Postby staggerlee » Tue Apr 19, 2016 9:46 pm
avoid du cane court like the plague - it tends to appeal to people who'd like an easy option. the service charges are horrendous and very poor value, over two thousand per annum for a studio, over 5500 pa for a three bedroom. the buildng is an anachronism, the worst sort of dormitory accomodation, the noise is terrible everywhere, there are cracks running along the paper-thin inner walls because the du canes wouldn't pay for rollers under the steel beams. When I bought in 1987 there were 420 flats, there are now 770. throughout the near thirty years there have been terrible water problems with many flats regularly flooded, water provision and hot water availability knocked out.. the inner walls aren't real walls, they're paper thin sheets of cement designed to merge two flats together, rather than the endless subdivision that has actually happened. wallbeds are fitted to the paper-thin walls so you can hear steel smashing as they are put up, pulled down, and you can hear people having sex through them. the flats are also commonly used for care in the community, patients from springfield mental hospital, battered wives who promptly give their husbands their addresses and police cases. the police love the building because of its labyrinthine layout. i have witnessed one death from fire, nearly risking my own life - it was impossible to get the unconscious man's body round the door where he was lying because the hallway and flat are so utterly compact and tiny. the long passages in the building rapidly fill up with smoke so only the bottom six inches is clear and the management warmly encourages people to put large plants at the pier windows, the only place to get air or leave the first casualties in a fire. i have found the management goading and vindictive, probably from a low-value warehouse and industrial building management backround. there are several elderly viragos who they slavishly obey to the detriment of others and who they believe implicitly. In the days of Knight Frank and Rutley this was a very prestigious building housing high court judges etc, service charges were reasonable and the staff were great personalities. Now you're basically in a madhouse, literally, I had a mad neighbour who tortured dogs for fun. It took the police sixteen months to get him out. I will obviously leave. I currently have a west end dancer living above me and she does intense routines on a bare eighty year old floor and is incredulous when I complain - smashing solid objects on the floor for fun. For the same money you could do better anywhere else, the residents association used to be manned by chartered accountants and lawyers, now it is a model of impotence and sychophancy to the management. The ground floor flats of the Smarts Laundry redevelopment nearby are windowless and drear, but the flats must improve the higher you go. There is also plenty of development on the High road, 92a, next to the post office, and keep an eye on the old BP garage and those civil service buildings across the road, but stay out of here. not good for developing children or the blood pressure of the elderly.
The feedback corresponds quite well with our impressions...good to know!
