King’s College London Accommodation: Battersea Edition
King’s College London has multiple accommodations dotted around London and while accommodations like Hayloft Point, Moonraker and GDSA are among some of the most-well known, Battersea residences opened its doors to students for the first time in September 2024. As someone in the first batch of residents, this post will explore the pros and cons of Battersea Urbanest to help you decide which accommodation is right for you for the 2025/26 entry!
General Information
How to apply to Battersea Accommodation
If you’re an incoming undergraduate student and KCL is your firm choice…
You’ll receive guaranteed accommodation (no, it doesn’t matter whether your offer is conditional or unconditional). Once you receive your offer, you’ll be asked to create an account with your K (student) number in order to access the King’s College Accommodation Portal, this will be used to book Battersea (or other) residence(s). The accommodation portal opens around mid-March. Be prepared, as it is first come, first serve and the rooms are taken quickly! Don’t worry if you haven’t received your offer yet, rooms are offered in batches over a few months to ensure everyone has a fair chance to try and book a room.
🤯 If you’re a second year (onwards) or postgraduate...
You can still apply to live in residences (and for KAAS). Many students don’t realise this and then scramble to find private accommodation with people they don’t know or aren’t too familiar with on their course. If you can’t afford private accommodation or for personal reasons, you might want to apply for residences. The same application process above still applies but unfortunately, is not guaranteed.
Layout
The student accommodation is split into three large tower blocks labelled B, C and D. Each block is connected to one another via the 1st floor. Block B has the main entrance, reception, postal room, mezzanine, study rooms, roof terrance, cinema room and the common room as well as residential flats. Block C is primarily comprised of residential flats with study rooms on the 19th floor and Block D is primarily comprised of residential flats with the gym and roof terrace on the 14th floor.
Address: 5 Palmerston Way, Battersea, SW8 4AQ
🚗 If you have a car and need access to parking...
There is parking directly on site of the accommodation…. but you MUST apply through Wandsworth Council to receive a residential parking permit £230 annually. You need to change your V5 registration to match the Urbanest Battersea address otherwise your request for a parking permit will be rejected.
Parking outside the accommodation is monitored daily between 11:00-12:00 (1 hour) on weekdays… however, you can park outside the accommodation without risking a parking ticket at any time outside of these hours AND you can park outside of the accommodation 24/7 for free on weekends. This might be a good alternative to students who may only need access to their cars part-time.
Strengths
✅ Residential Flats
As a mature student and someone who values cleanliness, I was dreading the prospect of a communal kitchen. Having toured around other student accommodations like Great Dover Street Apartments (GDSA) and witnessing questionable biohazards and 10-foot high dirty dishes, I just knew living anything close to this would impact me mentally and my nutrition would suffer as a result.
Hands down, the best thing about the Battersea residential flats are the dishwashers… I can’t tell you how much of a relief it is to walk into a clean kitchen and the convenience because let’s be real, none of us want to waste our precious time washing dishes!
Battersea accommodation prioritises student hygiene and cleanliness… you won’t be sharing one bathroom with 13 other students, unlike many other student accommodations. If you book an en-suite or twin 1/2 room (where you share a bathroom with one other person) you’re more likely to be placed in an 8 person flat. If you book a standard non-ensuite room, you’re more likely to be placed in a 2-4 person flat, limiting the amount of students sharing one bathroom (and kitchen). There’s cleaners 7 days a week who do an incredible job making sure the communal areas are spotless, it’s honestly impressive.
✅ On-Site Amenities
There’s a FREE 24/7 new fully equipped onsite gym with two rooms, one for strength training and cardio, the other for functional training. In the functional training area, they hold fitnesses classes, currently it’s just Yoga through the ResiLife initiative but Pilates classes will be coming soon. The equipment is brand new and there’s cleaning products to wipe down the equipment. Currently, there’s a system in place where you need to sign out a key fob from reception to access to the gym, this is for safety purposes to stop too many residents being in the gym at once. During my time here, I’ve never had any issues with the gym being too busy, I’ve always managed to gain a key fob (there’s around 20 of them). The busiest hours tend to be 08:00-09:00 and 17:00-18:00 with around 10 people.
Plenty of study areas… I personally can’t study in the same space I sleep in and struggle to get deep-focused work completed in noisy environments. Battersea provides a good mixture of study spaces with sound-proof group working pods or individual study pods for limited distractions. I’ve found these to be useful, especially during exam season when the libraries are full up and I don’t want to travel anywhere.
Social spaces dotted around… there’s two rooftop terraces (the best one is in Block B) with decent views of The Shard and the London Eye and an open social space in Block B with a pool table and a cinema room, these areas aren’t usually too busy.
