Walking past local curry house The Cardamon Club in Tooting we notice a poster in the window. It’s a flat, so naturally, eyes peeled we investigate further. It’s a three (generously sized) double bedroom flat located above the Indian takeaway. We ask for further information and find that it’s a newly refurbished, furnished, two storey apartment space. It sounds lovely, we won’t lie! Priced at £2,000 pcm – reasonable considering it’s size – it featured fresh, neutral interiors and not to mention a great location (two seconds from the tube station AND, most importantly, from the pub!).
Of course, it wasn’t for us. Firstly, it’s way out of our budget and secondly, we wouldn’t even know where to begin with all that space. However, it got us thinking, and as we continued to stroll up the road we began to discuss how it would be a fantastic apartment for three couples as it meant the rent would be incredibly cheap. Then someone pointed out what living with two other couples would be like and we questioned whether we could do it. Three couples each trying to have “date night”, three couples trying to use one bathroom, three couples and a host of thin walls… you get the idea… anyhow, ‘Annie Get Your Gun’ springs to mind and we don’t think we could do better.
It got us thinking mainly about all those Londoners out there, house sharing, bunking, moving in with siblings, living with exs, becoming property guardians, all with the aim to make London living as cheap as possible. The horror stories you get told too – from hoovers been thrown in heated arguments, one night stands throwing up in bags only for another unsuspecting flatmate and owner of the bag to drench themselves in vomit the following day, housemates so dry that you pretend to be asleep when they come home from work, noisy flatmates, dirty flatmates to even pervey flatmates – we know someone who house-shared with a guy who stumbled home from nights out, crept up to her bedroom and waited outside the door with heavy breaths. When morning came all that was left was his jeans… ew.
We all have stories to tell, but the question is, when is enough enough? All we can say is that two seems like the simplest number right now. So tell us, could you, or do you, live with a large number of people? Oh, and please do regale us with your flatmate horror stories… we’d love to hear!
David & Mark x
P.S. and the flat we spotted in the window? Snapped up the next day.
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