Inside City Campus: Bars, basements and hidden gardens

Welcome to the centre of the world — or at least the centre of Copenhagen — where  fresh-faced students begin their climb up the ladder of power (or toward a desk job at City Hall) while others try to save the planet.

For most students at the University of Copenhagen (UCPH), the central CSS campus is synonymous with the Centre for Health and Society — known for its Danish acronym CSS — housed in the former municipal hospital opposite the Botanical Garden. It is home to psychology, sociology, economics, political science and anthropology students, all from the Faculty of Social Sciences. They share the campus with students of Public Health Science from the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, and master’s students in Global Development, Security Risk Management, and Social Data Science.

In the actual Copenhagen city centre, the oldest part of the city, you won’t find many students these days — well, apart from those at the Studenterhuset student café on Købmagergade 52. This is because in 2017 the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Theology moved out of the heart of the city and down to South Campus on Amager. Nowadays, only central university management and the administration remain in the beautiful historic buildings off the Frue Plads square.

The University Post newsroom is based in the Studenterhuset building on Købmagergade street.

How to get around: It is really hard to find your way around the CSS campus — and that’s completely fine. This is the place where navigation goes to die. You could earn your bachelor’s degree without ever finding all of the three cafeterias. The buildings’ past life as a hospital means that the architecture is not designed to support student life. Get used to standing in a — probably very cosy — corner thinking: ‘Wait, I thought building X was here,’ and wondering how to teleport your body through the walls separating you from your auditorium. If you’re directionally challenged more than most, you can look forward to the fact that the entire CSS campus is relocating to South Campus in the coming years. Not that it’s easy to find your way around out there either. But at least there are no secret gardens or endless underground corridors.

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Study guidance: Social Science student services offer guidance on all programmes. You can find them here.

Reading rooms: You’ll find good spots to study sprinkled throughout the campus corridors. On the ground floor of Building 4 is the CSS study library, which includes three identical silent reading rooms and a newspaper lounge where talking is allowed. Good luck finding a spot if you arrive after 10 am though. You can also head down to the basement of Building 7, better known as ‘the prison’. The good thing about the prison is that there’s always space. The bad thing is that there’s no oxygen. If you’re into study groups, you can also book group rooms in several buildings. Just around the corner on Gothersgade is the Faculty of Social Sciences Library, where you can immerse yourself in rooms styled like an American diner or themed with bananas.

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Lecture halls: CSS has two large, recently built auditoriums — the Christian Hansen Auditorium in the northwestern corner, and the main auditorium in the basement of Building 35 (plus two smaller auditoriums in the same building). But you won’t be spending all your time there. Most of your classes will take place in rooms that clearly weren’t designed for teaching — featuring, for example, large concrete pillars that, if you’re seated wrong, block your view of all the whiteboards in the room.

Canteens: There are three: A large one in the basement of Building 5, a small one in the basement of Building 4, and a trendy café in Building 35. As with other canteens at the University of Copenhagen, prices can be steep for students on a tight student budget — which is why many students eat packed lunches in the courtyard. The large canteen offers a self-service buffet, while the smaller, street food-style, canteen serves up a daily vegetarian (and always vaguely defined) meal or a sandwich of your choice for the semi-student-friendly price of DKK 28.

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Coffee: Between lectures, a great migration begins toward the student-run café HippoCampus, located in the basement of Building 1. Here, a surprisingly good filter coffee in your own cup costs just six kroner (even for large thermos mugs that’ll last an entire lecture), or eight kroner without. The caffeine-addicted can pick up a ten cup loyalty card for DKK 60 — including a DKK 2 discount every time you bring your own mug. An astute maths student (from North Campus!) will quickly calculate that, in the long run, a full thermos costs just four tiny kroner. Of course, the canteens also serve coffee, but the prices are in another league — and not recommended toward the end of the month when your student grant is running low. At that point, you might venture into yet another basement — to Dræberkaninens [killer bunny, ed.] psychology students’ café in the basement of Building 2. Here, the coffee quality varies wildly, but you can still get a cup of filter coffee for just three kroner. And if you’re lucky, there might be cakes for one kroner apiece.

Friday bars: Each department has its own café/bar. Political science students have Jacques D, psychology students have Dræberkaninen, economists go to Cafélitten, and sociologists and anthropologists gather in the Cathedral — better known as Katten. The major Friday bar parties rotate between student clubs (you can find an overview of all student organisations at UCPH here). At CSS this is nearly every week, with Political Science, Psychology, and Economics taking turns to host proceedings. This is also the home of this campus’s loyal beer provider , where you can wash down the week’s lectures with freshly tapped craft beer from the draught for DKK 25–30. In Katten, you’ll stumble onto a packed (and steamy) dancefloor when Baumændene take turns throwing themed parties beneath the spinning disco ball. Anyone with a valid UCPH student card is welcome, and the party doesn’t end until the organisers give up.

The geologists, for their part, have the Geobar on Øster Voldgade street — a lovely little cave with rotating, specialty-beer-themed events. Prices are reasonable — reportedly thanks to unintentional discounts from the charmingly unmotivated bar staff.

Dress code: Ranges from layer-upon-layer in previously unseen combinations, thrifted dresses, tooth jewellery, and nose piercings (everyone stands out so much that no one does), to civil servant-chic, lint-free economics students, and political science students flaunting their Finance Ministry ID badges tucked into their belt loops from their student jobs.

Online: CSS students can’t make do with just one virtual community — so there are two Facebook groups you’ll want to join. One is for posts with academic relevance (Faglige arrangementer på CSS), and the other keeps you updated on parties and student life (Sociale arrangementer på CSS).

Hiding spots: The hospital patients were meant to be surrounded by greenery. This works to your advantage now as a student at CSS. The chaotic campus is full of cosy courtyards, nooks and gardens where you can be alone — or hide out with friends. There are also plenty of group rooms and small, unused corners along the corridors. Pro tip: Try finding the secret garden at CSS, the Hemmelige Have, or get lost and stumble across another magical spot along the way — just remember, it’s called ‘secret’ for a reason.

You can also find peace and quiet across the street in the Botanical Gardens, or in the nearby Østre Anlæg park by the National Gallery of Denmark.

This first version of this article was written in Danish and published in 2018. It has been continually updated, with the latest Danish update on 14 August 2025. It has been translated into English and post-edited by Mike Young.