Students given chance to name new bar

Imperial College Union are running a poll to name the new student bar out in Acton, located on the site of the new Woodward hall.

The new hall of residence in North Acton will open in September and will be home to over 700 first year students, and there will be a new bar and restaurant based on the site ran jointly by Imperial College Union and the College Campus services.

In a similar set up to h-bar, campus services will oversee the provision of food at the location and the Union will take care of the management of the bar.

Suggested names include One Victoria Road, The Foundry, West Three, Urban Oak, The Contingency, The 1923 and The Meter. Also you can submit your own suggestions.

The poll is more so to gauge opinion of the names already being considered than a competition, although a union spokesperson said: “if there is a popular favourite not on the list we may go for that.”

Felix is aware that so far, over 40 suggestions of the name “The Library” has been made through the Union website, whilst around 30 other suggestions for the name “The Kaye Bar” have also been submitted.

The Union ran a similar scheme back in 2010, for students to name the bars based in Beit Quad before they were re-opened in the November of that year. Before the redevelopment of the Union bars, the nightclub was known as dB’s and the bar was known as Da Vinci’s.

Students were invited to email in ideas to rename the venues directly to the Union, and a list of over 150 suggested was whittled down to a shortlist for each venue.

A shortlist was announced for the new nightclub (now Metric), which included alternative names such as Neighbourhood, Lab, Theory and Iris.

Interestingly, the original shortlist for FiveSixEight didn’t feature its current name on the first shortlist; options instead included The Library, Consort, Crown and Shield and, simply, Quad.

However there was outcry over the names available, with a group of students setting up a Facebook group in support of the name “Rock Bottom” attracting considerable attention.

Students could then vote online for the name of their choice. The name “Metric” received over 200 votes, but for the bar area, the name Consort actually won with 131 votes, followed closely by the Library that received 126.

The Union decided to re-open nominations for new suggestions for the name, and eventually settled on calling the bar FiveSixEight.

Said a Union spokesperson: “Imperial College Union is excited to be part of ensuring that the student experience for residents of Woodward Hall is the best it can be.

“The new bar and restaurant, alongside the gym, offer some great social and activity spaces for students living in the hall as well as those who live nearby.

“We are working closely with Campus Services to ensure that the nearly 700 students get the best possible welcome and on-going sense of community.

“The opportunity for students to have an input on the name of the new bar and restaurant is just one little part of that.”

The poll is open now, and you can submit your choice at https://www.imperialcollegeunion.org/help-us-name-new-bar-woodward-hall.