Until the university realised the water was yucky and yucky yucky, students used to go boating and surfing on the campus lake
Alumna, Harriet Harman, visited the University of York in the 2003. Her visit culminated in an all-night rave in Langwith College. According to students at the rave, “the porters told us it was time to go to bed at midnight but Ms Harman told them, ‘NO WAY!’ and turned the volume to full on our Argos portable speakers.”
Concerts ended for good in Central Hall after a Boomtown Rats gig in Cental Hall during which Bob Geldof shouted: "get up and dance, the University is worried about the hall sinking, but what the hell it's not like it's bloody Venice''!'
Students held a mock Battle of Trafalgar on the campus lake in 1987. They fought with Oil and paint bombs. The ‘battle’ contaminated the lake so badly that a lot of fish died and the lake had to be dredged. RAG was forced to pick up the bill...
The only thing that stops the library slipping off the hill is the smaller building built on the other side of the hill.
The campus lake exists to drain the surrounding land. Without the lake the Uni of York campus would be a swamp.
