Best areas for students to live in London?

mightymixty

Hi there,

I am beginning to look for my accommodation for the next academic year. I have looked on several sites but so far I am completely lost! There is so much choice! I do not know London very well, if anybody does could you please advise affordable areas for students? I don't really want to spend more than £130 a week.

Thanks

MM

MrsManda

Where are you studying?

What are your priorities? - distance from your university, travel times, cost, ability to get home late at night, amount of space, shared house/halls/bedsit...?

Have you spoken to any other students, especially those in years above yours?

Your union should have an accommodation office who will be able to give you information about places locally.

Person_one

What uni?

How old are you?

mightymixty

I'm studying at LSE but distance isn't a great priority. That's why my request is for more general areas that would be a good starting point for me. My priorities are cost and a nice-ish area. I'm 21, how would age affect the accomodation?

Person_one

Age might make a difference on whether you want to go into halls or not. At 21 I'd consider it if you haven't lived in halls before, if you were 40 I'd advise against it!

I'm afraid your two priorities are a slight contradiction .

What's the nearest tube station to LSE? Look at areas along the lines that stop there, you'll probably have to go to at least zone 3 or 4 to get anything cheap enough.

Oldernotwiser

Do you see yourself socialising round the university or where you live?

mightymixty

I don't think cost and a nice-ish area are contradictory (certainly hope not anyway...)- if they were cost, nice-ish are and close proximity to uni they might be! I'm sure there has to be some reasonable and nice-ish areas out there!

There is no way I'd live in halls again because of personal preference and cost. I should have specified that in my initial post.

I'd be mainly socialising in the area. I'm looking for local knowledge mainly but thanks for the suggestions. I certainly will also be going to the uni accommodation service and will check areas with reference to tube stops near uni . If anyone knows other areas though I would appreciate suggestions.

Lizling

You could also look at places that don’t have nearby tube stations but do have good national rail links- probably night bus links too, if you'll be socialising outside the area. As more than 1 Londoner has said to me, "Tubes for <something not polite>, buses for pros!"

£130 is a reasonable amount per week for a room. I think you should be able to find something in most areas outside zone 1 for that. So really it depends on what you want – do you want to be near bars and clubs, somewhere safe and quiet, inner-city feel or more suburban? Would you want somewhere spacious or would a tiny room in a shared flat suit you better if it was in a nice enough location?

Also, keep in mind that most areas will have good bits and bad bits. Have a virtual walk around on Google maps to see what different streets are like.

Char_pdc

I was a student in London about 3 years ago and I kept my rental costs down by not living near the station as generally if you are willing to walk further to reach the tube station/national rail station this will keep the costs down.

From my experience south london is generally cheaper than north london, and again living near national rail links are generally cheaper than tubes, although there are exceptions. Student discount travelcards are valid on national rail as well as tubes (for the relevant zones).

Bus links are also good, as they tend to run from a lot of places into central london. They are also useful in the evenings too.

Is there somewhere at LSE with a board where students can look for rooms? It might be worth just asking around also, sometimes a course colleague knows someone who is looking for one person to fill a room in the house.

mightymixty

Thanks for the help!

melancholly

if you contact the accommodation office, they will usually have lists of vetted LLs. that can be useful as not every student LL behaves as they should! it means you'll get a minimum standard of accommodation.