London living advice

Bucket

Bucket

Bucket

Soldato
Joined
20 Sep 2008
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Hi all,

I'm currently a student living in Halls in my first year of University and of course it's coming up to a time where a group of us are looking at housing for next year but as London has such a wide range and my knowledge of areas is pretty bad then I'm turning to OcUK for some help!

There's five of us & we're currently all paying £150 p/w for our halls including all bills, it's right next to Tottenham Hale station and is OK for that. Half of us study in Pimlico and the other half study in Elephant & Castle. Our halls are ok and that's all fine but the area is really dull and just has nothing going on and is a bit of a pain.

We're looking for somewhere that has a few nice pubs nearby, few shops etc - somewhere like Highbury & Islington are nice but I'd imagine relatively expensive (my knowledge of London is limited, so apologies if that's a silly comparison!)

Our budget would be around the same, £150 each person per week - I guess this wouldn't get us that much - I'm not really sure.

Just looking for some advice for some good safe areas with a bit going on and some advice of where to look as our Universities seems to fail at providing any decent info!

Thanks for anyone that can help out, greatly appreciated!
 
5 of you paying £150 per week should get you something fairly reasonable even in London tho you might have to look a little further out but with good rail and other transport links thats not really a big issue.
 
Rroff said:
5 of you paying £150 per week should get you something fairly reasonable even in London tho you might have to look a little further out but with good rail and other transport links thats not really a big issue.
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You're mad aren't you? Anywhere "reasonable" in zone 1-3 is going to be like £1400 a month for two bedrooms max... Seriously.
 
£150x5=£750 a week. I would get a massive house with a garden in west london if i had £3000 a month to spend on a property. You could get one of those massive houses with loads of bedrooms. My sister lived in a shared house with 7 other friends and they spent about £2400 but that was a few years ago.

I wouldn't bother looking in islington because you won't get many big houses around that area and if you do then they will be very expensive.

http://www.findaproperty.com/to-rent/property-10662028

But west london is nice for young people, there are some pubs and just a train away from anywhere in london.

this one is nice http://www.findaproperty.com/to-rent/property-10255751
 
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I can't believe you all commute from Tottenham all the way to Pimlico/E&C! That must be grim.

I'd look at Clapham/Balham/Wandsworth to be honest. I don't know the area personally, but there seems to be plenty going on (loads of kiwis/aussies around there) and it's probably fairly easy to get to where you all study.

EDIT: Loads of nice places come up in Wimbledon too.
 
Thanks for the suggestions so far chaps, ideally we would like to be in Zone 2, but I know as you get closer in its more expensive.

From Tottenham to E&C takes 50mins or so and about half hour to Pimlico isn't too bad at the moment.

What areas should be avoided really? A friends spotted somewhere that's reasonably priced for whats on offer - it's in Manor House and we don't know anything of the area so don't know if it's good/bad which is what's making it tricky as we don't know places.

I'll start taking a look at some of the places suggested, thanks :)
 
Scam said:
I can't believe you all commute from Tottenham all the way to Pimlico/E&C! That must be grim.

I'd look at Clapham/Balham/Wandsworth to be honest. I don't know the area personally, but there seems to be plenty going on (loads of kiwis/aussies around there) and it's probably fairly easy to get to where you all study.

EDIT: Loads of nice places come up in Wimbledon too.
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+1 for this, overground line will get you into central easily, plus these are great areas for young professionals / students.
 
Look at Brixton / Annerley / Crystal Palace with that budget. You can get a direct train to Victoria in 15 minutes and there are buses to Elephant and Castle
 
Bucket said:
Thanks for the suggestions so far chaps, ideally we would like to be in Zone 2, but I know as you get closer in its more expensive.

From Tottenham to E&C takes 50mins or so and about half hour to Pimlico isn't too bad at the moment.

What areas should be avoided really? A friends spotted somewhere that's reasonably priced for whats on offer - it's in Manor House and we don't know anything of the area so don't know if it's good/bad which is what's making it tricky as we don't know places.

I'll start taking a look at some of the places suggested, thanks :)
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Lived in Manor House for a year, wouldn't recommend it.
 
How about Tooting? Fairly cheap, easy to commute to Pimlico and E&C. A couple of nice pubs too. It is zone 3 though.

Or how about Brixton? Bad reputation but it's not that bad and it ticks all of your boxes.
 
Ahh Brixton.

Last time I was there one of my relatives was mugged, the time before that I almost got blown up by a nail-bomb.
 
Tunney said:
How about Tooting? Fairly cheap, easy to commute to Pimlico and E&C. A couple of nice pubs too. It is zone 3 though.

Or how about Brixton? Bad reputation but it's not that bad and it ticks all of your boxes.
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Lived in Tooting for 3 years and believe it's good value for money, just avoid being near the Mitcham border.

Falls under Wandsworth council tax too, which is the cheapest in London.
 
krooton said:
Lived in Manor House for a year, wouldn't recommend it.
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krooton said:
Lived in Tooting for 3 years and believe it's good value for money, just avoid being near the Mitcham border.

Falls under Wandsworth council tax too, which is the cheapest in London.
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Tunney said:
How about Tooting? Fairly cheap, easy to commute to Pimlico and E&C. A couple of nice pubs too. It is zone 3 though.

Or how about Brixton? Bad reputation but it's not that bad and it ticks all of your boxes.
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I thought that would be the case with Manor House.

Shall check out Tooting, the Zone three thing isn't too important it's just for a bit of a cheaper fare, we're currently only just inside Zone 3 in Tottenham and a monthly is £90 or so which isn't too bad but the others ideally wanted in Zone 2 but I don't want to discount anything based off that really.

I hadn't thought of checking out Brixton mainly because of the reputation - one of our friends is pretty concerned about safety as he has had bad experiences with burglaries and doesn't want to experience it again so I dismissed Brixton off reputation - but I have heard varying opinions on it and that there's some nice parts.

I've had suggestions from friends of places like - Tufnell Park, Brockley, Dalston, Holloway, Clapton. What are these places like?

Thanks for the help so far people, really handy as I wouldn't ever know of a lot of these places having only been here 2 months or so!
 
With regards to Tooting, Elephant & Castle is on the Zone 1/2 border, so you could get a zone 2-3 monthly oystercard for £85, compared to the £132 1-3 ones.

The people studying in Pimlico could do the same, changing at Stockwell and getting off at Vauxhall, walking the 10min half a mile journey over the bridge.
 
You should move south of the river. Commuting to Pimlico and E&C from Dalston, etc, will prove to be a pain in the arse when one thing breaks down or there's a strike.

Camberwell would be a decent choice - it's cheap and there are a lot of students there. It has good bus connections (10 minutes to E&C or a 20 minute walk) and there are trains from Denmark Hill to Victoria for the Pimlico students.

Tooting is a nice area, but you may regret living that far out when trying to get a nightbus.

Bucket said:
I hadn't thought of checking out Brixton mainly because of the reputation - one of our friends is pretty concerned about safety as he has had bad experiences with burglaries and doesn't want to experience it again so I dismissed Brixton off reputation - but I have heard varying opinions on it and that there's some nice parts.
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Brixton isn't Disneyland, but it's perfectly safe as long as you don't do anything stupid. I've been in the area for five years and never had any trouble.

Visit it some time - it's very lively and has many decent pubs and restaurants. It's also within your price range, but getting a house can be difficult as the area is becoming extremely popular with students, yuppies and trendy morons.
 
Holy hell £150 a week for a student flat. My student flat in Sheffield was £70p/w :D

I do now live in London though >_>
 
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