Verified review
10/10 Excellent
Jeff M.
19 Jun 2019
Liked: Cleanliness, check-in, communication, location, listing accuracy
Lovely little apartment.
This is an independent apartment on the ground floor of a traditional London house. The owners live above and are very friendly and helpful.
As is typical in London, the apartment is long and narrow. There's a door to the front bedroom near the entrance. You walk through the lounge to get to the kitchen and bathroom, and then on the back of the apartment is another room that is set up as a dining room. There was one large and comfortable bed (2 people) in the front room along with a single bed that has a trundle bed underneath. I would assume that these two single beds could be moved to the back room if one wanted a second bedroom instead of a dining room, but you would have to ask the owner.
The bathroom door is right next to the kitchen sink which some people might find distasteful, but it's a typical layout for London. It's recently remodelled with a really nice glass shower. The water heater is a modern type without a tank. You just turn on the hot tap and it works. (This is appreciated by anyone who's dealt with some of the older British systems involving storage tanks and pumps.)
There is a door in the lounge that gives you access to the garden and they allows smoking in the garden, but of course no smoking is allowed in the flat.
Paper towels, toilet paper, drinking water, cleaning supplies, soap, laundry soap, shampoo, tea, were all provided.
The washing machine has a drier setting, but it didn't seem to work like the typical American drier. I just put my clothes on the drying rack. I turned on the heat one night and it seemed to work fine. It's controlled by a panel in the kitchen. The microwave works fine. The refrigerator is full size and has a very large freezer section.
Barking is a gentrifying area and this apartment is in an area with owner occupied homes with families and kids playing up and down the sidewalks. Of course normal city precautions should be taken at night and near the train station, and I would avoid the pedestrian bridge, but there are lots of people around even at night.
At Cecil Ave and Longbridge road is a nice halal grocery store that's open to 23:00 with really good fresh baked bread. There's shopping area on the other side of the train station that has Asda, three pound shops, and an open market with food stalls on the weekend. That's about a 10 minute walk. There's also a Lidel nearby and various ethnic grocery stores, ethnic restaurants, takeout places, a small shopping mall, some pubs, and a Nando's.
Stayed 14 nights in Jun 2019