Any thoughts on London flat?
 

I'm looking into staying for a week at this flat.

www.vrbo.com/103088

I've only stayed in Kensington in a studio, but the price seems reasonable and I like the fact that there's a shopping centre close by.

Any thoughts?:)

This flat is in Handel St which is right on the border of some iffy places.

My mate lives in Handel Mansions (which is next door to this (I recognise the view from the window) and he is in two minds about the place.

The location is great but it isn't in "bloomsbury". It's in King's Cross.

King's Cross is much improved but it's not my first choice of a place to be after dark.

Having said that the local pub used to be the regular drinking choice of Charles Dickens and Kenneth Williams. Dickens used it in Barnaby Rudge.

The owner is certainly stretching things a bit describing it as the "Heart of Bloomsbury".

It looks large-ish, does have a washer/dryer and is not all that expensive. But it would not be my first choice for location. I only know the area generally - CW knows the exact bldg and I'd listen to what he said. He knows iffy when he sees it . . . . . .

The flat most cetainly IS in Bloomsbury: if Coram Fields isn't slap bang in the middle of Bloomsbury, where is? And the web site's right: the Brunswick Centre's only a minute or two away.

Several of my late middle-aged, highly respectable, female chums have flats in Judd St, which is the northward continuation of Handel St. Neither they, nor in one case the young ladies they teach, would think twice about walking through the area alone at night. And haven't for the 15-20 years they've lived there. Nor has Mrs F - who's decreed that when we next buy a pied a terre in town, that's where it's going to be.

CW's spending too much time in suburbia.

Yes it is IN Bloomsbury - but the "Heart" of Bloomsbury? Not hardly and not according my A to Zed. It's really Bloomsbury-ish and St Pancras-ish.

emily - w/ CW and flanner, you have the opinion's of probably 2 of the 3 best informed London fodorites so the ball is now in your court.

It does look like a good size for the price. Still wouldn't be my first choice but it probably would be perfectly OK.

Thanks guys. I've been in touch w/the owner and things seem legit, so I think I may go for it. Plus I'm not a night owl so I doubt I'll be doing any late night romping around. I also made a backup reservation in a hotel just in case.

Thanks for all your help.

You must remember that Flanneur and I move in very different circles.

He knows the area because he knows a few dorises in the area. I know the area because in a previous life I used to run MacNaghten House which was a 150 bed hostel for the street homeless just around the corner. (It's a hostel for backpackers now - called the Generator).

Kings cross also used to be my "patch" when I worked for Camden - mainly dealing with crackheads and prostitutes.

As such we see different things when we look around.

I see the drugs trade out of the bookies by Macdonalds - he sees Judd St books. I see the knocking shops in Argyll square. He sees the Georgian architechture and so on.

So if you have the same eyes as Flanneur you'll be happy enough there. It really is a matter of perception.

BTW the, rather good, painter Paul Nash lived in the block that this flat is in.

http://www.rennart.co.uk/nash.html

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