London

Aldgate was originally one of the gates in the wall of London and is now part of the City of London and Tower Hamlets. It’s known for being part of the City, Liverpool Street Station, Fenchurch Street, the Lloyd's Register building, the London Metal Exchange and the Willis Building.

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Angel is on the northern border of the London Borough of Islington. It’s a busy area with lots of transport links and is popular as a shopping destination. Angel tube gets you to Euston and Camden Town on the Northern Line and to the City of London in the other direction.

Bloomsbury is in the West End of London and is home to University College London, Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, the British Medical Association, Bloomsbury Publishing and other great institutions. It’s also good for shopping and spending time in Bloomsbury Square, Russell Square and Bedford Square.

Find out more about Central London here

Islington is mainly a residential area known for shopping, dining and some lovely properties. It’s also known for being the home of Arsenal F.C., The Union Chapel, Finsbury Town Hall, Canonbury Tower, The Almeida Theatre, The Business Design Centre and Ironmonger Row Baths.

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King’s Cross is located in central London and is famous for London King's Cross railway station and St Pancras railway station. It’s also home to the British Library, London Canal Museum, St Pancras Old Church, Charles Dickens Museum, The Foundling Museum, Royal Mail Mount Pleasant Sorting Office and Guildhall Art Gallery.

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London Bridge is mostly famous for the bridge over the River Thames but is also home to The Shard, Tower Bridge and the Tower of London, the Old Operating Theatre, Museum and Herb Garret, Southwark Cathedral, HMS Belfast, the Fashion and Textile Museum and the Unicorn Theatre.

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Mile End is in the east end of London by the A12 into Essex. It’s a characterful area of London that’s mainly known for the Green Bridge but is also home to Mile End Hospital, Mile End Stadium, Mile End tube station, Mile End Park, Victoria Park, Queen Mary, University of London and Roman Road.

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Shoreditch used to be theatreland but has now evolved into a chic, relaxed part of London where creatives hang out. It’s a great area to live in, with lots of murals and public art, those tube carriages up in the air, Boxpark, Hoxton Square and Brick Lane, to name just a few.

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Spitalfields is in the east end of London in Tower Hamlets and is mostly known for its market. There are other markets here, though, including Old Spitalfields Market, Brick Lane Market and Petticoat Lane Market. Other landmarks include Spitalfields City Farm, Charnel House and Norton Folgate AlmsHouses.

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Find out more about Southwark here

Find out more about Waterloo here

Birkbeck University of London is located in Bloomsbury and was originally established back in 1823. It’s a well-respected university that tends to rank well and is known for its Birkbeck Institute for the humanities, science, research, history, psychology, computer science and physics.

City, University of London is located in the heart of the capital and was originally founded in 1894 as the Northampton Institute. The modern university is known for the City Law School, the School of Community & Health Sciences and related fields.

Imperial College London was created by Prince Albert and merged the Royal College of Science, Royal School of Mines and City and Guilds College into one. The current college has a narrow focus on science, technology, medicine and business and is highly regarded across the world for those subjects.

King's College London is a long-established university with links to St Thomas’s Hospital in the centre of the city. It has five campuses: Strand, Guy’s, Waterloo, St Thomas’s and Denmark Hill. It is known for dentistry, oral and craniofacial sciences, life sciences, medicine, psychiatry and related fields.

London Metropolitan University, or London Met as it’s known, is a centrally located university with a great reputation. It includes the Guildhall School of Business and Law, School of Computing and Digital Media, School of Human Sciences, School of Social Professions, School of Social Sciences and the School of Art, Architecture and Design.

The London School of Economics is one of the most popular universities in London where all courses are massively oversubscribed. The university is well known for anthropology, criminology, social psychology, sociology and social policy, international relations and business-related courses.

Queen Mary University (QMUL) is an ancient establishment founded in 1785. It is based in east and central London with campuses across that area. The university is known for research, medicine, languages, English literature, dentistry, drama and materials technology.

The School of Oriental and African Studies is based in Bloomsbury, London, and is a world-leading institution for the study of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. The university is known for teaching Asian, African and Middle Eastern languages, Arabic & Islamic Studies, Oriental Studies, law and social sciences.

University College London is the second largest university in the UK after the Open University. It was also Britain’s first secular university. It is known mainly for medicine, geography, education and training, anatomy and physiology, architecture, archaeology, psychology and pharmacology.

The University of the Arts London is made up of several colleges in London and only became a university in 2003. It includes the Camberwell College of Arts, Central Saint Martins, Chelsea College of Arts, London College of Communication, London College of Fashion and Wimbledon College of Arts.

Writer Samuel Johnson once famously said: “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life”, and with its world-renowned universities, a lively atmosphere and diverse culture, London is a rather wonderful place to be as a student.

You could say London is ‘open’ 24/7 (except during the recent lockdowns, of course!), so it’s the perfect place for you to live your best uni life. And 400,000 students agree!

London is one of the world’s top study destinations – often named as one of the best university cities. With 40 prestigious institutions to choose from, London’s top four unis are within the top 35 in the world. Add to that some of the best attractions, nightlife and eateries in the country on your doorstop, and you’ll be truly spoilt for choice!

To make the most of life in the ‘Big Smoke’, why not join our student community here at Sanctuary Students? Read on to discover more about life in the city, and our student accommodation in London.

London attracts students from across the globe – in 2019/20, of 2.46 million UK students, 400,000 were at higher education institutions in London. What’s more, over 41,000 students go to the University College London – the most students attending a single UK university. There are also around 110,000 international students in London.

