Welcome to Britain

Given the international nature of Bankside House, many of our residents aren’t just new to London but also the UK, and so there may be many concerns you have which we can help you with here.

Shopping

This section should give you a quick guide shopping in London. For the locations of nearby shops, check out the Our Area section.

Supermarkets: Of the big four British supermarket chains, only Tesco and Sainsbury's have stores in central London. There is also M&S, a department store chain which also has food stores, although these are pricier.

General: Argos is a good store for almost everything.

Ikeas: There are two Ikeas in London. Croydon is the closest to Bankside. The other is in Tottenham, in north London.

Areas: Around Seven Dials and Covent Garden is trendy, Regent Street is upmarket, Oxford Street has all the major British/international stores (although Westfield is nicer) and Tottenham Court Road has a lot of electrical stores.

Malls: There is only one major mall in central London, the Westfield London mall in Shepherd's Bush.

Electical stuff

The UK uses 3-rectangular pin 230v electrical sockets. If your country also uses 220-240v electrcity you will only need a plug adaptor. If you come from a country (most notably the USA and Japan) which uses 120v electricity you will need a voltage convertor for some items. Check this site for information.

Climate

London's weather is mild by most of the world's standards. Despite being on the same latitude as Calgary, Alberta, London's temperature rarely drops below 0°C, with some rain all year round, but rarely very heavy or for very long. It's a good idea to compare the monthly averages on Weather.com to your home city for a comparison.

Television

The main UK television providers are the BBC, channel 4 and ITV.

All offer streaming services of recently-broadcast programmes on their websites.

Telephone numbers

Landline (fixed line) numbers being with 01, 02 or 03; mobile phones begin 07, special rate numbers begin 08 and premium rate numbers begin 09.

08 numbers are not included in mobile phone minutes, and are charged at more than ordinary calls. Even 'freephone' 0800/0500/0808 numbers will be charged from mobiles, and will not come out of inclusive minutes on your calling plan.

This site can help you find an alternative landline number which will be cheaper to call.

When giving your number to people overseas you should remove the first 0 and replace with +44.

Mobile phones

If you already have a GSM mobile phone you can probably use it here by putting a British sim card in it. Mobile phones can be locked to a specific network – if you are unsure if your phone is locked, try putting a sim card from another network in it (e.g. a friend’s) and see if it works. If you can use your old phone, you can either get a pay-as-you-go account or a monthly contract.

Pay-as-you-go: This is the easiest thing to get, and generally very good value so a good idea at first. T-Mobile, O2 and Orange offer the best deals on pay-as-you-go, with free text messaging and international calling options. You are best getting from one of the networks’ own stores. BEWARE of Carphone Warehouse – while a generally good chain, they have their own pay-as-you-go network which they will likely try to sell you, which is not good value.

Contract without phone: If you use your phone a lot, it may be better value to get a monthly contract. If purchasing a contract without a phone included, you do not need to sign up for a fixed term. Check out the sim-only contract deals on the main networks: Orange, O2, T-Mobile, Vodafone and 3.

Contract with phone: If you do need/want a new phone you should look at the general contract deals the main networks are offering. Bear in mind that these are typically 18 month contracts, and if you will return to your home country during the holidays and the summer that you will have to keep paying for these months, so you may be better off buying a phone and using pay-as-you-go. Also, these contracts require credit checks, which pose a problem for students who have no UK credit history, and so you may have to pay a deposit for the contract.