h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi!
I'm looking for some advice - can any of you good people help?
I want to live and work in London, but I live in Bournemouth. You're probably thinking 'Why don't you move to London, then!' Yes, I know that, but I've heard that finding accomodation in London can be a nightmare.
Am I going to let that put me off? No!
Am I going to carry on answering my own questions? No!!
Here's what I'm looking for:
1. A job, as a web developer/designer, perhaps tech. support. Something I'm good at. Temp or permanent - I don't mind (I call it keeping my options open). Can anyone suggest any good agencies or websites?
2. A studio flat, in Zones 1 or 2, £200/week maximum.

I want to move ASAP - preferrably within a month. Your advice please...

[David]

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Hi David!

I've seen a web designer’s job advertised here in London. If you go to my message centre and leave me a note I'll pass on the information. As for the accommodation side I'll keep my eyes and ears peeled but you'll probably find that you'll have to come to London and view a few places before you make any commitments. My advice would be to find yourself a job first then you'll be able to decide which area to start looking for a place in. I've never rented here in London (I'm born and bred so I lived with Mummy and Daddy before getting my own place!) but I think you'll be safer renting a place through a letting agency/estate agent and they're everywhere, in every high street.

Good luck!

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look in loot the free ads paper, which comes out every day in london. be prepared to see a place, say yes i'll take it and hand over some money within a day or two.

oh, and buy loot as soon as your newsagent's opens. all the good stuff goes by lunchtime.

agencies tend to take longer, promise to call you back and never do. oh, and they may charge nasty fees too.

don't have any definite area that you want to live in (although north is better than south). once you find somewhere that is nice, for the right price and is near a tube, take it, wherever it is.

Oh, and you'll probably need references - previous landlord, bank (to prove you can afford it) and employment (but you can always pretend one of your mates runs his own business and you are an integral part of it...)

good luck.

'north is better than south' and why's that Mikey Digital?! Have you ever lived in South London or East or West for that matter!

There are loads of places to live in London, the problem is that many of them are terrible and all are expensive.
My method was to move to London (knwoing I had a job starting in a few days) and look for a place once there. I was lucky enough to pick one out from the Evening Standard and find it good enough to live in for the next 3 years! However, having moved on from there, I had to look at loads of unsuitable flats before coming across where I am now, and I know there are a lot of misleading adverts.
Don't become disheartened if you can't find somewhere good straight away. And, as mentioned above, move fast or it'll be snapped up!

yup, i lived in brixton and oval. brixton was good, oval less so, but as a rule north is clearly the best. better transport, better football teams and more culture, man.

Can I just say that as horrendous as flat hunting is in London, flatmate hunting has just about brought me to me knees!

Make sure you get that job first. Then decide on what and where you want to live.
If you want to be a web designer, you need to be able to show off some stuff you've done. You'll need to be able to hand craft HTML, not just knock it out of dreamweaver or whatever, but I'm sure you'll be able to do that

All the best.
Phil
(living and working in London, wondering if he should stay)

I have to agree with everyone - get the job then the flat.

A good place to look is Loot - a listing newspaper. The Standard is also quite good.

However, research you residential areas carefully.

I lived in Knightsbridge, returned home and found that the landlord had taken away the stairs to my flat - no joke. I had to climb up and down a ladder for over a month.

North London is great but avoid areas like Harlesden, Willesden Junction.

Just because a flat is in Zone One doesn't mean that it is worth the money you are paying. A dear friend of mine has just moved into a flat by Fleet Street. The flat is fantastic except that she is in the flat above the boiler, is infested with cocroaches and woken up by the rumble of ruch hour traffic a 6:30 am.

Having said all that, when you get here, get settled, it is one hellof a city.

Shop around and don't limit yourselve to living in zone one. The one thing about London is that it never sleeps and the night buses can get you to wherever you end up living even in the burbs so you never have to give up on enjoying the pulse of teh city. Mind you when I was there I occasionally got the first train back out of the city on the weekends I was up so late and having a good time.

But get the job first as you need the dough to do anything in London and landlords don't look too kindly on people with no steady flow of pounds into their account and out into the landlords are are very unlikely to let you into their property.

All,
What can I say...
...Big thanks for all your advice!
Be in touch.

[David]