The apartment was well located with a SuperTesco down the road and an M&S food store around the corner; this makes it easy to eat in, which is convenient during COVID. The Earl’s Court tube is just down the block which serves the District and Piccadilly lines making access to Central London and Heathrow easy (and all District line branches stop at Earl’s Court). Earl’s Court Road is on the other side and has a plethora of commercial businesses, restaurants, etc. And there’s a delightful private garden behind the flat. Raúl and Julia were very helpful.
But … the flat itself can best be described as shabby (and not shabby chic). There were holes in the couch, the carpet was tattered and stained—and there was an exposed nail,
(which we removed). The floors were uneven, and the kitchen was tiny (but it’s well equipped, although food storage space is minimal). Also, the bedrooms are small, enough that, while the beds are double ones, there’s only access from one side, making it very hard for a couple to share it unless one goes to sleep first, rises last, and never uses the facilities during the night. We were three and one of us ended up on the couch, but there were no extra sheets or blankets so we had to improvise.
There are a lot of steps up to the flat — 42 to be exact — but the risers are smaller than usual so it’s perhaps not as bad as it sounds. The windows are poorly insulated so it was cold on the flat (we were there in Winter). The tub is extraordinarily steep to get in. The laundry machine says it has a dry cycle but what came out was far short of I’d say Is ‘dry.’ There’s a rack, but if London is not your last stop this could be a problem; for us it was the last stop so we did a wash early on and will go home with some dirty clothes so not disastrous for us. The WiFi has a ‘weak security’ warning which is a bit scary. Finally, when they say that there is street noise audible in the bedrooms, believe them.