Goldsmiths House

Comfortable bedroom, helpful staff, clean bathroom,
good kitchen facilities, second floor stairs rather an effort with heavy
luggage, convenient central London location. Altogether very good value
I’d definitely book Goldsmiths House again, next time I need
accommodation in London

This was my little home base operations during my vacation in London. This is a women’s only hostel, which also accommodates students (so both long-​term and short-​term accommodations).
The good: Excellent location! Situated in Camden Town, the nearest tube station is Mornington Crescent. My single room was clean, overlooking the street, quiet and it served as a great home base. They provide you with a kitchen cupboard (lock mini storage drawer) that contains, in addition to your cutlery set, a large plastic container to place your fridge items in the refrigerator. Based on your room number, you are assigned the use of a refrigerator with space for your container. It’s a very smart little system they have going because I saved money on breakfast! I was not planning on cooking dinner — I am on vacation people! — unlike the other residents who had well stocked kitchen cupboards. But eating breakfast at the hostel was very doable: corn flakes, milk, fruit — easy items that require no excessive work! Plus, yogurt for late dinner snack — awesome!
The weird: The bathrooms are cleaned only once a month, meanwhile, the shower rooms are cleaned daily. Considering this is a female only hostel, it makes little sense to get shabby with the cleaning.
What can be improved: Before you rent out any room, make sure you double-​check the lock is functioning! Also, provide proper training to the people working the desk! Let them know what is working and what isn’t. I asked the desk guy if the phone in my hall worked and he said yes, even though there was no tone. The lady working the desk during the weekday clarified it was an old intercom that was no longer in use. Another example: if the internet connection falls outside the scope of what you guys do, don’t say you will fix it and have the next guy doing his shift clarify the desk staff is not responsible for it.
The bad: Wi –fi is charged. I am not understanding why they can not include wi-​fi in the room rate. The laundry-​room is a rip-​off. On the one hand, it was great having access to a laundromat to wash my clothes, but the dryer does not work! You can give it the full 90 minutes of dryer time and it will not heat up and dry your clothes. Ugh!
It was a great stay and I was sad for 5 seconds when checking out.