New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-12-10
LYING IN LONDON.
americans Find Flats Very Differ
ent from Those in NeD-YorE.

family to London for a year or two on account
of business or other reasons has a housing prob
lem before him likely to tax Yankee ingenuity.
At the outset he win probably seek shelter In
Bloomsbury Bayswater board and resi-
dence'' establishment where paying guests
are received, as the landlady graciously puts it
The terms seem reasonable, even low, as com
pared to New-York boarding houses-S7 so to
So so a week for the use Of a bedroom and
sitting room, the rooms being larger than New
Workers are accustomed to. Seven dollars and
half more a week is charged for food for two
persons, children being rated, according to aga
from 81 % for an infant of two years
Our American may learn among other things
In course of his first twenty-four hours In an
English boarding house that there Is no bath
room and that a matutinaI bath from hot or
cold water brought to his room has to be paid
for as an extra service. Goals for fires IN tbs
sitting room-and fires are often needed until
late in the spring-cost u cents for a sma1
pailful, with kindlings extra, though the prlcs
OF coal In the market is only shilling "a cents)
a hundredweight Fresh fruit and ice, regarded
| as necessaries at home, are luzuries little known
to most London households, and If required are
added to the account, as is milk, also. II used In
place Of tea or coffee.
| Fried bacon, toast and marmalade, with tea
If one is English enough to drink tea at break
fast. Is the common morning bill Of fare The
Sunday Joint will be found under various dis
p71ises furnishing the entree Of Mondays and
TUESDAYS dinners. Thin soup, tasteless hsh ana
stodgy buildings become familiar on the table,
The landlady may not scruple to buy marga-
rine. which is largely sold in London for butter
nor tainted meat, to be soaked in vinegar and
water as cooks have confessed, until its strength
IS sufficiently overcome to make more OF less
savory roast.
Less than fortnight Of such fare sends the
average American and his wife who have a few
wears in the British metropolis ahead OF them
scTrrving around for living quarters Of thelF
own.
Remembering the conveniences Of their New
yorl, fiat. they naturally look for its London
counterpart but their search for this haven Is
apt to prove long, discOuraging and unsatls-
factory. If, in the mean time, they look about
for a furnished fiat as temporary refuge from
their boarding house troubles, they find that
flat in London is an elastic term and often
stretched to include several rooms scattered
through a dwelling, while it is common to md
old fashioned houses converted into so-caIled
flats by bisecting a large drawing room into a
parlor bedroom, making a kitchen Of bath
room and retaining the marble basin for the
sink. turning the glass inclosed space originally
intended for a conservatory into a bedroom or
reception room, and on. without disturbing
the main structure, and with the fewest possible
changes. Furnished flats may be rented Tor
81 so to So a week OF course. these are not
in the most fashionable neighborhoods. In the
large apartment houses of South Kensington
and Westminster furnished chambers are taken
every spring by Americans of means migrating
to London for the season" who pay from three
guineas ($15l week to eight guineas C$4O) a
day.
To rent house by the year anywhere in the
West End Of London, even long way from
Mayfair, becomes expensive when the ground
rent taxes water rates, etc, added to the
nominal rent These additional burdens every
householder In London has to bear, whether he
Is the owner or not. Few houses are leased for
less than term of years-fve or six or seven
years being the usual period. With the signing
Of the lease 1t is also agreed that the tenant
shall paint the outside of the house once a year
and redecorate the interior at least every two
years, and perhaps pay for fresh decorations
on giving up the contract Some well to do
Americans who have settled in London for
few years have found it cheaper in the long run
to buy a house outright and sell it at slight
loss, or profit, as the case may be, when through
with it.
So the American in London whose sOjourn e
not definitely fixed and whose pocketbook win
not permit him to become householder, must