Need advice on London neighborhood‏
 

My son(19) is planning to take summer classes at London School of Economics (LSE), and since he started the process quite late, the only housing left available is in neighborhood of Borough (Northern Line) and Elephant and Castle underground stations; it’s depicted on the map at the link below.
http://www.lsevacations.co.uk/images...%20Hse%20D.pdf. This housing is 40 min walking distance from LSE, so he most likely would use the public transportation. The LSE is located near Royal Courts of Justice.
The particular housing is significantly less expensive than other halls (no longer available); that’s also raising my concerned with the neighborhood.
I would very much appreciate your advice. If by any chance you can suggest a good way to find alternative short-term accommodations at a reasonable price, I would be interested in hearing about them as well.

Absolutely nothing wrong with it. I worked at LSE for 20+ years, and they would never put students into a neighbourhood with any significant issues. Later I worked at Elephant and Castle for 10 years and cycled through this area most days, all without problems.

It's a mixed area, traditionally with lots of public housing, but increasingly gentrified and "up and coming". I wouldn't mind living in some of the streets off the main roads: if I tell you a small-ish house, built I would think as part of a 1950s public housing scheme, was on the market for £450k a couple of years ago, you can see how sought-after it is.

As for why this accommodation's cheaper, it may be because the commute to LSE is not the most convenient. It is dependent on buses from the New Kent Road, which can crawl a bit in the rush hours (plenty of people have to travel from much further afield - that's part of the London experience, I'm afraid). For a 9am start, he'll need to be out of the house and well on the way to the bus stop by 8.15am.

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/gettingaro...arms-11301.pdf

Patrick, thank you so much for your prompt response. I have received similar feedback from others as well, so we are proceeding with our booking.

Best of luck to him. He'll have a great time.

Stayed in a friend's highly upscale condo at George Circus (near Elephant and Castle Tube) last year. There was actually a hall of residence across the street, modern building, lots of young people about at all hours of the day and night. All seemed perfectly safe, and we were never uncomfortable.

Excellent bus connections to everywhere, though the streets have enough traffic to confirm what PatrickLondon said about timings. Don't remember a hotel in the neighborhood, perhaps because I didn't need one.

Easy to get to Waterloo, Old Vic, South Bank Center, Imperial War Museum, etc. I don't know where the big local supermarket is, but there is a small Marks and Spenser in Waterloo station and another chain grocer across the street, both specializing in the kinds of food students could pop in the microwave. Not much in the way of posh restaurants nearby for when Mom comes to visit, but there is a good Thai restaurant in Lower Marsh, and a branch of Fish and a good Spanish restaurant in The Cut. There is a row of casual fun restaurants behind the Jubilee Line tube station in the Cut, the name of which now totally escapes me.

Don't forget about Anchor and Hope! Amazing gastropub in the Cut.

It looks from Google Streetview as though there is a small-ish convenience supermarket in the building that I take to be Sidney Webb House. There's a Tesco in the Elephant and Castle shopping centre (which isn't exactly upmarket), a Sainsbury's in Borough High St, and of course Borough Market up at London Bridge. But he'll be out and about in London anyway, so hardly short of shops, or places to eat.

Thank you for all of your help and advice.
Patrick, you are correct - there is a small supermarket onsite, but it's nice to have Tesco and Sainsbury nearby. I am so excited for DS; I only wished I could go to London (or many other places) for 6 weeks.
I was fortunate to book tickets for 3 of us using travel rewards. We are flying to Paris and plan to explore the Loire Valley for 8-9 days.

I wouldn't be surprised if he walks to class. My son went to school in the same area for 2 years and lived in Battersea and then Elephant & Castle. The tube & the busses can be hot and crowded and so he walked most days. That's how you learn London. Best of luck to him!

Thank you GailScout!
If you see this post can you please tell me how much should we budget for my son for meals and transportation. I don’t want him on the very limited budget cooking every meal at dorm, but don’t want to top my credit card at the restaurants either.
Thanks again!

Travfirst - I hope this helps - my son (from California) attended LSE last summer. He lived in the Holborn dorm, so he walked to class and had "included" breakfast, which he never ate. Nevertheless, we were pleasantly surprised by his restraint in spending on meals.

Class structure meant that he usually ate at LSE between lecture and group meetings, and he usually just grabbed a sandwich or small meal with other students for dinner nearby before returning home. I can scan my VISA charges if you want exact numbers (he used our Capital One card for reasonable exchange rate). He used an Oyster card for travel that he had saved from a previous trip and just refilled it for trips around the city.

All in all it was a priceless, life-changing adventure for our son, who has now graduated and is returning to London next month for a one-year finance internship. I hope your son enjoys his time in London as much!

"He used an Oyster card for travel that he had saved from a previous trip and just refilled it for trips around the city."

A lot depends on how someone will use public transport in London so using a Travelcard may be the best option if they use public transport more than twice a day. Assuming OP's offspring is in London for several weeks I would get an Oystercard, load it with £30 of cash and see how long it lasts - if it lasts less than a week then a zone 1-2 Travelcard will be the better option for the remainder of the stay. And this can be easily added to an Oystercard bought in London. But have some more cash on it in case of travel outside of central London

Jespere, thank you for your post. We added vacation before classes at LSE started, so I did not see your post until I got back home.
My son likes his class and the opportunity to spend summer in London. He loves travel and visited number of counties with us and still remembers his first short stay in London 9 years ago.
We got him an Oyster cart and bought prepaid SIM card for his phone but mostly use Skype to keep in touch.
Best of luck to your son. Now you have an excuse to go to London :-)