My Third Place in London (a retrospective)

I had to leave this place with the Brazilians after only three weeks to a month because the landlord was increasing the rent and the leaseholder didnt want to pay it. This is probably something he should have considered before moving a new person in. But who needs courtesy?

I was tired of living with lunatics so I figured this time I was going to get a place where I DIDN'T have to share a room with a complete stranger. But I still didnt have a job so I had to keep it cheap.

I ended up in a place in North London called Tottenham. Its full of Jews. The sort who grow beards, carry bibles, and wear long black coats and peculiar wide-brimmed black hats.

The front yards was full of garbage. There were a couple of matresses there, broken chairs, and things that should have been discarded ages ago. Honestly the front yard was full of piles of refuse.

I took it anyway because I didnt have to share the room. It was in a house with about 6 people. This would later increase to about 12.

And the room I had was a box room. If youre from a civilized country, you might not know what this means. Its basically a tiny room that can fit a single bed and...basically nothing else. Its not even an exaggeration. There wasnt enough room to even stand next to the bed.

And the housemates were...all Polish. Loud, drunk, drug-addicted sorts.

But people from other nationalities would come and go. Some people only lived in this place for a week. Thats how bad it was.

As for cutlery, there really wasnt any. So I had to buy a bowl. Fortunately, they had a couple spoons so I was able to eat cereal. Although, speaking of food anything that was left out was often stolen by some Polish guys who basically considered the house theirs. I left notes saying "please dont steal my food because I dont work and cant afford this" but it didnt help. Soon they were stealing anything. Even peanut butter. So I had to stop buying milk or anything that needs refigeration or freezing and leave all food in my room.

Once, a Hungarian couple moved in. I have no idea why because everybody who lived in the place was a guy. But the girl was a complete whore so she seemed ok with it. She and some French goth would constantly flirt with eachother when her boyfriend was at work. It was well known by everybody except this Hungarian guy.

And there used to b e pictures of women from porn magazines tacked on the bulletin board in the picture (by these Polish guys). But when this couple moved in, they managed to stop that practice.

It was really a horrible place. There was a window above the bathroom door that should have been opaque. But it wasnt. So you could see right into the bathroom.

I applied for Job Seekers Allowance at this new place. I had been receiving it while I was in East London. But my application was rejected. I appealed but the appeal takes months.

So I was unable to pay the rent. And I regularly complained to some Frenchmen who came in to collect the rent that I'm not going to pay full rental price because my food keeps getting stolen and you're doing nothing about it.

They also converted a little sitting room into another bedroom in order to cram more people in. And there was a Polish guy who slept on the living room couch for like two months. They would smoke marijuana and drink constantly in there.

Theres loads more I can say about this place, but Ill leave it at that. One day, the Jewish landlord must have decided that he wants to refurbish the place. But instead of telling everybody that they have to leave, he just turned the electricity off. At least now nobody had to pay for rent.

This went on for some time. A lot of people left during this. We called the French guy to complain but he said he wasnt working for this Jew anymore so its not his problem (this would later turn out to be false).

Some French guy who lived there was so pissed off about this that he destroyed the toilet and took the frame off of his room's door. Just completely destroyed both of them. The toilet was unusable as was the door.

I went to the housing council about this, and they (eventually) came in to see the place. And I gave a statement. They said they would look into it, and the guy who came over agreed that the place was in a horrible state and something needed to be done. But nothing ever was in spite of my repeated calls to the place. I was volunteering at the time, so the Polish guy was supposed to go to the housing council for some appointment with them. But he overslept. Didnt seem to really care.

There was also a situation where a French guy living there stole some marijuana from the Polish guy who slept on the couch. He stole it because he had an expensive lighter stolen from him (clearly from the Polish guys). He left shortly after because there were threats to his safety.

After numerous confrontations with the Jew landlords, and the housing people doing nothing about it, a large Jewish man came in and intimidated and threatened everybody who was remaining in the place. The next day, they locked the doors. We called the police. Police did nothing. And I managed to get out of there.

Again, loads more I can say about the place but it would just be far too long. I was there for about three months. I paid £60/week for the experience (not including the final six weeks or so when there was no electricity...and later no gas either). Bills were included, but there really werent any bills that needed paying in the last six weeks anyway.