A guide to living in Borough of Islington

Please tell us about the good and bad aspects of living in your local area:

It's one minute walking distance from an Aldi, Co Op, Sainsburys and Marks and Spencers, an organic health food store and a Farmer's Market on Saturdays. It's ten minutes walk from the doctor's and the local hospital, twenty minutes walk from the wonderful Waterlow Park and Highgate, next to the Archway tube and close to various bistros on the Upper Holloway Road. It's walking distance to the cinema there and a Waitrose. The library is literally one minute away and there are several good schools.

How has the building management responded to any problems or issues you have raised:

Very well so far. Prompt and efficient, always professional. Very rigorous with health and safety.

Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:

You will need more fridge space! Or to eat out more often. Invest in good noise-cancelling earplugs.

Please tell us about the good and bad aspects of living in your local area:

Great range of local shops. Very convenient. Only concern is safety of the area lots of activity near the station and at night of anti social behaviour

How has the building management responded to any problems or issues you have raised:

Yes very quick. Everytime I have put in a maintenance request it has been responded to very quickly

Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:

Just the area feeling a bit unsafe at night around the station and nearby areas sometimes yelling fights etc

Please tell us about the good and bad aspects of living in your local area:

Great range of shops, restaurants and very quick access to the tube (under 1 min). Anti social behaviour and traffic is a small problem in the area as Archway does have a lot of homelessness - but the building itself is very safe, with overnight security and right next to transport links so you don’t have to walk far in the dark. It’s also very well lit so we have never found the surrounding area an issue.

How has the building management responded to any problems or issues you have raised:

Problems are always sorted with speed and efficiency. The only small issue is when the lifts break down (this is fairly often) but there are 3 lifts and one or two of them is still working

Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:

There’s nothing to share here. The viewing is fairly transparent

Please tell us about the good and bad aspects of living in your local area:

I live at 9 Queensland Road as a tenant. It's the building at the end of the road which is right next to the train tracks. I'm not really bothered during the match days even though you need to check the transportation links as they don't operate in certain times. What makes this place unlivable for me is the train noise. The passenger trains operate every 5 minutes between 6am-10am and 4pm-7pm. Other times it's every 10 minutes. If they were trains just passing by, I wouldn't be bothered, but they stop at Drayton Park station and there's definitely extra noise when they stop, make a signal sound to open and close the doors, then they depart. The cherry on top is the commercial freight trains. They are so loud and they operate 24 hours, so you can wake up to their sound whether it's 3am or 4am. It's just impossible to sleep without earplugs. If there were no train tracks nearby, this would be an great place to live but the trains turn it into a nightmare location if calm and peace are important for you.

Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:

I wish I had known there were loud commercial freight trains operating during night time.

What is the best feature of your home:

I really like the location and the neighbourhood. It's safe and friendly.

Please tell us about the good and bad aspects of living in your local area:

The building sits feet away from Archway Station and multiple bus stops. The overground is

How has the building management responded to any problems or issues you have raised:

I have previously requested maintenance for a leak in my washing machine, and I got a response from the Residents Team within a matter of hours with the date and time of an appointment with Ken. He came to my apartment within a few days (which is probably an overestimate) and fixed the leak in one visit. Despite this, he still preemptively ordered a spare part for my machine in the case that the leak returned. This part was never needed for my machine, but I appreciate how proactive he was about ordering it anyways just in case.

Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:

Wish I had known more about the events in the building and the residents app so I didn't miss out on some workshops