Given that Joyce let us know that she has had to deal with some recent family difficulties, we were happy to be understanding of the fact that her level of involvement and engagement with us might be a little less than what was described in previous reviews. To preface, the space is as photographed, clean, and well-maintained. The internet is quick and reliable and the location is in a quiet neighbourhood with access to straightforward routes into Central London. Joyce and her son were also warm and helpful to us on the first day of our stay.
Unfortunately, there were several occurrences throughout our stay that made us question our presence and compromised our ability to move about comfortably in the space we rented. Initially, we were under the impression that just Joyce and her son lived in the house, but there have been many visitors who stay and talk throughout the night and, as there is only one shared bathroom, it has felt challenging at times to access it or maintain a comfortable level of privacy.
The logistics of the home also don’t allow for a great deal of privacy, as the door to the host’s primary living space/kitchen is right next to the bathroom (adjacent to and on the same short hallway as our room), the door to which was very often open. Additionally, one of us was in the room alone during the day and heard an alarming amount of shouting and crying that ended up calming down, but left us feeling nervous to leave the room as we were unaware of the dynamic of the rest of the house. There were also two separate occasions where different members of the household shut our window quite loudly from the outside, both times at around midnight, despite there being no request to us to shut it on our own first and absolutely no mention in the house rules of them not wanting the window open. Both incidents genuinely scared us, as we did not initially know that they were people from the house.
Again, we were willing and eager to give Joyce the benefit of the doubt given the difficult circumstances she has been dealing with, but the overall experience felt odd and uncomfortable for us as guests in the home.
All this to say, this is a good room to stay in if you are truly just in need of a room to come back to and keep your stuff, as it is far more similar to a hostel that happens to be located quaint and quiet neighborhood that offers a reasonable walk to the southeastern commuter rail which connects you to the tube/downtown.