I'd like to find a place that I can easily get to the Bloomsbury area via bus/tube/bike, but not too far away. looking to pay around 85-100ppw and I will be living with at least two other people, maybe 4.
Thus far areas like Hackney and Old Street seem like they fit that criteria. I know Hackney is not the safest of places, but if the rent is right . . .
Also, there are some pretty affordable places round the docklands area, but travel to bloomsbury every day might be a pain in the ass.
I have been looking at the site www.loot.com to find rentals available.
Can anyone suggest other areas which would be good?
That area would provide good acces to pretty much anywhere in london. Yes, a bit sketchy.
Other areas I've looked at are Clapham, but it seems a bit pricey, and far away from where I need to be. My gf lived in Southgate and Palmer's Green, but those are too far away as well.
Hackney is good- there is no tube, but there are millions of buses and if you are into cycling there are some great routes to get there. 85-100 is pretty standard for what you are looking at- though your money goes further in hackney, as it is further out. There is also a good train from hackney to liverpool st, then tubes from there. Dalston may be an option- sort of halfway between hackney and old st. Propoerties that are cheaper in old st are usually nasty ex council ones- but you can get lucky. Docklands is too far out, there is little atmopsphere, and the connections are usually pretty long winded and poor.
KINGS X is a good bet- you can walk in and out of london which is a great feeling, and there is a load of regeneration going on everywhere. I lived there last year and it is a really interesting area. Most of the drug dealing and prostitiution has moved further north. and there are some great properties as long as you refuse to look at anywhere on a ground floor or basement- and it is still quite cheap.
Are you looking to join a house? or are you trying to find an empty one to fill?
Best option is usually to go to letting agents in the area that you want to live - and then see what they have. If you are stretching the 100 by adding a little more www.loftlets.com has some really nice places.
spiderdad has a room to let, he's in the highbury area, i seem to gather. it's a nice area, a room should be around that price, but it's a 10 min bus trip to bloomsbury.
check camden out as well, is not very far from the centre, a straight down trip to gower street.
my suggetsion: go for a place connected to bloomsboory by a single bus route, even if it's a bit further afield. catching connections lenghtens the journey, always.
thanks for the replies y'all. good things to think about.
I had not thought of Camden Richard. I like the area, always an interesting sight to be had, and it sounds like it would be fairly easy journey on bus or tube. Also, I don't mind the Worlds End pub, but I do hate the shitty music they play there. Jazz Cafe is near by (not that I will have any extra money to go see a show there).
Chairman Mao, I am looking to fill a house. I will be coming with my gf and another friend that also is doing his M.Arch. Also, my gf has at least one friend we will be living with that is Irish, and is currently living in Hackney. All of us are designers of some sort, so it would be nice to find a place with 4 BR to use one as a studio . . . I will check out Dalston. Thanks for the link!
Do letting agents charge a fee for their services? I would assume so . . . what can I expect to pay if I go through a letting agent?
on a related topic... my friend is starting school at the AA this September. She and I are both ignorant of London geography. Can anyone suggest good, accessible neighborhoods to live? And oniline housing resources? -Thanks
eeeeeh, moveflat.com...
it all depends on how much you want to spend, ranges from 90 per week up to, well, 2000. That primarely influences the are you will live in.
The area the AA is in is bloomsbury, which is what is being discussed in this post, so check the same areas.
hey, come to think about it, i need a place for next year too! find a place and keep me a room!:)
thanks for the link stainB . . . pretty nice site, plus, I can grab the RSS feed with firefox and check it easily.
Seems like not too many people post on craigslist London. Only one new rental every two weeks or so. gumtree and loot seem much more dynamic, and more to search through.
i've got really good responses from my flatshare ad few months ago. Word of warning, the site is heavily populated by aussies and SAs living in London. good luck.
An established Antipodean strategy is to rent a place and then pack in as many of your fellow immigrants as possible to share. Some part time work down at the local Walkabout and then you need never socialise outside your own cultural group.
