Student's Union's Bloomsbury Shop

Students’ Union UCL opened the Bloomsbury Shop on Monday, 16th January, its second campus convenience store after the Pool Street Shop, which opened in December.

Modeled after Tesco Express and Sainsbury’s Local, according to the Students’ Union announcement of its opening, the Bloomsbury shop carries groceries, home essentials, office supplies, to-go coffees and food, including a £3.50 meal deal.

Liam Gorner, a first-year student who has tried the meal said, ‘The new shop looks great, and the service people are very helpful and kind.

Both the groceries and to-go food items include a variety of vegetarian and vegan options, and the shop’s Instagram page promotes sustainable brands, such as Alpro. The groceries include snacks, pantry stock, frozen goods, as well as fresh items.

According to Yuxing Guo, an employee of the Students’ Union at the Bloomsbury shop, the purpose of the new location is to ‘provide students with some services to have a convenient life where they can get what they want closer.’

Nestled in the basement level of the Wilkin’s Building South Cloisters and around the corner of  the Print Room Café, the shop is closer than the Tottenham Court Road Tesco Express to the main quad and much of the UCL Bloomsbury Campus. However, some students may find it a bit out-of-the-way :‘I don’t walk into this area too often,’ said Jiayan Lin, a first-year in psychology.

The shop’s entrance is guarded on either side by two cyan and white balloon structures, and the shop itself is painted white and light blue, different from the standard Students’ Union café yellow: ‘I think the decoration is pretty good,’ Lin said.

The Bloomsbury Shop is open from Monday to Friday from 08:00-18:00 to both those at UCL and the public. Students can follow for news and deals from it and the Pool Street Shop at UCL East on Instagram @theunionshops.