House rules, facilities and arrangements at Northumberland House

The basement computer room offers 12 LSE workstations and printing facilities. For details of how to pay for printing visit: online printing payment.

Please report any problems with the equipment in the computer room to: imt.remote.support@lse.ac.uk.

The cold taps in the kitchens are the hall's designated sources of drinking water, although water from all cold taps at Northumberland House is safe to consume.

We’d love to hear from you. Good feedback lets us know when we're doing a good job and what things people appreciate. Bad feedback helps us to improve our service.

Please address feedback and complaints about any part of the service to the front of house manager, in the first instance. For contact details, visit: Who’s who at Northumberland House

Day guest procedure: Sign in any day guests at reception when they arrive. Remember to sign them out when they leave. Any guests who do not have permission to remain overnight must leave the residence by 11pm.

Overnight guest procedure: Request written permission from the warden at least 48 hours prior to your guest's arrival. If you live in a shared room, also obtain advance permission from your roommate. You may have one overnight guest at any given time. The warden will not typically allow a guest for more than three consecutive nights or more than six nights in any 14 night period. The residence does not supply spare beds or bedding for guests.

Day or overnight guest in the residence must stay with you at all times. You will be held responsible for the conduct of your guest as if it were your own. This includes disciplinary offences of any order.

Northumberland House is on the Whitehall district heating system which supplies heat to the government buildings in the area, including 10 Downing Street. We cannot control during what months of the year the system is in operation. The heating usually starts from week one in October and ends the second week in May. When the system is in operation we can control what hours of the day it operates. The hours are restricted in order to save energy for environmental reasons. Depending on the weather, times may change - changes will be announced via email.

Heating hours during operating months are currently:

    Monday to Friday:  6am to 9am and 6pm to 12pm

    Saturday and Sunday:  6am to11am and 6pm to 12pm

The heating can be turned off with the control on your radiator. To save energy, if you are not in your room, please also turn the heating off. Additional heaters are not permitted in the residence.

On arrival at the residence you will be issued with a key card which will work on your room, your designated kitchen, the computer room, the main entrance and lobby doors.

You should never give your door card to someone else. If you lose or break your card you can purchase a new one from reception. This new one will cancel your old card so that if someone finds it they cannot use it. This charge cannot be refunded if you find your old key card.

Don’t store your key card near your mobile phone or Oyster card, as this seems to make it more likely to lose its programming. Please keep it separate from those items.

If you lock your key card inside your room you can obtain a "one shot" card from reception. This will open your room door once to let you retrieve your key card. The card should then be returned to reception or you will be charged the price of a replacement key.

A list with replacement charges is in your Student Halls Handbook.

The laundry is located in the basement. Simply follow the instructions on the boards (there are even instructions as to what to wash with what in case it's your first time!). Prices are displayed in the laundry. Please report any faults with the machines to reception.

If you find anything around the hall, please bring it to reception. If you have lost anything, ask at reception. Found items will be kept for 12 weeks before being disposed of.

 Your postal address is:

    Name and room number
    LSE Northumberland House
    Edward VII Entrance
    8a Northumberland Avenue
    London
    WC2N 5BY
    United Kingdom

Any mail not addressed properly may be delayed or not reach you at all. Please ensure your mail is addressed as above.

General mail that arrives for you will be kept in the second floor common room mailboxes.

Signed for or oversized items that do not fit into the mailbox will be held for you at reception. Your name will be added to the mail list at reception, if anything like this arrives for you. To retrieve your mail you must bring your LSE card with you.

High value items that arrive in the normal mail will be left in your mailbox. This is not entirely secure, so we recommend that you have bank cards and cheque books delivered to your branch rather than to your hall.

Items requiring your signature or ID will need to be received by you in person. Please notify reception if you are expecting a delivery of this sort and we will call you in your room when it arrives.

There are no parking spaces at Northumberland House.

If it is absolutely necessary to bring a car there is limited metered parking in nearby streets for a maximum of four hours only. Council parking attendants are very strict seven days a week.

Unfortunately there is no bicycle storage at Northumberland House. Bicycles may not be stored inside the building.

 Monday to Friday:  9am to 9pm
 Saturday and Sunday: 10am to 2pm

Any changes to this will be announced via email.

Outside opening hours, the reception is staffed by a security guard who can provide a limited reception service but who is mainly looking after overnight security and safety.

Paper, cardboard, glass and cans can be left in the recycling bins the kitchens and common areas.

Clothing and textiles can be recycled in the wheelie bins in the basement. If you notice that the bins are full, please inform the reception and we will arrange for them to be emptied.

Electrical waste should be brought to the reception, as it must be disposed of in a specific way. Batteries should also be brought to reception for disposal.

Printer cartridges and plastics can be recycled, too. Ask at reception for details.

At the end of the year we operate a reuse scheme for unwanted possessions. This diverts a huge amount of waste away from landfill.  More information on this will be available towards the end of the year.

Please keep your room neat and tidy throughout your stay.

Room inspections take place once a term. If on inspection your room is deemed to be a risk to health and safety, we are forced to intervene. We will ask you to tidy up and carry out a follow up check. If your room is still not kept in a suitable condition, we may carry out the cleaning and levy a charge. This may also be reported to the warden for possible disciplinary action.

The fire alarm is tested every Monday morning at 9.30am.

If you hear the alarm sound briefly at this time and then stop, there is no need to evacuate. If the alarm sounds for more than a few seconds, please evacuate as normal. Should the test time change eg on bank holidays, we will notify you.

Housekeeping staff clean surfaces and remove rubbish from kitchens, but it is your responsibility to wash up and tidy your food, cutlery and crockery away.

Kitchen hygiene also helps against infestations of pests. Maintaining a historic building like Northumberland House in central London also means a constant struggle against pest infestations, particularly mice. We do all that we can to keep any pest problems at bay. Our contractor takes proactive measures routinely and reacts to any reports of a sighting, but it is not possible for us to prevent pest infestation without the help of everybody in the hall.

Always store food in suitable containers and don’t leave any leftovers on the worktops or in your room. If a kitchen is found to be too messy, we will post a warning letter. If cleanliness does not improve, the warden may order for affected areas to be closed.