The AA does run a house-finding service throughout the summer for new students. It also has a forum which I think can be accessed though the website where current students can advertise rooms to let. I think there are a couple on there at present.
We are planing for a late August (20-21st?) journey to London. I want to have a few places lined up and ready to look at so we don't impose on our friends too much during that week. And hopefully we can sign a lease for September.
Assuming that you are joining UCL's Bartlett in September, though this is similar for the AA...
Best underground stations are Goodge Street (Northern LIne) Warren Street (Victoria LIne), Russell Square (Piccadilly line), Euston Square (Hammersmith & City, Circle, Metropolitan), and Euston (Victoia, Northern etc.). For the AA think Tottenham Court Road (Central), Goodge Street, Russell Square.
Thus make sure that you are near one of these underground lines, as changing lines is a pain in the ass and time consuming. average is about 3 minutes per stop (check out how far on the tfl.gov.uk site, which will also give bus routes and mainline rail).
Cycling is easy from anywhere in zone 2, North of the river and not too far west. I pedal over from Finsbury Park (excellent transport & night bus terminus, shit night life but close to Highbury, Islington and Camden) in about 15 minutes.
If you want to walk to University, get into halls, or win the lottery.
South of the river is shit.
Bethnal Green is pretty good for access to Shoreditch and Hoxton, can be pricey but there is enough slumland left for some cheap-ish rents.
Also check out Kingsland Road, lots of nasty council estates, but even closer to Hoxton, Shoreditch, home to the excellent Geffrye Museum, and literally a five minute walk from the Heart of the City and all its incredible modern and ancient symbols of financial power.
Potentially I might have a room by September, let me know if you are struggling.
There are also flatshares offered on the noticeboard in the graduate school at the Bartlett (Torrington Place).
Gumtree is good, so is loot. Others like findaflatmate tend to charge, and we only ever found one fat lass there who was a shit engineer.
i'm not really fussy, my university is on the northern border of islinghton, i have a place "sort of" lined up north of it, but it's too far from the town centre for my liking.
i guess the bloomsbury/kings cross/ shoreditch/ angel / camden areas would be best for me, and i believe that's the areas u'll be loking to as well.
should we keep in touch? i don't want to blow my own trumped to jump on your house hunt wagon, but obviously the more people in the house the lesser the rent...
i'll be in london mid/end september, but coming there for a weekend before hand (in case thing need sorting out) is not a proble, i'm only a 2 hours flight away.
"Bethnal Green is pretty good for access to Shoreditch and Hoxton, can be pricey but there is enough slumland left for some cheap-ish rents."
PsyArch: I have seen some decent lets in this area. It seems attractive to me because it is on the tube and I could just take it to Holborn and have a short walk to school. Seems like it would be within decent range of Angel/Islington and close to Old Street (more importantly close to the best curry house: Aladdin's!).
Richard: Those are some of the areas we are looking in yes. If you have a place lined up, then I say pursue that. But if it happens that things don't work out, then let me know. Can you handle living with a Puerto Rican, two Americans from the Mountains, and an Irish Fashion Designer?
I think it is getting close to when we will be able to line up some lets that will be available in late August - Mid September. Probably will start finding some trickling in sometime in June. Gotta sort out my visa and loans, but housing is of major importance.
- its 65/week + bills...
sharing with a laid back architecture student (diploma)…
(landlady only allows grad students...)
- the bedroom’s quite big... with a large desk, clothes cupboard, bed, etc... the flat has a separate kitchen, bathroom and a large living room with a great view of central london…
- the flat’s fully furnished: tv, microwave, other kitchen goodies and a very good collection of arch books...also offers free wi-fi internet access (from our neighbour’s connection...)
That would be great, but I am coming with two other people, and will be a total of four of us. Seems like a rad place, and quite a nice price! ohh, and free wifi!
