I unfortunately had the pleasure of living in cable street for a year and left in July, I can honestly say I. unsure how that building is legal. First we moved into a flat in Block B ground floor that I would compare to a prison cell, we noticed after a week black mould had began to grown in two rooms, an issue so bad it actually turned the pillows I was sleeping on mouldy and gave me throat infections for months after. Once moved into a new flat in Block D we now had a kitchen with no window and no working ventilation, a door that would not stay open and couldn't fit more than 1 person in at a time. Furthermore, my sink leaked in my room and the handy man William believed that the best way to fix this would be to install a cut up milk carton underneath the leak. Office is never open and don't update you when they decide to leave at 3pm every Friday, all my christmas presents were left in there over the holidays as the office closed without warning and didn't open until January. Also the picnic benches are used by local homeless people to sleep / eat on, obviously not there fault but not something you expect to see when trying to get home at night. Genuinely for the price I would say it is disgusting, they don't care and lead to myself and other people I know in the building becoming incredibly depressed living in a room with no window and only a balcony door that had to be left open to night - genuinely don't know how we weren't robbed or murdered. The worst place I have ever and will ever live and no money in the world could get me back there. This will probs be deleted by Bex but oh well.
Overall my experience was alright and enjoy the location which is why I chose it. But the main issue is when booking a room and living with flatmates you don't know. Like they should provide a choice of booking a specific room or them arranging a room of your chosen standard and basing off what flatmates you would want to stay with. I get along with one of my flatmates, but we both agree that we have a noisy flatmate and don't enjoy them making noise. For example, being considerate late at night and making less noise as most people need to sleep, but nope noise at 1am. The fridge in my flat is quite small for four people in my opinion. Other than that, the accommodation is not bad.
Rameen Irfan
9 February 2021
There is so much to say, I don't even know where to start. Firstly, I worked for Cable Street as social resident assistant and never got paid. I sent email after email to the manager, Cara Backhouse which were all ignored. Finally a year later she responded saying it was too late to put me on payroll and I was offered a gift voucher instead, as I didn't have much of a choice, I accepted. I never received this either, I sent follow up emails and these were all ignored too. As a student with hardly any money in the first place, I was expected to move up earlier than term started for this job and never received my wages or gift voucher. Secondly, after experiencing issues with flatmates, I turned to the manager asking if I could tell her what had happened as I was worried and believed she could be someone I could turn to when I was feeling unsafe but her words to me were, 'I would rather not hear your side of the story'. Lastly, when I had someone enter my flat who didn't live there without my permission, I rang a resident assistant who contacted the manager straight away and she told him she did not want to get involved. I was under the impression if I ever feel unsafe or experience any troubles in my flat, the manager would help me and she cared for her residents. The opposite was in fact true as she made me feel unwanted and she couldn't care less for our safety. Living in Cable Street Lancaster was the worst experience of my life.
First off looking at the website the accommodation looks ideal, newly furnished and of a high standard. When you scroll down the rooms look grotty however when paying for the most expensive room you expect the nicer looking ones. I had emailed over summer regarding this and was advised that it was due to the size of the room. - On arrival (Week 1) both showers have already broken and had to be replaced. One was done the same day 3 hours later and the other 2 days later. - Dishwasher does not work on certain settings. - The toilet seat is barely attached so you slide into it if you need to sit down. - The aerial ports for the TV's do not work which we have reported to the company early at the start of week 1, it's now week 2 and nothing. - All the taps in the rooms drip so good luck trying to sleep at night. - Key replacements are £40, this is not a fob key just an ordinary key. After living on the Lancaster University Campus this seemed extortionate due to the fact they have a fob system and replacements where that of £20. - Showers leak water from underneath, hopefully this doesn't leak into the electrics of the flat below. - One of the overhead cupboard doors is non existent. - Bedside table is not by the side of the bed making it more of an at the end of bed table. - Furniture is dated and beds very light, both stand and mattress therefore meaning if you sit up on it the mattress slides off its frame. Me and my flatmates are considering leaving our degree's to get out of this place and I would strongly advise to look elsewhere. The attention to detail is definitely not there but on a level that is unacceptable for student accommodation of this standard.
DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME
I have never seen such a terrible student accommodation. Rooms are very different from the website pictures. Many issues throughout the year with boiler, water and heater. Mould and insects everywhere in the flat. Had no heater in the middle of winter for the whole weekend and no emergency service was provided.
First off, the location is great. It's opposite the bus station and down the road from Sainsburys and really close to everywhere else in the town. The downside is that you get a lot of people coming back from Sugar making loads of noise. Sadly that's the only good thing I can say about this place. I booked a large room, but it was medium at best. My flatmate's large room was bigger than mine and she got a chest of drawers but I didn't. My friend in a different flat also had a large room but hers was about double the size of mine. I barely had any space to sit on the floor for example, whereas five friends could sit on hers comfortably. The office opening times were awkward. Only open 9-5 weekdays, 9-12 Saturdays and closed Saturdays, so if you're at uni until 5 every day forget about being able to collect your mail or request maintenance. The management are very inconsiderate. The rent is due before student loan and there was no leeway on this. I explained that I did not have the money to pay the rent for another week and they said they understood, but their idea of a compromise was "only" paying £500 until I could afford the rest. Frequently they told us we needed access to our flat the night before. One time they told us we needed to be out of the flat for a viewing the next morning, but didn't email until the evening when my flatmates and I were on a society trip to Manchester returning at 5am! It would not have been a problem if they had simply given us better notice. The cleaning staff are useless. They are supposed to come in weekly, well they came in about three times a term. They had a sheet to sign when they came in which was left blank, or comments like "hobs too hot to clean" which is fair enough, except you'd think they would simply come in later or at least clean other parts of the flat but they didn't. Or they would write "too messy to clean", but their idea of messy was a few plates on the kitchen table or a pan left on the side. Overall, I definitely would NOT recommend this place. The location is the only thing it has going for it and even that has its downsides and you can find other central locations without all these problems.
The rooms are small, the kitchen and living space is small, the cleaners are useless, the management are unhelpful, personally I'd look else where. The images you see are what you get, especially if you opt to live in a three shared flat. The location is convenient near the town and opposite the bus station but that's about it. Also if you have a car, parking is £55 a month!
We have a cleaner that cleans the communal areas once a week so that's super handy The downside is that an iron isn't included but we have a dishwasher! There are socials organised my the resident co-ordinators at accommodation every two weeks so that's fun.
The Best advise I can give to prospective residents is think again and go else where. If you do decided to sign up make sure you get to see your room as the management have a tendency to tell a few untruths about the size, my room is classified as large and it is 6 foot 6 wide. The promises to ensure they treat customers fairly and make sure you are happy are false..
Booked one of the expensive rooms but still got a rather bad room Many people complain and get better rooms afterwards In my opinion, rather unfair to (oversea) students who arrive for the first time and can only see pictures online - which is not what most of the rooms look like The cleaning charges at the end of the year are RIDICULOUS
