Skip to content

Matters relating to student accommodation are handled by the Accommodation Office. We also cover some other areas of student life in College. Please click on the topics below for more information:

  1. Student Accommodation
  2. Students hosting Guests in College
  3. ‘Public’ (Communal) Rooms
  4. Replacement University Cards
  5. Controlling Salto Access (on University Cards)
  6. Bicycle Registration
  7. Term Day Passes

For enquiries about any of these matters, please email accommodation@trin.cam.ac.uk, or come to the Office during opening hours if you wish to discuss them in person.

  1. Student Accommodation

(including the allocation of rooms in College, graduate hostels and flats)

Ballots are held by the Accommodation Office every year for the allocation of rooms for different student year groups. If you are eligible to enter a particular ballot, you will be contacted in due course with details of how to enter. Please see our Typical Rooms page for more information about the areas available in each ballot.

At the beginning of every academic year, students in College will be issued with a Licence to Occupy which outlines the dates of their entitlement to term-time accommodation. The fixed termly Rental Period can also be found in Section 3.6 of the Accommodation Handbook. The Accommodation Office administers requests relating to residing in College outside of these times (i.e. during the vacations); this is handled via the exeat system, with the addition of ‘long vacation accommodation request forms’ for the summer vacations.

2. Hosting of Students’ Guests in College

There are a limited number of rooms in College which are reserved for students’ guests (and visiting alumni of the College). If you wish to book a guest room, please contact the Accommodation Department by email; please give your guest’s name and the date(s) you are requesting. Dependent on availability, current students may book 1 guest room for a single guest for a maximum of 3 consecutive nights. Due to the small number of guest rooms available at one time, these allowances cannot be exceeded. Please see Section 3.12 of the Accommodation Handbook for the rules about accommodating guests, and subsection (a) for guest room prices for the current academic year.

The Accommodation Office also needs to give permission if you wish to host a guest in your own room for more than 2 nights at a time. Students can have a guest stay with them in their own room, as long as they are over 18 and they are signed in at the Porters’ Lodge on arrival – please see Section 3.12(b) for more information. If the stay is for more than 2 out of any 7 nights, you will need to get permission from your tutor and the Accommodation Office in advance (a minimum of 5 working days’ notice is needed to consider these requests).

3. Booking of ‘Public’ (communal or meeting) Rooms by registered Societies

Trinity students on the committee of a registered Trinity Society may book a public room (if available) for their event through the Accommodation Office, and there will be no charge for the room. Trinity students on the committee of a registered University Society may likewise book a room, but please note that a room charge will be applied. In addition, University Societies may only make one room booking per academic term. Please see Section 12 of the White Book for more information.

Please email the Accommodation Department if you wish to book a public room, providing details of the planned room use. In the first instance, if a suitable room is available for your planned event, a provisional booking will be made. A booking form will then be sent to the student in charge of the booking, and this must be correctly completed (with signatures from a number of departments/officials in College) and returned in good time in order for the event to be confirmed. This applies to both Trinity and University societies.

4.Replacement University Cards

Please contact the Accommodation Office if your card is lost, stolen or broken. A replacement card will be ordered for you, for collection from the Office during opening hours (please see above). Please note that in some cases a charge will be raised for a replacement card; if your card was stolen, please supply a crime number (obtained when you report a theft to the Police) so that you will not be charged for a replacement.

5. University Card Access

The Accommodation Office can add access to your card if required. Some areas of College are restricted by Salto locks to which only certain people may have access. If you think you should have access to somewhere that you cannot open, please contact us to let us know. We may need to contact the party in control of the lock for authorisation, or we may ask you to provide proof from them that you have permission to access this area.

6. Bicycle Registration

Any bicycle parked on Trinity property must have a current registration sticker, issued by the Accommodation Office. Stickers are valid for one academic year. Please note that each student may only have one bike in College, so only one sticker will be issued per student. Monitoring of bikes parked in College will be carried out periodically by the Works Department, and unregistered bikes will be removed. Please see Section 4.6(b) of the Accommodation Handbook for more details.

At the beginning of every academic year, spaces in the College’s underground bike storage areas are allocated by the Accommodation Department. Students who are entitled to apply for these spaces (due to the area of College they live in) will be contacted to let them know how to apply, and a ballot will be held if spaces are oversubscribed. Due to uptake rate for these spaces, there will not normally be spares available later in the year. Please note that the College accepts no responsibility for loss or damage to bikes on College property, including inside the underground storage areas.

7.Term Day Passes

Trinity Street is within the Cambridge City Centre Controlled Pedestrian Zone, and access is restricted by Cambridge County Council by rising bollards (located outside St. John’s College). These block unauthorised traffic from 10am to 4pm, Monday to Saturday.

The areas of College affected by the Pedestrian Zone are Angel Court, Blue Boar Court, Whewell’s Court and the Wolfson Building. Students accommodated here who wish to bring or remove their belongings by car are advised to do this either outside the restricted hours on Monday to Saturday, or at any time on a Sunday. However, students who live more than 90 miles from Cambridge, who have difficulty planning their journey to arrive outside the restricted times, may apply for a Term Day Pass to allow entry into the Pedestrian Zone. These Passes are issued by the Accommodation Office for designated ‘term days’ only.

Information about Term Day Passes will be sent out to all students living in the above parts of College towards the end of the each term. This will include details of the days which have been designated as ‘term days’ by the Council (usually one Saturday for the end of term, and one for the start of term). Students wishing to apply for a pass on either or both of these days will be advised of how to do so, and will be contacted when Passes are ready for collection.

Back To Top
College Crest


Contact us

        MyTrin | Student Hub

Access and Outreach Hub