Ensuite Room in Brixton Houseshare - £850 inc.

£850 including all bills, fibre internet, and weekly cleaner.

So very sadly Anibal's visa application finally got rejected so he has to go back to Colombia and we have a room available.

Viewing tomorrow, Weds 9th April, in the evening.

About the room
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It is a compact room with its own ensuite shower. It's got a nearly-double bed, which technically makes it a nearly-double room. Two people could sleep in it, but not live in it - so it's not available for couples. It looks a bit clinical all in white in the photos but you can put what you like on the walls.

It's on the top floor of the house in the converted loft and looks out over the street through a roof window. There's another room next to it, so you'll need to have some tolerance and consideration for your neighbour.

There's hardwired broadband internet and a desk with an office chair (appears to be missing in the pix - we are on the case) in your room, so it's good for WFH; it's full fibre to the front door of the house. Also decent wifi throughout the building.

The House
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But you only sleep, WFH or watch your lonely netflix in your bedroom: you live in the whole house, which is spacious and comfortable - ideal for a sociable household.
You can hang out round the kitchen table and share meals, tea, wine and chatter. In summer, you can spread out into the small back garden (and try to make yourselves heard over the noise of the planes); in winter use the shared living-room more - which has a giant home cinema screen, ideal for shared netflix/movie nights or house karaoke.

The kitchen is well-equipped and designed for shared cooking and eating of proper meals rather than for five people each heating their own instant noodles, although inevitably microwaving a ready meal from Getir tends to predominate... It has enough kit for serious cooking and baking (big Kenwood, Magimix etc). The dishwasher is probably the easiest domestic dishwasher in South London to load and unload, so there is no excuse.
Cleaners come in once a week to do the deep cleaning, which can only be done properly in the time if the place isn't ankle-deep in dirty dishes...

Upstairs, just outside your room, there's a laundry area with washer, dryer and hanging space.

Although you'd have your own shower, there's also a separate bathroom for those days when only a long soak will do.

Guests are welcome - your guests are our guests and vice-versa. There's a sofa-bed in the front room for guests with whom you are not that intimate.

Working from Home
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There's a desk with a modern office chair as well as wifi and wired internet in your room so working from home doesn't mean Zoom calls from your bed.

Brixton
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Brixton's reputation has recovered a bit since the 1980s when it was a byword for riots. Its Caribbean links are still evident but gentrification has taken its toll. Flat rents aren't showing any sign of coming down.... Its famous market isn't anywhere near as busy as it used to be so please make use of it - it's cheaper and much more fun than buying from Tesco.. Much of the covered market is now various eateries, it's very busy in the evening and there's a lot of innovative and creative food there although some chain places are beginning to muscle in. Mind you, other chains like Franco Manca and Honest Burgers started out from there...
The street market is still good for food shopping but LiDl is much nearer and between the two there is a big Tesco, which has neither charm, choice nor cheapness. We have good local coffee-shops and a great artisan bakery (gentrification has its upsides, the bread may be over £4 a loaf but it is delicious...) We're very close to some handy E-W bus routes too. It's a bit more of a schlepp, or a few stops on the 37 bus, to Brockwell Park with its lido, gardens and the annual Lambeth Country Show.

Clapham
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Turn right out of the door and Clapham High St is even closer than Brixton. It has some handy shops, quite a few meh restaurants, an inexplicable nightlife, and a big Sainsbury's at the Common end. The Common itself is the closest big green space but it's nowhere near as lovely as Brockwell Park, being encircled and bisected by the South Circular Road.

About us:

We, Edward and Lydia, own the house and lived there and shared it for over thirty years. We were grown-ups when we bought it - go figure. We're now retired and our primary home is in deep rural Northern France but we still have a room in the house and we come back about once a month to fix the things you break, cook you all a meal and top-up our social and cultural life. We might live in France but we still think of ourselves as Londoners, indeed Brixtonites.

We started sharing because we had to, and carried on because we like living with other people. We've made lots of friends and we're still in touch with many of the people who've lived in the house over that time. Chances are that the visitor sharing a pot of tea - or a bottle of wine - with us round the kitchen table used to live here.

