Great Dover Street Apartments / King's College London

Thank you so much for your insight, and your honesty! I really appreciate it. Where are you heading to after GDSA?

Yeh, I hear you. I know I've not even begun my first but I have been thinking about where I am to live in the second year.

Just booked GDSA for when I begin reading Political Economy at King's. Anyone else here, or know anything I should? Was aiming for Stamford St but just wanted to get something close to Strand.

Does anyone know how are the rooms at dover street named? I got into one and just curious about what floor, which block etc. Thanks

Sure! It’s block number-flat number-room. I’m afraid you can’t really work out floor until you get there since flats are numbered across all the blocks but you can know the block and room

First year staying at GDSA right now here I don't think there were really any surprises when I moved in, it's pretty much as advertised, but I can do a little list of things I've picked up from my stay here:

- Firstly, you can get to Strand by walking via Waterloo, and going across Waterloo Bridge brings you pretty much directly to Bush House. It takes about 40 minutes and is pretty easy once you know the route

- I would say it's very well placed in general, you're 10 minutes from Borough high street in one direction, 10 minutes from a Lidl and 20 minutes from a Tesco superstore in the other. Also, the Sainsbury's across the road is very useful (if an excellent way to easily spend lots of money on snacks lol). It's also only 15-20 minutes on foot to Tower Bridge and generally central London, so there's lots to do that's easy to get to

- the noise is not generally that bad, though it depends on your flatmates. The courtyard gets briefly noisy when people come back from a night out, but otherwise is fine, and you generally only hear noise from within your flat. The only things I hear from my flatmates either side of me is the bathroom door (which squeaks), the light switch, and if they're shouting or playing music really loud

- kitchen inspectors can be ruthless, and you never know whether you'll pass or fail. (if you fail 3 times in a row everyone has to pay £25, but that's very rare, and I think they try and send round the resilife ambassadors instead. I think there's only one flat in the whole building that's been in trouble with it). We once got told to organise our fridge better smh

- some things are a little bit quirky. Like the fact the cleaners sometimes move the fridges for no reason and don't put them back, or the fact the microwave can't be set for anything less than 3 minutes, or the way the water in the kitchen sometimes runs cold for like 10 minutes when you're trying to get hot water, or the way the flat doors often don't shut properly, or the extractor fan comes on randomly and usually not when you're cooking. Nothing really more than mild inconveniences that are sometimes amusing

- the bathroom fan doesn't shut off until around two, maybe three in the morning if at all, so I'd recommend earplugs or something if it would keep you awake. Personally I've gotten to the point where it's weird if I can't hear it in the background lol

- the receptionists are all nice and friendly, and the maintenance team are very efficient - I've had a few problems in both the kitchen and my room (nothing major, just a bust light bulb and the oven randomly not working) and they always come within a day or so

- the Resilife programme here is really good, at least it has been this year. Events at least twice a week - films, baking, crafts etc - really chill and friendly, and a fun way to spend a free evening

- unlike Stamford St, I don't think we've had mice here lol (there is a mice of kcl instagram page)

- sometimes you get foxes in the courtyard. you get squirrels in the autumn though

- the road is actually really quiet except at rush hour, most of the time I can just cross straight over and there's very little, if any, traffic. You get emergency vehicles most days but that's standard for London. The area's pretty safe as well, it's mostly residential housing and families

- when you're in the kitchen or if your room faces behind, you can enjoy people playing football (or sometimes lacrosse) in tabard gardens basically every day without fail, no matter the weather and even well into the evening.

I think that's everything I really have to say on GDSA. It's not bad for student accommodation, personally I really love the courtyard with all the trees and I kind of got used to its quirks. I'll be sad to leave, especially since I'm on Guy's campus so it's only a 10-minute walk, but unfortunately it's only for first years :') Regardless, I hope this list helped, and I hope you enjoy your stay here

i just booked a room there but after seeing the pictures of the bathroom i’m a bit worried. some people are saying it’s like a wet room since there’s no shower enclosure?

Yeah that’s true. You have the sink in one corner, the toilet in the middle and then the shower head in the far corner. So it does mean the floor gets wet but it dries out pretty quick

oh okay! also are there currently refurbishments going on? and would u say it’s in a safe location like would it be safe returning to accom at 11?

no refurbishments all year, the only thing we had was over winter they put emergency generators in the courtyard but they’re gone now, and there’s nothing going on at the minute. I’d say it’s pretty safe, most of the area is just residential families w. younger kids, and I’ve come back at 11-midnight several times and never had any issues

oh really? i didn’t visit gdsa on offer holder day but one of my friends went and they told her there were refurbishments going on? i’m glad to know it’s a safe area tho

Oh, weird. The only other thing I can think is depending when offer holder day was, they had to do maintenance in the laundry room to fix a bunch of the machines, but we definitely haven’t had anything major, or at least not that they’ve told us lol

oh okay i was looking forward to maybe having a refurbished room haha

Haha yeah no as far as I’m aware the rooms are the same as in the pictures - it’s possible they might do a bit of refurb but I haven’t heard anything about it. Don’t blame you though lol