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Inexpensive place for music student to stay in London

Our church's young organist will be studying at The London College of Music for a year starting in Sept. He's too late to get student housing on campus and has limited funds. He is planning to stay in a hostel if he has to, but would like to find something else reasonable. School is in South Kensington. Thanks for any suggestions...

Posted by
163 posts

We stayed at an EasyHotel in London and liked it. The rooms are tiny, but include a private bathroom. Clean, quite and have internet access. Booked far enough in advance, you can get rooms for 25GBP/night....good deal for London. We stayed in the Earl's Court one, but I believe there is one in the South Kensington neighborhood too.

Posted by
8293 posts

Maybe the London College of Music can offer suggestions to this young man. He cannot be their only student who has had this difficulty. Consult with the school first.

Posted by
11507 posts

Hi Amy,, if he needs acommadation for a year,, well, hostels will not do.. they have time limits. He would have to move from one to the other constantly over the year.
Has your church contacted sister churches in London and asked for help.. perhaps someone,, staff or someone from the congregation may be willing to billet him in their home, or know of a good place to stay.I myself will be staying in a Parish house for 3 nights, friends brother is the Vicar,, so there are options.

For a short term, my nephew just spent a week in a hostel he said was clean and not too noisey or rowdy ,, in a great area too, it was Aster Hyde Park. You could also google "Christian Youth hostels" I know there is a great one in Amsterdam,, so perhaps there is one in London too!

hey I googled and found this site with many links to student youth housing and accomadations.

http://www.eden.co.uk/directory/hostels_for_young_people_students_6.html

Posted by
693 posts

http://www.uk-homestay.com/index.html
Amy, you might check out this website and also google London homestays. I ran across the site looking for inexpensive housing in London but have no personal experience with it. I found several sites that cater to students, seemingly more often to language students. It might be a good idea to appeal to the faculty of the London College of Music for help, someone might come up with a good place to stay the entire year. As someone else suggested, contacting churches of your denomination might help, too. Best of luck to him!

Posted by
13 posts

Thank you so much to those of you who have replied. I will certainly pass along your suggestions.

Our organist is a wonderful young man who really deserves to have good things happen to him. He will be studying music composition and Anglican music ... he's already very accomplished at playing Anglican-style organ music. He's only about 24 years old and already writes wonderful music for the organ.
I'm sure his time in London will be very rewarding.

Posted by
881 posts

Hi, Amy.

"Rooms to let" is a fairly common thing in London. I'd say probably half the city is shared housing. lol

Check out the local classifieds and papers for "Room/s to let"

Also, I'm a musician and have had many friends in this same situation. I'd speak to the school. Every single one of my friends was able to get housing via a room in a faculty member, or staff member's home, or an alumni/supporter of the school. We musician's know the poor-musician stage, and many are happy to help out. I can't think of a friend who didn't have success with this, and most of them wound up in great places (staying in the home of the former department head, a wealthy benefactor, etc). Give it a try!

PS - Posting on forums (American Guild of Organists, etc) Wouldn't hurt either! The organ community knows each other, and there's a nice sense of loyalty.

Best of luck!

Posted by
780 posts

This is near Earls Court which has plenty of places to rent. I stay at the Easyhotel in Earls Ct as well but you wouldnt want to live there long term and it would be cheaper to rent a room. There are quite a few places along Earls Ct road that had Rooms to Let signs. It is a decent area. Mostly residential and I never felt unsafe walking three, even at night. Cromwell Road runs through the area and leads to a major highway so there are always people driving past and It actually made me feel safer.

Posted by
349 posts

Check out the Indian YMCA , I have stayed there and it might be an interesting choice (