Living in Universitate, Bucharest
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The city's ground zero: the University, the square, the theatres and the Old Town a step away.
Universitate is the ground zero of Bucharest: the square from which distances are measured, the historic building of the Universitatea din București, the National Theatre, and from there down, the old town. It is a small, extremely central and symbolic area, where some of the decisive moments of the country's recent history took place.
Who lives here
Few people live here compared with how many pass through. Those who do are the ones who want the exact centre: students attending the central faculties, young professionals, a few long-standing residents in the flats above the arcades. Many flats are let short term, which makes the room market more mobile than elsewhere.
What it is like by day
By day it is a continuous flow. Students going in and out of the faculties, people crossing the square, historic bookshops, full cafés, the traffic of the big boulevards. This is the densest and most mixed Bucharest, where nineteenth-century buildings, interwar palaces and blocks from the communist period stand side by side.
What it is like in the evening
The evening is lively and noisy. The old town begins here and a few dozen metres away the streets of bars and restaurants start. Theatres and concert halls bring an evening crowd different from the one out drinking. This is an area that never entirely stops: the noise is part of the package.
Getting around
You need almost nothing to get about: you walk everywhere in the centre. Universitate station on the M2 is in the square and connects the north and south of the city; other network hubs are a short distance away. Trams and buses run along the boulevards. A car here is a problem rather than a resource: constant traffic and difficult parking.
Eating and shopping
The restaurant offer is enormous and covers every price range, from fast food to historic restaurants. For everyday shopping there are chain supermarkets in urban format and small shops; for a real market you have to travel, because the exact centre does not have a large one. This is an area where you eat out easily and shop with some compromises.
When NOT to choose it
If you need silence, this is not your area: evening noise, traffic and constant footfall are the norm. The flats are often old, with poor sound insulation and heating. It is the right choice for anyone who wants to live inside the city and go out on foot; the wrong one for anyone looking for calm and greenery.