About Places for People

Spacious apartments finished to an excellent standard, with amazing sound proofing considering the abundance of trains passing through East Croydon station. The apartment is flooded with natural light, with the addition of a great sized balcony overlooking the gardens. The communal areas (gardens, roof terrace) are a nice addition though upkeep could be improved. Building management, though present lack haste when responding to requests/issues. The building is in a great location in terms of reaching all the local amenities of Croydon, Central London and Gatwick Airport.

The initial design of the development is poor as some flats have access to the intercom and others do not, meaning some residents are not able to allow visitors in through the gates (which are always broken anyways) without having to leave their flat. The lifts are always breaking, postage parcels are constantly getting stolen due to the incompetence of the security/building management team, who despite thousands of pounds worth of parcels being stolen this month alone still refuse to accept parcels or come up with a solution to stop thieves from getting into the complex. The gym is a basic gym with simple equipment but for the cost (£35 induction and no monthly fee) you can’t really complain as it offers similar equipment to the gym over the road. The gates are always breaking, you can gain access to the lakeshore building by the second and third floor without a fob (which has been broken for at least a year) so anyone can gain access to any flat they want in either the Lakeshore or Copperbuilding development(both are linked via level 2) . And in an area which has had its issues with antisocial behaviour and thieves etc this is something which should be addressed but still hasn’t been. And the fact I have to pay £60 a month to park my car in a car park that isn’t even secure on top of rent/mortgages (that’s right you don’t get a parking space when you buy!) is just the cherry on top.

Smiths Dock is a great development of an old dock area. Having watched the construction of the first phase I decided to look at the plans for the whole site. The Smokehouse apartments caught my eye immediately with their unusual design and riverside location.
The apartment fulfilled all my expectations with open plan living and fully fitted kitchen.
A very short snagging list was sorted within a week of moving in and had no issues in the 18 months since.
Some of the communication from the management company has been poor not least their failure to issue an invoice for the service charge for the initial six months despite my requests, leaving me with a double whammy when the next six months worth was due.
Still a great place to live, quiet, secure with good parking.
It’ll be an even better place to live when the next phases of development are completed.

The longer you live here the more you realise it is pretty overpriced and the ‘facilities’ aren’t that great. Car park is run by a private company charging £60 a month and gym is never open. The actual layout of the buildings is a nightmare as the two buildings are very close and face each other meaning you are constantly paranoid that your neighbours can see you through the window. Always have issues with the front gate, living in this area it is important that the gates work for security but they rarely do. Nosey neighbours are a massive issue here – there is a Facebook group where everyone just tells each other off and it’s become a place where everyone is in each other’s business and it is hard to do any simple thing without someone else complaining about it. Wouldn’t recommend living here to be honest, overpriced, cheaply built and poorly designed with miserable residents in both buildings.