For what it's worth...Having lived and shared in London for 6 years I ended up sharing a 'warehouse type space' in Hackney Wick with arch students before I left in 2004. I think this is one of the few areas in London where you can still find 'affordable' warehouse space, although landlords are starting to take advantage of the art student overflow from Shoreditch and Hoxton. So prices are probably inflated for what you get but that's London for you.
Hackney Wick is the arsehole of Hackney - still semi-industrial but more residential stuff popping up. But you probably wouldn't want to have your girlfriend walk home alone from the bus stop late at night. Overall though, it has a certain 'energy' if that's the thing you like...
Probably nice to have your own bike to get around, as buses, SilverLink trains etc. are pretty unreliable. If you do end up renting a live/work type place, make sure what kind of Council Tax rate you end up paying (if you plan on paying it that is...)
I'm not really making a good sell here, but this was the place I enjoyed the most while living in London.
Also, as arch students maybe you want to try and find a landlord with a space that needs doing up in exchange for a rent free period.
interesting henrik. I did find a few places on gumtree.com where the landlord needed some interior work done to the home in exchange for rent-free period. Definitely something we have all done before, so it would be a good deal for everyone involved.
My friend Katie has lived in Hackney and she says at first the whole overground train and bus thing wasn't to her liking, but she actually got to love taking the bus to her work, and did not mind not having a tube.
I would like to have the option to tube it, but if the area has good bus access, then that would be alright. Let me see what is around Hackney Wick. Thanks.
But Stratford is round the corner...Jubilee and Central Line straight into town, 30 minutes on a good day I think...Or SilverLink from Hackney Wick St. down to Highbury-Islington, and then catch the tube from there.
The problem is that the SilverLink is the shittiest train service on the planet, without a doubt. They actually don't have any staff on their stations ('cept in the mornings to sell tickets) - if they did they'd get lynched by an angry mob of commuters in no time. However, sometimes the sun does shine in London and sometimes they do actually run on time. Plus you can bike it to Stratford in five. But your bike would get stolen if you left it at the station...Urgh.
Buses are ok. You could also just grab the bus down to Bethnal Green and then grab the tube from there. Buses are a real hazard sometimes, especially in the morning when traffic is heavy, and you'll be passing through Shoreditch, City or Islingtion, which all get pretty congested. If there are roadworks, everything grinds to a halt.
So you see, there are many options. But Hackney Wick can feel slightly off the grid from time to time...Which is what makes it so great in my opinion.
--live somewhere where you dont have to transfer and only take one device, train or bus
--bus routes are far better for affordable housing options and you dont have to deal with folks jumping in front of a train to kill themselves which generally happens at least 1x per month [although that was during maggie thacher days...] make certain theres night bus service near although minicabs are good alternates -- just a bit pricy
--bus routes are far more pleasant to see the sky and the city. when traveling by LU you never really can connect it to the streets above [at least i cant]
--bicycling is a great option; you do have to be a bit aggressive v cars/buses and i found the london macadam a bit slick to my liking for rainy weather.
--if you have to do train, the overhead trains like thameslink, etc are great service -- run to seconds of their schedules and are faster than tube
May 26, 05 5:25 pm ·
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London Housing
I'd like to find a place that I can easily get to the Bloomsbury area via bus/tube/bike, but not too far away. looking to pay around 85-100ppw and I will be living with at least two other people, maybe 4.
Thus far areas like Hackney and Old Street seem like they fit that criteria. I know Hackney is not the safest of places, but if the rent is right . . .
Also, there are some pretty affordable places round the docklands area, but travel to bloomsbury every day might be a pain in the ass.
I have been looking at the site www.loot.com to find rentals available.
Can anyone suggest other areas which would be good?
What about King's Cross? May be too sketchy
That area would provide good acces to pretty much anywhere in london. Yes, a bit sketchy.
