London - A Great City  
 
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What I think about London? [Back to Top]

I think it's great! You never run out of stuff to do. I love musicals and try to go fairly regularly and still haven't seen them all. Ok, it's very expensive, but if you know where to go, then it's still expensive but you learn to live with it. The main thing is the rent of course and as I mentioned when talking about living costs, everyday costs are higher, too. But hell, nowhere else is there so much to do! Anyway, I love it!

  
 

How to enjoy London cheaply(ish!): [Back to Top]

As a student you can actually get around fairly cheap. Here a few tips:
  • Travel: Use the bike or bus. Avoid the tube. Lucky, if your house is close enough to walk! I used to live in Shepherds Bush (W12). The bus took 45 minutes max, normally around 35. The tube was of course more reliable and would take exactly 40 minutes door to door. A single ticket however cost £1.90. For £2 you get a daily bus pass.
  • Going out: There is always a student night somewhere, at least during the week. Friday nights the unions are normally packed and open late. If you get bored with Imperial say, just go down Kings College or University College London. Try to avoid the "real" clubs: £15 to get in and about £5 per drink. Few students go more often than once or twice a term... Find out where to go from the Time Out magazine. Finally, check lastminute.com for tickets. Much cheaper, not lastminute (i.e. you can plan months ahead) and normally decent seats.
  • Shopping: Do big food shopping tirps at the big supermarkets. You probably want to avoid Waitrose and look out for Iceland (who do a free home delivery service by the way). If you live to far away, then get a home delivery with a your housemates every now and then. Costs you a fiver with most of them and is well worth it. Your beer however, except if there is a special on, is often cheeper at the off license down the road. To my surprise so was the milk and the bread (in Shepherds Bush). Oh, and try to cook together: much more fun, makes the effort of a good healthy meal worthwhile and you got someone to sit down and eat the stuff with (and to share the washing up). Much cheaper, not only because you will order pizza less often, but also as each meal will cost more, but you only gotta cook twice a week, right?.
 
 

Househunting: [Back to Top]

Now that's something many consider more of an art than anything else (Paul, I am talking about you!). You will need good shoes, an AtoZ of London, nerves of steel and a lot of luck! My advice (and a few warnings):
  • If something seems too good to be true, it is! Normally they get confused: instead of £400 per month, the place is £400 a week (Friends of mine once put down a deposit and only after threatening legal action and claiming they had a printout of the webpage they got the cheque back). Some good offers are only bait. You call and of course its already gone. But they got another lovely flat! Just a bit more expensive... (often worth looking at though).
  • Get them to give you a gas certificate.
  • If a place is in a state, get one of those one-off cameras and take pictures. That's your deposit insurance.
  • ALWAYS get receipts and make sure the agensts are legitimate (e.g. they have an office and you have seen it)!
  • If possible, sleep over it before you put your deposit down. Definitelly sleep over it before signing.
  • If the agent wants a one of fee for checking out your references, ask them kindly to settle that with the landlord. You are not the one requesting the references, right? Normally you can at least half that fee, most of the time they scrap it.
  • Hard to believe, but often you can haggle! Especially if it's not the flat you called about, but an alternative one. Once he showed us a flat and apparently the landlord wanted £230/week but our limit was £200. First the agent offered it for that and when we said it wasn't all that, he said he would ask whether we could have it for £180. (A week later we got a much better place for the same money).
  • Try to find something early. Househunting is much easier in June or July than in September. Less houses but less competition and you are not as stressed. Then find yourself a job in London.
  • Cheapest way to live as a student is in halls. As you are only guaranteed to be in for one year and the spare places only get allocated 2 weeks after start of term, your best bet is to re-app (You live in halls, show the freshers around in the beginning and organise a few trips.) or subwarden. You might even make some more friends.
  • Most unis have Private Housing Office. The staff at ours is really nice and there are even phones and computers for you to use free of charge. Only problem is that the lists they produce, well the landlords seem to assume you share rooms, 'cause the rents are sky-high (the University of London Online List is better). So normally you are best off with LOOT and a combination of the web pages listed below.
  • A good way to approximate travel times is to use TheTube.com and get the website to tell you.
  • Easiest way to find a street is Streetmap.co.uk or your AtoZ.
  
 

London related links: [Back to Top]

  
 
 
 

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