We have been called hippies, but that wouldn't be strictly accurate. "Old ravers" might be a little closer.

We like food, music, dancing (in the kitchen or the middle of a hot sweaty dancefloor - hot sweaty dancefloors being what we missed most in the pandemic), London, the company of friends and outdoorsy country things. We like to go to at least two festivals every summer....

Our main home in Northern France is where we now spend most of our time. You'd be welcome to come and visit for a weekend, - we often have space in the car when we go and it's only an hour and half from Calais, so it's ideal for a weekend trip. For the best part of twenty-five years we made the trip once a fortnight, out on Friday after work, back on Sunday night. It's an old farmhouse with about an acre of orchard and a developing forest-garden including a camping-meadow and it's very relaxing; we also have the occasional micro-festival there with music and camping.

Besides the two ageing owners who will not be present most of the time but will want to know all about you and meet your friends, you will be sharing the house with Nicos, Ash and Manami.

The room is available because Anibal is moving out because his visa ran out.

It's inevitable that the house dynamic has changed from when we first moved in and everyone was much of the same age, and it's changing again now as we aren't around so much. It will be up to you what you make of it and we're fine with that so long as you don't trash the place, and recycle accurately. We'd be much happier if you made it your home, had friends round and joined in with everyone else. It's up to you all to make your own rules between you so long as you avoid too many bossy notices around the place (send a passive-aggressive WhatsApp message to the house group instead....);
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About you:
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We like living with all sorts of different people (diversity doesn't stop at the front door), so there's no stereotype ideal person - but we'd definitely rather have people who are around and do things with us all than ghosts we never see. .

Ideally you're someone a bit political, with fire in the belly, who's also up for a late-night rant or two with a spliff (in the garden) and/or a glass of wine but who's still got the energy to drag everyone out for a dance, a house outing to a gallery, the pub or a march or demo. Someone who will share their passions with us (as well as showing at least a token interest in ours!). We're looking for someone who'll be part of our lives, not just someone who pays rent. Someone who will make our home their home. Probably likes to party a bit, but not to the exclusion of everything else yet understands that work that pays the rent and bills gets priority for quiet time.... Hopefully also enough of a gardener to know when the plants, inside and outside, need watering...

Someone for the medium to long term - a stay measured in years rather than weeks or months. There isn't a fixed minimum, but don't bother if you're just looking for a short term let.

If you're new to London, you might be able to make the most of the network of friends and former housemates you'd meet by living here.

You should have a profile on SpareRoom - post a "room wanted" ad - and it'll probably say something more original about you than "respect and expect privacy and like to chillax with the occasional glass of wine with flatmates". Or if you don't want to post a profile for whatever reason, tell me lots about yourself in your reply.
If you do neither, you might as well not bother (as we get more replies, I get quicker on the automatic rejections, sorry).

We're looking for the right person, not necessarily the next person to see the room. One of the reasons we've enjoyed sharing all these years is that we choose carefully - and take our time.
It is definitely NOT a case of the early viewer gets the room.

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The rent

is £850 pcm all-inclusive - it covers all the bills and broadband. Payable by bank transfer/standing order on the first of every month. There's no deposit, but we ask you to pay the rent for the final month of your stay when you move in as well as the pro-rata rent until the end of the month. Should you ever leave, you give your month's notice and stop paying rent at the same time. We have never raised anyone's rent and don't intend to.

It's up to you all how you organise the food and drink: when we were there full-time everything was shared and it's obviously sensible not to have multiple open bottles of ketchup or cooking oil... We, Edward and Lydia, sometimes bring back home-grown provender including eggs from our hens and lots of home-made jam.

VIEWING DETAILS:
Viewing is a two-stage process. At the first viewing session (Weds 9th April) the existing residents will meet everyone and make a shortlist of people they would like to live with.

If you're still interested after that ordeal and have made it to the shortlist, we'll ask you round for a meal when we will finally decide who gets the room.

You should be able to move in shortly afterwards but if you need to give notice on your current place and you're the right person for us we'll wait.
Availability is listed as May 1st but it could be sooner if we find the right person sooner.