KCL students ‘horrified’ after accommodation power cut left them with no running water

Students at King’s College London were evacuated from their accommodation after a local power cut caused damage to a transformer serving the property.

The power outage affected both Wolfson House and Guy’s Hospital in London Bridge, Southwark.

Residents at Wolfson House were able to return the next evening, but were faced with a lack of running water and limited cooking facilities.

During the evacuation on Monday 2nd February, students were moved to a nearby lecture theatre in New Hunt’s House but reported receiving “little to no information” from the university.

A student told Roar News they had to receive information from other students or social media due to a lack of communication from the university. They also claimed staff provided inconsistent responses about when the issue would be resolved.

Students who required medication were told to send room numbers and names to the Wolfson House WhatsApp group, before being escorted by security staff to retrieve them. However, one student claimed “some weren’t even allowed that.”

It was after midnight when students were informed rooms at the Strand Palace Hotel would be provided for them, despite the hotel being over two miles away from the residence.

They were also told the taxis would be reimbursed to cover travel to the hotel, but students who were not in the lecture theatre never received this information.

At 11am on the 3rd February, students received an official communication from King’s saying students were allowed back into the building to collect essential items in 15 minute slots.

Students were also told that they could use showers and common rooms at both the Great Dover Street Apartments and Stamford Street residences if required. Any food and travel expenses would also be covered by the university.

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At around 8.30pm, residents who returned to Wolfson Street discovered there was no running water.

The students who reported the absence of water received no immediate response from the university, despite King’s confirming it had been restored.

Students described university’s response to the crisis as “nothing less than outrageous”.

Speaking about their experience dealing with the situation with an assistant animal, a disabled resident argued staff had an inadequate response, calling it “horrifying” and claiming “there was no plan in place”.

A spokesperson for King’s College London said: “We are hugely grateful to our teams for their quick response when a power outage in the local London Bridge area cut off electricity to Wolfson House.

“Our immediate priority was ensuring that our students were safe and had access to power – our teams worked at pace to source 200 rooms at the nearby Strand Palace Hotel, and worked throughout the night and into the next day to resolve the situation and minimise the disruption the external outage caused to the King’s Residence.

“All students were safely relocated until we could confirm that the building had been made safe and power restored so they could return to their accommodation. The subsequent temporary issue with running water has since been fully resolved.

“A team of ten welfare leads were on site to support students and answer questions, and we updated our students as swiftly as we could with the information provided to us by the technicians and specialists working on resolving the local outage.

“We appreciate that this was an unsettling experience, and students have been advised on how to claim cost for travel and food during the outage. Students can contact our residences wellbeing team or wellbeing advisors for any ongoing support.”

Fatima Hire, vice-president of welfare and community, said she “was saddened to hear about the incident at Wolfson House”, adding “this will have undoubtably been a difficult experience for all residents.”

“This incident underlines the need for student accommodation that is fit for purpose and provides a good standard of living […] that provides good value for money without sacrificing standards”, she continued.

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