Other areas I've looked at are Clapham, but it seems a bit pricey, and far away from where I need to be. My gf lived in Southgate and Palmer's Green, but those are too far away as well.
Hackney is good- there is no tube, but there are millions of buses and if you are into cycling there are some great routes to get there. 85-100 is pretty standard for what you are looking at- though your money goes further in hackney, as it is further out. There is also a good train from hackney to liverpool st, then tubes from there. Dalston may be an option- sort of halfway between hackney and old st. Propoerties that are cheaper in old st are usually nasty ex council ones- but you can get lucky. Docklands is too far out, there is little atmopsphere, and the connections are usually pretty long winded and poor.
KINGS X is a good bet- you can walk in and out of london which is a great feeling, and there is a load of regeneration going on everywhere. I lived there last year and it is a really interesting area. Most of the drug dealing and prostitiution has moved further north. and there are some great properties as long as you refuse to look at anywhere on a ground floor or basement- and it is still quite cheap.
Are you looking to join a house? or are you trying to find an empty one to fill?
Best option is usually to go to letting agents in the area that you want to live - and then see what they have. If you are stretching the 100 by adding a little more www.loftlets.com has some really nice places.
spiderdad has a room to let, he's in the highbury area, i seem to gather. it's a nice area, a room should be around that price, but it's a 10 min bus trip to bloomsbury.
check camden out as well, is not very far from the centre, a straight down trip to gower street.
my suggetsion: go for a place connected to bloomsboory by a single bus route, even if it's a bit further afield. catching connections lenghtens the journey, always.
thanks for the replies y'all. good things to think about.
I had not thought of Camden Richard. I like the area, always an interesting sight to be had, and it sounds like it would be fairly easy journey on bus or tube. Also, I don't mind the Worlds End pub, but I do hate the shitty music they play there. Jazz Cafe is near by (not that I will have any extra money to go see a show there).
Chairman Mao, I am looking to fill a house. I will be coming with my gf and another friend that also is doing his M.Arch. Also, my gf has at least one friend we will be living with that is Irish, and is currently living in Hackney. All of us are designers of some sort, so it would be nice to find a place with 4 BR to use one as a studio . . . I will check out Dalston. Thanks for the link!
Do letting agents charge a fee for their services? I would assume so . . . what can I expect to pay if I go through a letting agent?
you won't pay a one off fee, but the rent will be more expensive, avoid it if you can.
on a related topic... my friend is starting school at the AA this September. She and I are both ignorant of London geography. Can anyone suggest good, accessible neighborhoods to live? And oniline housing resources? -Thanks
eeeeeh, moveflat.com...
it all depends on how much you want to spend, ranges from 90 per week up to, well, 2000. That primarely influences the are you will live in.
The area the AA is in is bloomsbury, which is what is being discussed in this post, so check the same areas.
hey, come to think about it, i need a place for next year too! find a place and keep me a room!:)
check out www.gumtree.com
thanks for the link stainB . . . pretty nice site, plus, I can grab the RSS feed with firefox and check it easily.
Seems like not too many people post on craigslist London. Only one new rental every two weeks or so. gumtree and loot seem much more dynamic, and more to search through.
i've got really good responses from my flatshare ad few months ago. Word of warning, the site is heavily populated by aussies and SAs living in London. good luck.
Are Aussies more difficult to deal with? I am assuming SA'a are South Americans?
sorry, south africans or saffas...
aussies are just laid back...
gotcha. well thanks for the tip. I have already found some interesting lets on the gumtree site.
An established Antipodean strategy is to rent a place and then pack in as many of your fellow immigrants as possible to share. Some part time work down at the local Walkabout and then you need never socialise outside your own cultural group.
The AA does run a house-finding service throughout the summer for new students. It also has a forum which I think can be accessed though the website where current students can advertise rooms to let. I think there are a couple on there at present.
whne are you guy planning to move to london?
ill turn it around....
when is the best time to look for a place if your starting a course in the fall?
uhm , i would say the start of september, maybe do some internet groundwork beforehand, so you'll know areas and rices before you get there.
from then on is only a question of scanning the loot (local advert paper) and hope for the best
I need a place too! damn...
