Wigram House is a hall of residence that the University of Westminster opens up for travellers during the univesity summer holidays. The university is marketing their halls of residence as good inexpensive accomodation in several publications. Since I have done a fair bit of hostelling over the years and have also lived in university dorms I thought I would give it a try.

It is in a very good location about 2 blocks from Victoria Station and less than 1 minute walk from Westminster Cathedral. The rooms are small and very basic but clean. The layout of the residence is rather convoluted which made it a bit hot and stuffy. It has numerous kitchens on each floor, a common room on the ground floor with TV and 1 lift that broke down twice during out stay. The building generally feels a bit tired and worn.

We booked over the net and were sent some useful information in return including a lengthy list of terms and conditions. This is not a bad thing I think because it should let eveyone know what to expect.

When staying in this kind of accomodation some tolerance by all is required. Unfortunately we stayed at the same time as a large group of overseas high school students in London for an educational exchange. They were terrible. Repeated complaints from other guests to management were met with empathy but we still had to suffer with little sleep and extremely selfish inconsiderate people. Despite clear guidelines and repeated complaints management would only issue more warnings that they could get evicted. This did no good...

The upshot is this. Management put the needs of one group of inconsiderate people over the reasonable requests of the rest of their guests in allowing this group to stay despite continued anti social behaviour.
As a result we have gone away with a very negative opinion of Wigram House. If they continue to aleinate their guests in this fashion then their reputation will surely suffer.

I think they need to review their business plan. If they wish to restrict their client base to exchange students in the future then everyone will know what to expect and they will disappoint no one.

I do not feel that I am being harsh in my comments. Obviously when you stay in an inexspensive hall of residence(for London where everthing is obscenely expensive ) you can not expect 5 stars but you should be able to expect to be able to get some sleep and a bit of respect. As things stand now anyone wishing a good nights sleep and a bit of courtesy should stay elsewhere.