House rules, facilities and arrangements at Grosvenor House

Reception is open daily from 9.00 am - 9.00 pm.

Come and see us for general advice, to pick up registered mail, to report maintenance defects and if you need to send a fax.

Outside these hours, reception is staffed by a security guard.

Our fire alarms are tested weekly on Mondays at 10.30 am.

Accordingly, if you hear a short sound of the alarm during this period, it is likely to be a test.

If the alarm sounds for longer than 30 seconds, please assume this is a regular alarm and evacuate the building as normal.

You can find instructions on the fire safety notice in your room and in your Student Halls Handbook. 

Residents with disabilities that limit their ability to hear the fire alarm or evacuate the residence safely and quickly without assistance should contact management when they move in to the hall.

Special arrangements are in place to aid your safe exit from the building, but we need to know of your specific needs and also your presence at the time of any given evacuation.

Please note that you can alert reception at any time if you have a problem, by activating the disabled call points in your room (G14, 117, 217, 317, 417 only), or in the lift lobbies and the Wild Street stairway.

All residents are supplied with an electronic fob for access to their bedroom, laundry, refuse room and the main entrance doors to the building. They will also receive a mailbox key.

To open your door touch the lock with your fob key and when the light turns green enter the room by pushing the upper knob.

If you lose your fob key, we will issue a replacement for a non-refundable charge. Replacement fobs and mailbox keys are issued at reception during opening hours, but only on presentation of a valid LSE ID card as proof of identity.

Broken keys must be paid for. When reception is closed, security will let you into your room on presentation of ID and a new fob key can be issued the next day.

For replacement charges, refer to your Student Halls Handbook.

The correct format for mail is as follows:

Your name

Your room number
LSE Grosvenor House

141-143 Drury Lane

London

WC2B 5TB

(United Kingdom)

Your post will be delivered directly to your mailbox from Monday to Saturday, providing it is addressed correctly.

You are registered in the name (or names) with which you applied to the LSE. Please make sure that this name is used on your mail. Items in different names, nicknames or without the room number may be delayed or may not even reach the addressee.

Groups of about 10 rooms share a mailbox, which is located on the ground floor near reception. Each resident will be given a mailbox key.

If you are expecting a particular item to be delivered, please try to be around to receive it. Items are accepted in your absence, but they are signed for in good faith and no responsibility will be taken for them.

Large and ‘signed for’ items will be kept at reception and logged in the mail book. Come to check the book regularly to see whether anything has arrived for you. Please bring your student ID to reception to collect your package or recorded delivery. No proof of ID, no package.

During vacation time and after your departure, mail will not be forwarded to another address, but returned to the sender.

The kitchen cold taps are the hall's designated sources of drinking water. Water is regularly tested to ensure it is safe to drinking.

Grosvenor House has no communal facilities to store bicycles. If you have a bicycle, you are permitted to store it inside your room.

Due to fire regulations, bicycles may not be stored in a corridor or entranceway, nor should they be chained to railings or lampposts.
Please note that the standard insurance policy does not provide cover against the theft or damage of bicycles. Please contact your reception team for further details.

Bicycles left in any area other than your room will be removed without notice.

There is no car parking at Grosvenor House. Limited metered parking is available on Drury Lane for a maximum of four hours only. The nearest NCP's are in Parker Street or Museum Street, which are north up Drury Lane. Westminster Council parking attendants are very strict seven days a week.

Housekeeping staff only clean public areas from Monday to Friday. Please respect all communal areas; they are for everyone to use.

We will not clean your room. Please maintain it in a clean state, as rats, mice and insects are attracted to dirty rooms and kitchens.

The residence is in a hard water area so please clean your bathroom regularly with a de-scaling detergent to reduce lime scale build-up. Initial Building Services will visit all showers regularly to de-scale your showerhead; this is a health and safety requirement.

Though we expect you to clean the mini-kitchens regularly, please avoid the use of harsh abrasive cleaning equipment on the stainless steel surfaces.

Vacuum cleaners can be borrowed from reception during [Reception opening hours]. 

Rubbish from rooms (including sanitary waste) should be put in bin liners, tied up and taken to the refuse area on the ground floor (between rooms G07 and G08).

Check that your bin bag is not leaking, if so double bag it as you will be liable for cleaning costs to carpets. Rubbish must not be left in the corridors outside rooms.

We run a re-use scheme towards the end of the academic year. Any unwanted items (clean and in working order) can be donated to the scheme, which redistributes donations to local charities.

Rooms will be inspected every term for cleanliness and damage; you will be advised via email in advance. Particularly poor standards of cleanliness will be recorded and appropriate action will be taken in accordance with LSE rules. You will be charged for any instances where a cleaning intervention or year-end intensive clean is needed.

Condensation is formed when steam or water vapour condenses on a cold surface and turns to water. Condensation could cause damage to your clothes, bedding, floor coverings and items in your room.

To minimise condensation problems, your bathroom is fitted with an air vent that is linked to the bathroom light. When using the bathroom, always use the main light, as this activates the extract fan and prevents the build up of mould.

When cooking, please switch on the extractor fan by pulling out the hood above the hotplates. This will minimise bad odours, steam and smoke, the latter of which could activate the fire alarm unnecessarily. The filters in the extract hoods will be replaced periodically.

