London offers a great range of accommodation and, with careful budgeting, living in the world’s most exciting city can be surprisingly affordable – London is the 10th most cost effective place to study in the UK (Student Living Index 2015).
SOAS students have the option of staying in Halls of Residence, in Privately Rented Houses, or in Student Homes.
Halls of residence accommodate students in blocks of study bedrooms, usually equipped with a desk, bed and storage. Rooms may be ensuite (with a bathroom inside the room) or bathrooms may be shared between flats. SOAS has excusive access to two halls of residence located close to King’s Cross, and shares accommodation at several other local halls of residence with students from across the University of London.
Students are advised to begin their application for accommodation as soon as possible. All applications for halls of residence must be made online, via the Sanctuary Students website.
The main SOAS campus is located in the heart of London in historic Bloomsbury, an area of leafy squares and parks, which provides a peaceful haven away from the bustle of the city. Close by is the British Library and the British Museum. In the early 20th Century, the area was home to the eponymous Bloomsbury Group, whose more famous members included E. M. Forster, John Maynard Keynes and Virginia Woolf, while the poet T. S. Eliot worked for almost 40 years for the publishers Faber and Faber in a building now used by SOAS.
The Brunswick Centre, close to the nearby Russell Square tube station, is a great place to eat and shop, and Oxford Street, Covent Garden and Leicester Square are just a short walk away, as too is St Pancras Station, the London terminal for Eurostar trains to Paris and Brussels.
