of The Bop to ransom in a series of events that lasted throughout the year. The Bop sign was finally returned in 2004 in deal mediated by Student Direct.
The BOP is run by the Owens Park Student's Association Executive Committee (OPSA). The Committee is also in charge of running all other hall activities such as the pub quiz, kareoke, sports, and hall pub and club outings. More Recently OPSA has organised a BOP on tour to Amsterdam, and Fallowfest.
The BOP is known on a larger scale for being the venue of the Chemical Brothers first gig.
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