From Living in LSE Accommodation to Flat Sharing in London

This week Hanna reflects on her time living in LSE accommodation in her first year and how it compared to staying in a private shared flat with friends in her second year.

As an international student, it was reassuring to know that accommodation is guaranteed for all first-year students at LSE. It was a no-brainer for me to spend my first year in halls; an opportunity to immerse myself in the student experience and meet new people in the most interesting ways.

Whilst I truly loved living in university accommodation for the year I was there, I have since then grown to appreciate the more ‘authentic’ London living experience in my shared flat. My conclusion is that you should probably try to experience both if you have the chance to, for very different reasons and at very different times in your total time at university. 

LSE Accommodation: My Room at Bankside House

LSE’s Bankside House stood out as one of the most popular halls for its convenience, quality, and overall social experience. Centrally located across from the Tate Modern museum (which is how I had the opportunity to catch glimpses of the 2020 London Fashion Week from my bedroom window…crazy right?), Bankside was only a 30 minute scenic walk away from LSE’s campus. With room prices ranging between £114 and £335 per week (shared and ensuite), a perk of London university accommodation is the range of affordable and centrally located alternatives. 

I thoroughly enjoyed the views from Blackfriars every morning, not to mention the privilege of such close access to Borough Market and saving heaps of money on daily transportation. Thanks to location, walking quickly became my favourite way to see London as a city. Staying in a catered hall, eating with others every single night was a simple way to meet new people on a regular basis and a prime chance to de-stress after especially tiresome days of attending lectures. Even better, Bankside has a bar in the basement as LSE’s largest hall (around 700 students can live there when at full capacity) 

Now to the less fun parts: you definitely have to develop a strong resilience towards the endless noise. I grew used to hearing sound coming from all directions in my LSE hall; especially when it was the most inconvenient. People would start making noise at 1am by my window facing the reception. And, yes, whilst I did enjoy the commotion of staying in an environment which was true to the student experience, I could never go back to losing that extra hour of sleep. For this, earplugs quickly became a habit whilst I lived in halls. I also want to give a shout out to the genius planning that went into the idea to put the accommodation’s silent study room next to our bar. 

There was also food and cooking convenience. I can count the number of times I cooked in my university hall: zero times. The kitchens at Bankside were cleaned regularly but were far from pleasant or fit-for-purpose for cooking a proper meal. Besides the occasional microwave project or to boiling some hot water for a cup of coffee, my only memory of the kitchens in my hall involved rumours of food being stolen (yes - living in halls means protecting your home-cooked food from literal theft). Besides similar horror stories which seem second nature to students sharing any kind of living space, I did have a really wonderful time because of the friends I was meeting and late-night moments I got to share thanks to living so near everyone. It brought us all closer and prepared me well for venturing out in my second year.

Private Accommodation: Living in a shared flat in Angel

Since starting the second year, I have lived in a shared private flat with friends I had conveniently met at Bankside in first year. I think living in shared accommodation without having had the halls experience prior would have resulted in a very different experience than the one I ended up having. 

At university people tend to live off-campus in their second year onwards. This is especially true in London, where rent prices are typically high and availability in university accommodation is quite limited as a result. In practice, finding a flat in London requires a lot of thorough research and time invested into property viewings, given that a lot of flats are much less maintained in real life than in the listing photos. Additionally, a lot of administrative processes, such as setting up water and electricity bills or paying specific fees, take quite some time to wrap your head around if you aren’t experienced. For instance, the concept of having a guarantor before agreeing to a letting was completely new to me - my advice is to put enough time towards understanding how the letting process actually works before signing with an agent/private landlord. 

Compared to rents at LSE, the rents for shared private flats can sometimes be more feasible with the option to live further out. An obvious downside is not having a perfect living location as the default. We were fortunate enough to find a flat for five in the Angel area near Exmouth Market, putting us at walking distance from campus. Whilst a private flat didn’t eliminate noise (like noise from neighbours and roads), the noise did not extend into the late hours and made it much easier to live a ‘normal’ lifestyle when wanted. I felt like I had better control over my sleep schedule this way.

The highlight of replacing catered dinners with access to an actual kitchen was that I could finally make my own decisions regarding when and what to eat. At Bankside, catering would only run between certain hours which made it difficult to participate in some university/social events casually when these would overlap with dinnertime. In contrast to fearing that your food might be stolen, living with close friends comes with the benefit of storing three whole-size cakes if you wish without a threat from anyone. Needless to say, the best part of flat sharing has been living with people I genuinely love to spend lots of time with. 

Importantly, the ability to come and go freely and have people over whenever we wanted was much more convenient than the rules in place at halls. In other words: going out was massively simplified since there were no more rules preventing us from doing whatever we wanted and whenever we liked. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the maintenance responsibilities of living privately become an additional burden. Myself and friends had to chase our agent to help us fix things that had suddenly broken down without much luck 60% of the time – it’s a stark change from getting ahold of the maintenance services at your university hall. 

Conclusion: Where Should You Live?

So what’s my overall verdict? I think that living in halls gave me some of my fondest early-university memories and in particular brought me together with the close friends I currently have in my second year. On the other hand, I doubt that I would want to go back to living in a university-provided residence, given the independence you gain once you find a flat in your second year onwards. It will all depend on the type of person you are and the individual circumstances of your living situation: budget, student experience, lifestyle, and more. In the end, both types will bring you very different  joys and pains which—ultimately—I think are all equally worth experiencing. 

Best of luck on your accommodation search!

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Written by Hanna Tong Strömberg, 2nd year LLB Law at LSE.

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