Finding A Decent Place To Live In London

I arrived in London near the beginning of February and the first thing that struck me as I stepped off the plane from Barbados, was how cold it was. I had only been in the Caribbean for 9 short months, but it was long enough for this Scottish loons resistance to the cold weather to have deserted him.

I had booked myself into a hotel in Wembley for 5 nights, (I had booked in advance and was paying £30.00 per night) which would hopefully give me enough time to find a decent place to live in the Big Smoke.

Before I arrived in London I had mistakenly thought it would be a piece of cake to find somewhere reasonable cheap and clean to live in. As I was quickly about to learn, it is a complete nightmare, especially when the last place you rented was in Barbados and you are working for yourself job wise. When you don’t have easily available references you have major problems with landlords.

For the first three days of my arrival here, I was like a fool, out and about enjoying myself, doing the London tourist thing and chasing after pretty girls. I should have known better and taken things more seriously from day one, because looking for somewhere to live in London is like swimming through shark infested waters, but more dangerous.

I eventually booted up my lap top and started searching on various online sites, such as, Gumtree, Craigslist and Loot with the hope that something would turn up, with my search for finding somewhere to live in London.

One wee note, I feel sites such as Gumtree and Craigslist need to do a lot more to deal with the many scammers that frequent their sites. I’m not going to go into great detail in this article concerning the many fraudsters out there, that are trying to rent out accommodation that they do not own. All I will say is that you have to be crazy to send somebody money via Western Union to pay for anything let alone a place to live. Just don’t do it, it’s a scam!

I personally found the Loot newspaper to be a great resource for finding places to rent in London. But my lack of references was proving to be an issue. I eventually found a studio to view in Cricklewood, which is in the north west of London, and it sounded ideal over the phone. That was until I viewed the place, if I went to the pet shop and bought myself a dog kennel I would have had more room.

The next place I viewed was a room in a house in Wembley, the occupants of this place looked like they were in the Polish mafia, man did they make me feel uncomfortable. I made my excuses and hastily left.

 

I viewed another place in Wembley, which I found via an add in a local newsagents window, I wasn’t reading those adds for a massage, honest. Even though Sweet Candy did sound like an interesting kind of girl! However the dirtiest and smelliest people in all of England inhabited this next 3 bedroom flat that I viewed. I swear I could smell the stench coming from this place 100 metres down the road.

At this stage I was starting to get a wee bit desponded and worried about finding a place to live in, that I would actually feel comfortable in. I was looking everywhere I could think of, including various online options, newspapers and newsagent shop windows. On a friends recommendation I was searching the various newsagents windows on Uxbridge Road in Shepherds Bush, when I responded to an add for a room.

I finally had some success; an older Irish guy was renting out the spare bedroom in his basement flat, right in the heart of buzzing Shepherds Bush for £110pw including all bills. It was well decorated and was a decently sized room with a desk, built in wardrobes and best of all a king sized bed. We struck an agreement that I would pay 2 weeks in advance and that I would move in the next day. A very reasonable deal I thought to myself!

From my own personal experiences and from those of some of my friends, it is a difficult task trying to find a place to live in London, especially if you want it to be safe, clean and reasonable priced. I would recommend that anybody looking for a place to live in this crazy city, that it pays not to be in a rush and that things are much easier if you have references from your previous address and your job.

I will give those that are planning on coming to live in London for a long term stay, some good advice. Book yourself into a reputable bed and breakfast or a hotel for a week and then search like crazy for a place to live, when you actually get here. Don’t go booking a place online or go paying for something before you have actually clapped your eyes on it for yourself, or you may live to regret it. There are too many crooks, cheats, liars and fraudsters out there that are making a full time living out of cheating the unwary out of there money, so be very careful.

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