Prevent condensation:

• Do not dry your clothes over the heater (this is a fire hazard)

• Keep your room ventilated by slightly opening your window

• Turn on the extractor fan above the kitchen hot plates when cooking

• Turn on the main light (linked to the extractor fan) when using your bathroom
•  

If you notice that the electrical sockets in your room have lost power, report this immediately to reception, who will then send a trained member of staff to reset the fuse. This is especially important if the fridge/freezer is affected.

Never re-freeze food that you suspect to have defrosted as this can cause food poisoning if then consumed.

To reduce the risk of this happening, please try to minimise the use of your own electrical appliances in the rooms. Toasters should not be used as you have a grill in the combi microwave. Equipment belonging to the residence is checked regularly. The most often cause of a tripped fuse is the use of an unsound or incompatible electrical appliance.

You are responsible for the upkeep and cleanliness of the fridge in your room. We suggest that you defrost it regularly (but be careful to avoid leaks onto the carpet!). If you do not defrost regularly, the ice build up may cause the freezer compartment door to break off.

Once the internal door has broken off, it cannot be repaired and the refrigerator will not be replaced (Please note - the refrigerator and freezer compartment will remain operational if the internal door is broken off).

You may be charged if, your fridge is found to have a large build up of ice in the freezer compartment. Please be considerate to others - future students will have to use the fridge once you have left. 

The heating works by providing convected hot air from the heater unit in your room. The heaters have been designed to turn on automatically once a room temperature drops below 16 °C. The heating controller above the bed works on movement in the room

The laundry room on the lower ground floor is open 24/7. A block of two dryers (upper and lower) shares the same coin slot. Make sure you press the selection buttons corresponding to the dryer you wish to use. Prices are displayed in the Laundry. Please report any faulty machines to reception.

Irons and ironing boards are available to borrow from reception during reception opening hours.

The Lounge is situated on the lower ground floor of the building. During the day it is a great place to bring a book and curl up on a sofa, or watch your favourite programme on the wide screen plasma television, with movie nights twice a week.

It is a perfect place to hold small cocktail parties, study groups or informal meetings, but remember to get permission from the warden.

Residents have 24-hour access, except when it is occasionally booked for private functions.

The computer room is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It has several LSE administered workstations and one printer, and is located on the lower ground floor through the common room.

Paper for the printer  is available from reception. Please use your LSE printing account to make printouts.

No smoking, eating or drinking is permitted in the room at any time.

The LSE Hall Network Advisor will also be available to help - see details on notices in the room itself.

All residents at Grosvenor House are entitled to two short-term guests (i.e. guests for the day, for a meal etc.

Day and overnight guests must:

Be met and signed in and out by the resident at reception.

Overnight guests:

In order to comply with fire regulations, residents of Grosvenor House are only permitted one overnight guest to stay with them in their room, for a maximum of three nights.

Residents wishing to accommodate a guest for longer than three consecutive nights must seek written permission from the warden (by email) at least 48 hours before the guest is expected to arrive. In general, the warden will only grant permission for guests to stay for a maximum of six nights in any two-week period.

Residents are not permitted to allow their room to be used by someone else whilst they are not in residence (i.e. at weekends or during vacations).

Steps will be taken by the warden and management team to remove guests found to have stayed beyond three nights without written permission.

Grosvenor House does not supply beds for guests.

Covent Garden is one of the busiest shopping areas of London, so it is also a hot spot for pickpockets. Be streetwise, don’t show your wallet or phone openly and be vigilant when walking alone at night.

Use your key fob to enter the building and always make sure that the front door closes behind you when you enter or leave the residence.

Residents should also try to prevent non-residents following them into the residence.

However, no undue risks should be taken. If you suspect that  there is an intruder in the residence, contact reception immediately by dialling '0' from any phone.

The residence is staffed 24 hours a day by staff or security who are stationed in reception. Part of their duty is to ensure that only residents, their visitors and staff enter the building. Security guards are present for your protection and safety. Therefore, their insistence on proof of identity should be met with courtesy.

For the safety of your belongings, never leave your room unlocked. If items are stolen from an unlocked room, insurance claims may be void.

Each room at Grosvenor House is equipped with a safe. To use the safe in your room, please register online at: mystudentsafe.com

Single beds and Double beds have extra storage under the mattress. This is not the case in rooms with twin zipped beds however.

Unfortunately there are no additional storage at Grosvenor House.

If you find anything that you consider to be of value, please bring it to reception.Lost property will be handled by reception - all enquiries for lost property should be made to reception.

Please note that items in lost property will be disposed of after 12 weeks if not claimed by the proven owner. 

Any belongings left behind once you have vacated your room will NOT be kept, so please be very careful to take everything with you. Items cannot be stored, so all belongings left in resident's rooms will be disposed of.

There is a TV socket in every room, though TV sets are not provided.

Residents are responsible for obtaining their own TV licenses for TV sets in their rooms. Television owners are liable to government fines if they do not have a license.

A communal big screen TV is located in the common room on the lower ground floor, (owned by the Grosvenor House student committee).

Residents are prohibited from entering any areas of residence marked 'Staff Only' or 'Private'.

All roof areas are strictly prohibited (5th and 6th floors). These are not balconies or roof terraces, regardless whether they have railings or not. Only specialist contractors with man-safe harnesses are permitted to access these external areas.

Most windows at Grosvenor House have restricted openings. This is in compliance with current health and safety legislation. The hall administration sympathises with you and know that it can become warm in summer, however, under no circumstances can we, or should you, remove the window lock. If you damage the stays/locks on your windows, you will be charged with the cost of replacing them and any resulting damage to the windows. This can be very expensive, so please be careful.