Halls from Hell 2: Great Dover Street residents spend days without electricity and running water
Freshers left cold, thirsty, dirty, and in the dark
At £650 a month Great Dover Street Apartments are supposed to be one of the plushest halls KCL has to offer.
But suffering residents are plagued by dripping taps, arctic indoor temperatures, and a ban on guests after 11.30pm.
Now Great Dover Street Apartments have become notorious for cold showers and even icier rules.
To really rub it in, newly built posh halls Moonraker Point offering free fortnightly cleaning and state of the art facilities, is just down the street.
Ross Henderson, a first year Pharmacy student, had a broken blind from the first day he moved in, allowing no daylight to enter his room.
It was fixed only several months later after an emotional letter to the maintenance staff, in which he said: “I have found this whole process an incredibly upsetting, stressful and exhausting experience.
“The sink taps in my en-suite incessantly drip, the hot water tap never runs hot and my shower has become less and less warm throughout my stay.
“I haven’t reported these as I lack the energy to pursue such problems that seem so trivial when compared against a complete lack of daylight.”
As soon as the London winter hit, frozen freshers immediately noticed problems with the heating.
First year Pharmacy student Emma said: “Multiple people as well as myself have resorted to having portable heaters in our rooms (which aren’t allowed) just because our rooms are so cold.”
Emma added “things like the drawers and sinks in our kitchen are always breaking and at one point the electricity in our kitchen went out and we couldn’t cook in our kitchen for three days.
“We pay a ridiculous amount of money (around 2600 a term) for sub par facilities and ridiculous rules.”
Sabina Sevillano, second year International Politics said: “In general GDS kind of sucked”.
“I had no warm water for two weeks and I had to go to the gym to shower”.
You might consider her lucky to even have water at all, as second year English Literature student Ophelia Prior was denied running water for three days.
That means no showering for over 72 hours.
After living there for a year, Ophelia says that “everyone I talk to has something bad to say about them!”
Even picking up a much needed care package of Creme Eggs from your mum isn’t straight forward.
The long broken mail boxes force residents to report to reception like refugees to a red cross aid truck.
And to top it all off draconian rules mean your overnight guest has to be signed in by 11:30pm sharp, so you can forget having friends staying over after a night out.