✅ Location & Campus Accessibility
I know students were hesitant on booking a room here because of the distance however I’d say this accommodation is conveniently placed. Battersea is considered Zone 1 so pricing remains unaffected and you won’t commute more than 20 minutes to any of the campuses by tube. Battersea underground station is a 5 minute walk from the accommodation, easy to get to and the streets are well lit. There’s overground trains at Battersea Park Station and Queenstown Road where they’ll take you directly inside and outside of London. Also, there’s an Uber Boat stop at Battersea Power Station (highly recommended) around £8.
The location itself is clean, well-maintained, genuinely feels safe (something I never thought was possible in London) and the residents living here are friendly. There are 24/7 security guards walking around the surrounding areas of the power station and outside of the underground, which has definitely made my stay here more positive. Inside the Battersea Power Station is filled with restaurants, high-end shops, a cinema and activities, as well as monthly things-to-do that are organised by the community. There’s a beautiful 200-acre park ~10 minute walk away and a park run every Saturday that is free and very popular! There’s also easy access into surrounding areas such as Clapham, Chelsea and Kensington.
✅ BeActive, ResiLife & Well-Being Initiatives
King’s offer a FREE fitness and wellness programme for all students living in halls… or just £35 annually if you’re a student living privately, this is a STEAL. BeActive focuses on different types of sport and ResiLife focuses on wellness (yoga, pilates etc..). Classes happen at various locations around London but usually within the main campus sites and within student accommodations. You can book using the online booking system 3-4 days in advance (make sure you set an alarm to remind yourself each week). At Battersea, currently the only ResiLife class that happens is yoga.
Each month there’s wellbeing initiatives organised through ResiLife by students such as pizza nights, movie nights and game tournaments etc as a way to create a community within the accommodation. Living here can be especially tough when you’re an international student, moved away from home or haven’t quite found your people yet, so this is definitely a good chance to get some social time in and do something fun.
✅ Inclusivity for Mature Students
I decided to bite the bullet and not waste money on privately renting in central London and apply to live in student accommodation instead. I was apprehensive about living in halls due to King’s explicitly telling me that I couldn’t request to live with older students. King’s were surprisingly organised and thoughtful when it came to living arrangements. Fortunately, I was placed in a flat with final year and mature students which made my transition into student life and living in halls much more bearable. For the most part, it seems King’s do acknowledge age differences and do make some attempt to place people with similar ages together.
Areas for improvement
🚫 Incomplete Infrastructure & Misleading Advertisements
The downside is that the buildings remain under construction and partially furnished even 5 months after moving in despite being advertised as completed. There is often a lot of noise during the early hours and a lot of moving construction vehicles in and around the building, making it quite difficult to park at times. There are ongoing issues of advertisement discrepancy with King’s and Battersea, where they had advertised a 24/7 cafe (sneakily removed from the website 2 months after) and free to use bicycles, in which the room is currently filled with construction equipment. This remains advertised on the Battersea accommodation page but is untrue, so be mindful. These are minor complaints in the grand scheme of things but moving into an unfinished living space with no access to promised amenities (gym, social spaces) for 3 months with zero transparency regarding changes/removal of amenities was quite annoying!
🚫 Lights that never turn off
A forewarning for those who suffer from migraines or feel overstimulated by bright lights… the lights in the student accommodation are far too bright, you can’t turn them off and there’s no option for low lighting either (which makes zero sense in a cinema room and all you can see is your own reflection). Personally, it doesn’t make the accommodation feel comfortable or cosy, it feels institutional and uncomfortable.
💭 Final thoughts & future advice
If you’re an incoming 18 year old undergraduate looking for a party accommodation then this may not be the right fit for you! Battersea accommodation is introverted and very studious (the students study here more than the library). Battersea area in general is also fitness and health orientated, so if you’re someone who doesn’t mind living away from fast-food chains and enjoys running then this area will be perfect for you. Battersea area has a tight-knit community feel to it, there’s community social media pages advertising new, free and community things to do in and around Battersea (they also post important updates and information and often when people have dropped keys/wallets/phones, it’s handed in safely) unheard of in London boroughs. Overall, I’ve loved these past 5 months here and I’ll be applying again for 2025.
Other resources
- Official Urbanest Battersea website
- Other King’s College London Residences
- King’s College London Accommodation Portal
- King’s Affordable Accommodation Scheme (KAAS)
- Apply for a Wandsworth Council Parking Permit
- BeActive fitness | ResiLife wellness
- Battersea Community Instagram Page | @BatterseaBeat
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