As a capital city, London does experience crime, but the levels are no higher than any other major cities in the world. Small measures can greatly reduce the risk of vulnerability, for example avoiding walking home alone at night or using adequate locks on your bike.

London is one of the best student cities in the world – after all, 400,000 students can’t be wrong!


And since where you choose to live will define your student experience, we wanted to shine a light on our student accommodation in London. Our eight properties are based in the central London Zones 1 and 2:

• • Whitechapel (Don Gratton House and The Craft Building)

• • Southwark (Manna Ash House)

• • King's Cross (Dinwiddy House and Paul Robeson House - postgraduates only)

• • The East End (Coopers Court)

• • Newington Green (Alliance House)

• • Spitalfields (Lilian Knowles House) 
  
  

Depending on your interest, London has some of the best areas around the world, with vibrant culture, incredible history, amazing entertainment, world-class shopping and food from all round the world. Each of our properties will help you find the areas you’ll enjoy best, while being near to the buzz of central London.

Choosing a student room that’s close to the action will be especially important in 2021 when things begin to open up again after Covid-19 – there’ll be a packed schedule of music, sporting and cultural events, which will be bigger than ever!

Read our article for more information on cheap London student accommodation.

The zones in London generally dictate the cost of student accommodation, as well as specific areas and types of housing you’re looking for. At Sanctuary Students, our properties are in Zones 1 and 2, meaning you’re close to the centre and can also save on travel costs, as many attractions are within walking distance.

As a private hall, we give you greater value for money with all-inclusive bills. Most of our properties offer state-of-the-art shared kitchen and living areas, where you can meet up with friends and relax in your free time. They’re also perfectly located to explore all that London life has to offer.

You can view the pricing on each individual property page above, but to give you a flavour:

• • Manna Ash House (Zone 1) has en-suite rooms in a shared flat for £280 per week and a studio flat at £320 per week.

• • Don Gratton (in the middle of Zones 1 and 2) has en-suite rooms in a shared flat for £220 per week.

• • Coopers Court (Zone 2) has an en-suite rooms in a shared flat for £220 per week.

Unfortunately, we don’t have parking available at our student accommodation in London, and we generally recommend that our students don’t bring a car to London due to our properties being in central locations, meaning drivers would incur congestion (£15 daily) and ULEZ (£12.50 daily, depending on fuel type) charges. We may be able to accommodate your car for a couple of hours during check-in – subject to availability.

With plenty of public transport options, getting around London is a breeze – you certainly won’t miss having a car!

With our London properties all centrally located in Zones 1 and 2, you’ll find all your local amenities close by. However, if and when you do need to travel, travel links are easy to come by, whether it’s the London Underground, buses or trains.

All of our student flats are just a short walk away from a tube station, linking you to the rest of London and further afield. For example, Manna Ash House is a four-minute walk from Southwark tube station, and Coopers Court is quite literally around the corner from Mile End station.

When it comes to day-to-day groceries, you couldn’t be in a better place than in our student halls. Being in the city means we have shops and takeaways very close, and if you want something else, all the bike delivery services will deliver very quickly. If you’re looking to do a ‘big shop’, our friendly team will also be happy to offer advice about where to find the nearest supermarket.

London welcomes students from across the world, and is one of the most linguistically diverse cities in the world, with up to 250 languages spoken. London is home to around 110,000 international students, and here at Sanctuary Students, we’re proud of our community of international students – we’re here to make your transition to student living in the UK as smooth as possible.

We’ll allocate you a room with fellow international students to help you settle into your new home, and our on-site teams are on hand 24 hours a day, to make sure everyone in our student community is happy, healthy and safe. We have a wealth of knowledge about the local areas, and will tell you everything you need to know, from using the laundry to the best way to get to university.

When you’re considering where you want to live for your Master’s degree or PhD, it’s important to think about whether your needs have changed since those fresh-faced undergraduate days. Here at Sanctuary Students, we’re home to students of all ages at various stages of their studies.

Our uni accommodation in London is a perfect option for postgraduate students. We allocate our postgrads rooms near fellow postgrad students, so you’ll be surrounded by like-minded people in the same position as you. We offer value for money and an easy setup (including all-inclusive bills and on-site cleaners), so you can focus on your studies. Plus, our high-speed Wi-Fi is ideal for helping you tackle that heavy workload!

At our student properties in London, we offer all-inclusive bills (including electricity, water and heating), free contents insurance, on-site laundry, security, maintenance and 250MB Wi-Fi. The building-wide Wi-Fi and ethernet broadband service offer you a reliable and secure internet connection suitable for all your study and personal needs.

We specialise in delivering quality student accommodation in a safe and supportive living environment. We have 24-hour security staff and emergency helplines, secure entry and CCTV, while our maintenance teams are on hand to make sure everything runs smoothly.

Internet

Building-wide Wi-Fi and Ethernet broadband service are included in your rent and offer you a reliable and secure internet connection suitable for all your academic and personal needs, including browsing the internet, sending emails, downloading and streaming.

The broadband service provided in London does vary per property so please refer to the 'Additional information' section on your relevant property page.

• Find your nearest National Health Service (NHS) Doctor or Dentist 
  NHS Services website
   

• Contacts for free legal advice
  Citizens Advice Bureau
   

• Getting out and about in London
   Transport for London
   

• Top tips for getting the most out of student life
  London and best places to visit
   

• Apply for your student visa
  Student Visas

• Information about UK Border Agency
  UK Border Agency
   

• Information about UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA)  
  UKCISA
   

• Your guide to culture shock
  Culture shock
   

• Information about the National Union of Students (NUS)
  (NUS)