We are planing for a late August (20-21st?) journey to London. I want to have a few places lined up and ready to look at so we don't impose on our friends too much during that week. And hopefully we can sign a lease for September.
What areas are you looking at living in Richard?
Assuming that you are joining UCL's Bartlett in September, though this is similar for the AA...
Best underground stations are Goodge Street (Northern LIne) Warren Street (Victoria LIne), Russell Square (Piccadilly line), Euston Square (Hammersmith & City, Circle, Metropolitan), and Euston (Victoia, Northern etc.). For the AA think Tottenham Court Road (Central), Goodge Street, Russell Square.
Thus make sure that you are near one of these underground lines, as changing lines is a pain in the ass and time consuming. average is about 3 minutes per stop (check out how far on the tfl.gov.uk site, which will also give bus routes and mainline rail).
Cycling is easy from anywhere in zone 2, North of the river and not too far west. I pedal over from Finsbury Park (excellent transport & night bus terminus, shit night life but close to Highbury, Islington and Camden) in about 15 minutes.
If you want to walk to University, get into halls, or win the lottery.
South of the river is shit.
Bethnal Green is pretty good for access to Shoreditch and Hoxton, can be pricey but there is enough slumland left for some cheap-ish rents.
Also check out Kingsland Road, lots of nasty council estates, but even closer to Hoxton, Shoreditch, home to the excellent Geffrye Museum, and literally a five minute walk from the Heart of the City and all its incredible modern and ancient symbols of financial power.
Potentially I might have a room by September, let me know if you are struggling.
There are also flatshares offered on the noticeboard in the graduate school at the Bartlett (Torrington Place).
Gumtree is good, so is loot. Others like findaflatmate tend to charge, and we only ever found one fat lass there who was a shit engineer.
Michael.
[email protected]
i'm not really fussy, my university is on the northern border of islinghton, i have a place "sort of" lined up north of it, but it's too far from the town centre for my liking.
i guess the bloomsbury/kings cross/ shoreditch/ angel / camden areas would be best for me, and i believe that's the areas u'll be loking to as well.
should we keep in touch? i don't want to blow my own trumped to jump on your house hunt wagon, but obviously the more people in the house the lesser the rent...
i'll be in london mid/end september, but coming there for a weekend before hand (in case thing need sorting out) is not a proble, i'm only a 2 hours flight away.
let me know!
"Bethnal Green is pretty good for access to Shoreditch and Hoxton, can be pricey but there is enough slumland left for some cheap-ish rents."
PsyArch: I have seen some decent lets in this area. It seems attractive to me because it is on the tube and I could just take it to Holborn and have a short walk to school. Seems like it would be within decent range of Angel/Islington and close to Old Street (more importantly close to the best curry house: Aladdin's!).
Richard: Those are some of the areas we are looking in yes. If you have a place lined up, then I say pursue that. But if it happens that things don't work out, then let me know. Can you handle living with a Puerto Rican, two Americans from the Mountains, and an Irish Fashion Designer?
I think it is getting close to when we will be able to line up some lets that will be available in late August - Mid September. Probably will start finding some trickling in sometime in June. Gotta sort out my visa and loans, but housing is of major importance.
i've got a room to rent!!!
it's cheap and is 30 mins door-to-door from the bartlett/aa...
(available from sept)
Large room to let … Zone 2 … £65/week
- located at the trendy/yuppy area of Crouch End…
- 5 min bus ride from Finsbury park tube station (Victoria + Piccadilly Lines)
- 5 min walk from Harringay train station (overground trains)
- lots of shopping, restaurants, pubs / bars, yuppy cafés, etc nearby…
- its 65/week + bills...
sharing with a laid back architecture student (diploma)…
(landlady only allows grad students...)
