Flinders House - iQ Student Accommodation London — Attraction in London

There's alot of things good and bad about living in Scape. It is costly unless you get the discounted rooms for first year of Rave, and even then takes a HUGE chunk out of your student finance (I'm someone on the max. student loan and struggle with money after I pay the rent. Must point out money management is often an issue for students but since moving to a uni in London, I'm getting £3,000 more student loan yet living off less money per term (£150 less) than what I was not in London, for the most convinient and only accomodation in walking distance to Rave, it does come at a cost). Some staff are lovely (particularly those at night!), Repairs are often speedy! Often don't get emails sent to me have to go down and ask, and when I do it depends which staff member it is if they know what it is going on (I've had to go down 3 times before with 3 seperate members of staff not knowing about an email). Same goes for getting replacement key cards etc. Some staff aren't trained/don't have accesss to software and often find myself having to come back the next day or a working day to get basics such as a replacement key card that isn't temporary ( however a member will let you enter your room using a master key if this happens, you just can't leave without getting locked out again). It is really easy to become isolated in Scape. Really easy. And the design of the building does not encourage socialising compared to other student accomodation (although for London it is about average), if you are generally a quieter/shyer person, you can easily become isolated and compared to the student body incharge of events last year to tackle this, there has been a lack luster offering this year. If you live in the orange block you only get one elevator that actually works. The other one is working on rare occasions. Currently it has been broken since December and still waiting for a new repair (before that it had been 5 weeks). The walls are pracitcally sound proof as is the ceiling and props to scape as that is often the thing that dissapoints me most in student accomododation and it's a really unique find to have walls with amazing sound isolation. So well done! However, the same can't be said for the door. My door is outside a "mezzanine" seating area and I often have to double check that people aren't in my room because the sound travels so far into my room. It's like I have no silence or privacy, the difference in sound with the door open is only marginally louder. This isn't the fault of people in the mezzanine area. It's the doors. They let sound through so easily and if anything makes the money not worth it at scape, it's this. The same goes in reverse, watching a program on my iPad in the kitchnett area travels through the door, down the hall so easily and for any singers/musical instrument performers out there. Unless you have headphones for your instrument, This is not the place to rehearse. It's in a really good location plenty of food shops (asda,lidl) and good shops about 15 minute walk away. Bus stop only 2 minutes away with plenty of destinations, 10 minute walk from Underground, 02 and Rave. Also 2 convience stores really close, Select & Save and Co-Op. Also it has good facilites, you have a cinema room, gym, snooker table ,ping pong, darts and a big downstairs kitchen. Unfortunatly, Only 4 ovens to cover ALL the residents in the house. (however most people resort to microwave/frying so if you pick the right time you can often find plenty of available space.)

All in all I Wouldn't reccomend. Won't live here again next year (despite the countless flyers/staff upselling/door handle leafters). Unless you're getting the discounted room, isn't...

Warning: This is a comprehensive review, because I don’t do these half-as*.

First off, clearly the rooms are overpriced - you can easily get a 1 bedroom apartment in the GMV (Greenwich Millenium Village), some for a couple hundred pounds cheaper than what a tiny cubicle of a room at Scape would cost you.

Sure, bills and amenities are provided but personally it still doesn’t justify the price as the rooms while beautiful - are exceptionally tiny. It may not seem like that at first, but it gets increasingly smaller the longer you stay there.

With that being said though, the rooms are beautiful - and well equipped. I do need to state however that they are absolutely horrible during the depths of winter and summer. The radiator provided for the room is not nearly warm enough for winter months - and the ventilation (and windows) are horrible; it can’t be shut to keep the cold out (you will find that many will succumb to covering the vent with tape just to stop from shivering) and would not open wide enough to get air in during the summer.

But personally, where they fail to impress is the management. Damages, once reported, takes ages until actually repaired (leaks, broken hobs, etc). and sometimes they try to charge you for it.

As they do with a lot of things. You’ll be charged £5/10 just to have them help open the doors to your room if you ever accidentally leave your keys behind.

Horrible system of renting out vacuum cleaners. It changes every now and then but at one point, I was required to not only turn in my ID (which is fine) but ALSO my bank card. And the vacuum cleaners are almost never cleared so hardly functions as a Numatic should.

The waste disposal room is trash. Pardon the pun.

The bicycle storage is never clean. That random bottle of Coke and sheet of napkin you see in November? It would still be there in July.

The elevators break down more often than it should.

Sometimes you get your packages days/weeks after it’s been delivered - and if you’re unlucky, like me, it’s sometimes a food item and would have gone bad by the time you receive it - because some of the receptionists (especially those on night shifts) just can’t be bothered to properly check if your parcel has arrived or not, even when asked nicely, multiple times.

Lastly, getting your full deposit back in the end is a chore. They will charge you for cleaning, even when you have paid for the level of cleaning described to restore the room to its original state, before you leave.

Conclusively, living at Scape was a mildly pleasant experience... but they...

Rooms are tiny boxes where you feel packed like a sardine and are severely overpriced. It's about £250 a week. Even with utilities included, it still sucks away 90% of your student loan. Leaving basically nothing for survival. However, you do have what you need in that space. Small kitchen, even smaller bathroom etc...

The noise management and curfew enforcement is completely non existent. There are countless times I have been kept up at silly o'clock in the morning due to some ignorant people outside the building or right next to my room screaming and whooping like animals. Nothing is done about this, as the staff don't care. There's even a sign indicating when to start being quiet right behind the people doing this kind of thing, so the irony is plain to see.

The pre-payment system isn't fair. They will take over a grand from you before you've even moved into your room at Scape. There are two pre-payments long before the move in date (probably to stop people backing out) and a damage deposit, all of which must be paid in order for you to even see your room. Basically meaning, you need a tonne of money available long before you get your student loan and you better be entirely sure you want to stay here as soon as you first book your place in the Spring.

I personally can't stand the buildings structure either. It has each room facing lots of others across the other side, so it's impossible to have any natural light entering your room, without it being awkward. Get one of those curtains on a stick or be prepared to never have your blind up, if you're like me and actually value your privacy. I can even feel my desk shake when neighbours slam their doors.

They operate under the impression that they inform tenants when certain events are about to occur; such as maintanence checks, by emailing everyone that they will be happening from one date to another between a fairly large time frame during each day. This isn't enough information. That doesn't tell anyone when to really expect a visit. If you're uncomfortable with someone being in your living space when you're not there, then you have no choice but to hope it doesn't happen when you're out, as you're not required to be there for these checks.

In conclusion, the only real selling point this place has is that it's a short distance away from the local University. It's a ten minute walk from Ravensbourne sure, but the reality of being here is incredibly stressful sometimes. However, given that I have decided to stay here over the years does say something about the incredible...