I stayed at David's place in Hampstead for a long visit. These were the pros and cons:
PROS:
--The village of Hampstead is safe and upscale. There are grocery stores, shops and nice (expensive) little restaurants and cafes.
--The Hampstead Underground station is about 80 yards from the front door of the studio flat. The Northern Line runs from there and it was convenient to Central London, stopping in Leicester Square (Covent Garden) and Embankment (Thames River).
--The bed was comfortable for one but not for two. It's a small double bed.
CONS:
--The studio flat is on a very busy, loud street. It's also above an independent grocery store that unloads new fruits and vegetables beginning at around 3:30AM EVERY morning. The family that runs the store is loud and sometimes they argue very loudly - all before 7am.
--The appliances in the studio flat DO NOT WORK PROPERLY with the exception of the stove-top and oven and it was dirty with stains on top. The microwave was a loud nightmare so I unplugged it and did not use. The kettle leaked all over the counter and I never tried using it again. The fridge was not working properly and is very old.
--The electric heating unit on the wall does not put out heat very well so the owner kindly brought by a portable electric heater. I did not want to leave on overnight while I was sleeping as this is potential fire hazard so I used the heavy duvet to stay warm at night.
--London was going through a historic heatwave at the final few weeks of my stay and the studio flat was absolutely miserable. The windows had to be open and it was difficult to sleep because of the noise, soot and general commotion coming from Heath Street which is right below. Horns, children walking to the school up the way, loud radios blaring from cars stopped at the light, the grocery store and their loud family issues - I finally bought a £170 air cooler and it did help somewhat but I still had to leave one window open so that there would be some air from the outside. I placed the air cooler against the window. It was a hellish nightmare in July.
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