I find LCI perfect for young professionals with the amenities it offers. It is great having a gym and an outdoors heated pool on site, and the Italian restaurant downstairs offers the tastiest pizza I’ve had in London!
I like the design of the common areas, especially the ping pong and the pool tables, which are a great way to pass time on the weekend.
The only negative is that the facilities, especially the gym, often get overcrowded in peak hours, since it is quite small and the resident numbers keep growing.

Please tell us what you like and dislike about this area:

Within a walking distance, there’s a big Morrisons, where we do our weekly shopping, a Co-Op, Nisa, a small Superdrug, a few fruit and veg shops and Post Office. The area also offers a few small cafes with delicious and cheap all-day breakfast, a couple of pizzerias and, my favourite, a really tasty Turkish restaurant on the main street in Canning Town.
Right across the street from the development entrance, you can enjoy a walk on the river path with great views of the Thames and the O2.
You can easily get involved with the LCI community. We have a Facebook group which is updated daily and there’s often residents events organised, including Friday drinks once a month.

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

If the apartment is on a lower floor facing the inner yard, you will almost never get any natural sunlight in which can start to bother you after a while. On the other hand, I moved to a flat higher up with windows throughout and now my flat is boiling all throughout summer – sometimes it gets to over 30 degrees inside.
Most balconies are incredibly windy, which means you can rarely use them, especially if on a higher floor.

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

Johns & Co are the main estate agent who operates in London City Island and we have the displeasure to be their tenants.
We had multiple issues when we first moved in and our property manager were very inefficient in dealing with those. In the end, I met with their Property Management Director to share my concerns and complaints and we received our tenancy fees back as compensation, but fixing everything still took a whole month.
Later in our tenancy there was an issue with a communal pipe which had to be resolved with LCI’s building management. Both teams were incredibly slow and not proactive at all – I probably spent weeks chasing when it should have been our estate agent who was supposed to move the issue to resolution.

That said the building location is excellent with commanding views of London and Canary Wharf. In the main personnel try their utmost to provide a good service and respond to requests. Communication with residents and owners is made through regular announcements sent via email. Facilities, when open and working, are good. The exterior aspect of the building design is positive. The interior is also generally positive. There are insufficient working elevators at any one time to deal with the volume of traffic leading to extended delays in getting to one’s floor. More emphasis on getting this right needs to be placed. Overall a good building when everything is working properly.

Please tell us what you like and dislike about this area:

Canary Wharf is a pretty condensed area with a range of architectural gems and concrete type squares. There are a wide range of places to eat, drink and socialise with the ever present river to add additional character.
Transport links are generally good. There are a range of hotels close by for any guests to stay in. Parking is an issue. While there is little need for a car, in principle, if you do have one it is difficult and expensive to park. There is little traffic noise or anti social behaviour. There is however a lot of building noise and dust in the area as development continues apace.

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

As stated previously, I found Ballymore to be a first class developer with a degree of humanity I did not expect.
Excellent pro active customer service during the sales phase
Was unaware of the poor after sales rectification of problems. Bad for buyers and ultimately bad for Ballymore.

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

They have repeatedly failed to rectify problems and I still have an outstanding issue after over a year. They have, to my mind, let down the entire Ballymore team and the exceptionally high standards set by te senior management.

Picnicing in Botanic Square means constantly being on the lookout for uncontrolled dogs (who also overrun the children’s play areas), speeding cyclists and fast food delivery drivers. Although promoted as a pedestrian-friendly development, cylists, illegal e-scooter riders and even motorbokes constantly ignore the pedestrians only notice and prsent an extremely dangerous hazard for children, older and disabled residents.

Rather than being a “thriving square” Hopewell Square is a desolate concrete expanse populated with dead trees and caravan park benches used by non-residents as a drinking place. The setting is anything but “magical”.

The Clubhouse might once have been an “elegant, stylish place to meet with friends” but in reality it is just one big home office. People slob around with dirty shoes on the sofas and tables, leaving a trail of empty cans, coffee cups and food containers. Furnishings are tired and grubby, games are broken and lying in pieces on the shelves, plants are dying and soft furnishings and decorative items disappear with alarming regularity. Smaller foyers, such as in Java, are bereft of any decoration and look spartan and unwelcoming.
In an apparent slap in the face to residents affected by the current electricity price rises, Ballymore leaves all the GLH pool lighting ablaze in the sunlight, ticking onto the service charges. I would like to see revenue be directed at the basics rather than vanity projects.

The Island Grocer, such a great initiative when Il Bianco occupied the space, was swept out with no consultation with residents to give way to replacement operators who failed to engage with their customer base.

Safety mechanisms put in place (speed limits/pedestrian only zones) are constantly ignored and are not monitored. Security needs to be more of a presence: would like to see patrolling officers, not just their empty golf cart.

On a brighter note, the Lockdown Room is a great social space and the operator friendly and generous. Residents orgainse social events and events to raise money for charity and are active in attempting to beautify the immediate area. There is a residents lending library. Concierge service is mostly excellent as is the Post Room service. The riverside spaces and gardens are well tended but much needs to be done to raise the Island to the standard presented in the advertising and glossy LCI coffee table book.

Please tell us what you like and dislike about this area:

Good aspects: Proximity to Canary Wharf shopping, River and East India Basin. Reasonable transport links via bus and East india DLR, although Canning Town Station is overloaded (both Tube and DLR). Proximity to City Airport.
Poor aspects: lack of restaurants, shops and green spaces in the immediate area / grounds of LCI, litter problems, anti-social behaviour in some areas including on City Island.

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

Some residents have scant regard for their neighbours and can be excessively noisy and disrespectful of the common areas.

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

As Managing Agents, Ballymore are slow to react to owners and residents concerns; sometimes ignoring them completely. More often than not, when residents raise an issue BAML refuse to communicate. With Ballymore being both a freeholder and manager, it is difficult to obtain any satisfaction when issues arise.