Bloomsbury Student Accommodation: Living Among London’s Universities

Bloomsbury is the closest thing London has to a university town. UCL, SOAS, Birkbeck, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the University of London’s Senate House all sit within a few streets of each other, between Euston Road and Holborn. In between are garden squares, the British Museum and a few good second-hand bookshops.

It’s also one of the hardest places in London to find a room. The university halls fill early, and the large hall on Cartwright Gardens that you may have seen on our site is fully booked. This page is about what you can actually book now, and what living here is like.

The Bloomsbury residence on Guilford Street is two restored Victorian townhouses run as one shared house. Every bedroom has its own shower and toilet, and the residents share a fully fitted kitchen. There are single en-suites, double en-suites and twin rooms, which you can also book on your own if you want the extra space. Bills and Wi-Fi are included, there’s a laundry and a common room, and the shared areas are cleaned regularly.

It’s a small, quiet house rather than a big hall, so don’t expect a gym or a cinema room. What you get instead is the location. The minimum stay is two weeks, which suits summer schools and pre-sessional courses as well as a full year.

These are walking times from Guilford Street, from the TfL journey planner:

SOAS about 15 minutes, Birkbeck 16, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine 17, the Bloomsbury Institute 17, the University of Law’s Bloomsbury campus 18 and UCL’s Gower Street entrance about 19. The British Museum is about 18 minutes on foot.

A little further, but still under half an hour door to door: Central Saint Martins at King’s Cross (about 17 minutes by bus), LSE (about 20), King’s College London’s Strand campus (about 21) and the University of Westminster on Regent Street (about 26). Our pages on student accommodation near UCL, SOAS, UAL and King’s College London have the details for each.

Russell Square station, on the Piccadilly line, is under ten minutes’ walk away. King’s Cross St Pancras is about 15 minutes on foot, with six tube lines and the Eurostar, and Farringdon, on the Elizabeth line, is about 15 minutes too. Heathrow takes around 55 minutes by the Elizabeth line, or you can take the Piccadilly line all the way from Russell Square without changing. That’s useful when you arrive with two suitcases.

The squares are the best part. Russell Square, Gordon Square and Tavistock Square are all a few minutes away and fill up with students reading on the grass as soon as the weather allows. The British Museum is free, and so is the British Library next to St Pancras, where you can apply for a reader pass to study.

For everyday things, the Brunswick Centre has a supermarket, cafés and a cinema. Lamb’s Conduit Street, just south of Guilford Street, has independent shops, a few old pubs and good coffee. The Charles Dickens Museum on Doughty Street is round the corner if you have visitors to entertain.

It’s quieter at night than Camden or Soho, and most students find that’s a good thing during exams.

Bloomsbury is central London, and it’s priced like it. If the dates you need are taken, or you’d rather spend less, the Camden residence near Chalk Farm is about 25 minutes from Russell Square by bus, and every room there is a studio with its own kitchenette. The North Camden residence is about half an hour away, with a café and lounges. Further out, Walthamstow is a straight run down the Victoria line to King’s Cross, and our King’s Cross guide has the journey times.

Applying is free and doesn’t commit you to anything. Tell us your dates and where you’ll be studying. We check with the residence and usually reply the same working day with the room, the weekly rate and the total for your stay. How booking works covers payment and contracts.

The cards below show the current weekly price for each residence. Prices change through the year, so we’ll always confirm the exact figure.