- the bedroom’s quite big... with a large desk, clothes cupboard, bed, etc... the flat has a separate kitchen, bathroom and a large living room with a great view of central london…
- the flat’s fully furnished: tv, microwave, other kitchen goodies and a very good collection of arch books...also offers free wi-fi internet access (from our neighbour’s connection...)
email me at [email protected] if interested...
That would be great, but I am coming with two other people, and will be a total of four of us. Seems like a rad place, and quite a nice price! ohh, and free wifi!
yeah, it sounds great doesn't it...
:)
see you on wed VJ...
what about the Bethnal Green area? Any thoughts? Close to Brick Lane and also close to Central Line which has good access to school.
For what it's worth...Having lived and shared in London for 6 years I ended up sharing a 'warehouse type space' in Hackney Wick with arch students before I left in 2004. I think this is one of the few areas in London where you can still find 'affordable' warehouse space, although landlords are starting to take advantage of the art student overflow from Shoreditch and Hoxton. So prices are probably inflated for what you get but that's London for you.
Hackney Wick is the arsehole of Hackney - still semi-industrial but more residential stuff popping up. But you probably wouldn't want to have your girlfriend walk home alone from the bus stop late at night. Overall though, it has a certain 'energy' if that's the thing you like...
Probably nice to have your own bike to get around, as buses, SilverLink trains etc. are pretty unreliable. If you do end up renting a live/work type place, make sure what kind of Council Tax rate you end up paying (if you plan on paying it that is...)
I'm not really making a good sell here, but this was the place I enjoyed the most while living in London.
Also, as arch students maybe you want to try and find a landlord with a space that needs doing up in exchange for a rent free period.
interesting henrik. I did find a few places on gumtree.com where the landlord needed some interior work done to the home in exchange for rent-free period. Definitely something we have all done before, so it would be a good deal for everyone involved.
My friend Katie has lived in Hackney and she says at first the whole overground train and bus thing wasn't to her liking, but she actually got to love taking the bus to her work, and did not mind not having a tube.
I would like to have the option to tube it, but if the area has good bus access, then that would be alright. Let me see what is around Hackney Wick. Thanks.
But Stratford is round the corner...Jubilee and Central Line straight into town, 30 minutes on a good day I think...Or SilverLink from Hackney Wick St. down to Highbury-Islington, and then catch the tube from there.
The problem is that the SilverLink is the shittiest train service on the planet, without a doubt. They actually don't have any staff on their stations ('cept in the mornings to sell tickets) - if they did they'd get lynched by an angry mob of commuters in no time. However, sometimes the sun does shine in London and sometimes they do actually run on time. Plus you can bike it to Stratford in five. But your bike would get stolen if you left it at the station...Urgh.
Buses are ok. You could also just grab the bus down to Bethnal Green and then grab the tube from there. Buses are a real hazard sometimes, especially in the morning when traffic is heavy, and you'll be passing through Shoreditch, City or Islingtion, which all get pretty congested. If there are roadworks, everything grinds to a halt.
So you see, there are many options. But Hackney Wick can feel slightly off the grid from time to time...Which is what makes it so great in my opinion.
having lived in london for 4 years
--live somewhere where you dont have to transfer and only take one device, train or bus
--bus routes are far better for affordable housing options and you dont have to deal with folks jumping in front of a train to kill themselves which generally happens at least 1x per month [although that was during maggie thacher days...] make certain theres night bus service near although minicabs are good alternates -- just a bit pricy
--bus routes are far more pleasant to see the sky and the city. when traveling by LU you never really can connect it to the streets above [at least i cant]
--bicycling is a great option; you do have to be a bit aggressive v cars/buses and i found the london macadam a bit slick to my liking for rainy weather.
--if you have to do train, the overhead trains like thameslink, etc are great service -- run to seconds of their schedules and are faster than tube
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