suggestions-nice London neighborhood for a short-term rent (house/flatsharing)?

Hi all,
  I'm trying to find a private room somewhere in London, and I've been overwhelmed by how big London is. I'll be doing an unpaid internship at an environmental magazine, Green Futures, for 3 months. (I've been taking a gap year in Europe and wanted to settle down for a bit.)
 
It's in EC 1, a 12 min walk north of Barbican tube (just a few minutes west of Old Street station). Since my transport will be covered by the non-profit, I don't mind being in greater London, as long as the commute is under 1.5 hours each way.

I'm 19, so I'd love to find somewhere with an active and cozy neighborhood, lots of students, and safe. I've been told both good and bad things about Camden/Shoreditch, and southeast London was highly recommended. What would you recommend? My budget for a private room in a shared house or flat is about 400 pounds/month or less, preferably with all bills/taxes included. Thanks!

Hi all,
  I'm trying to find a private room somewhere in London, and I've been overwhelmed by how big London is. I'll be doing an unpaid internship at an environmental magazine, Green Futures, for 3 months. (I've been taking a gap year in Europe and wanted to settle down for a bit.)
 
It's in EC 1, a 12 min walk north of Barbican tube (just a few minutes west of Old Street station). Since my transport will be covered by the non-profit, I don't mind being in greater London, as long as the commute is under 1.5 hours each way.

I'm 19, so I'd love to find somewhere with an active and cozy neighborhood, lots of students, and safe. I've been told both good and bad things about Camden/Shoreditch, and southeast London was highly recommended. What would you recommend? My budget for a private room in a shared house or flat is about 400 pounds/month or less, preferably with all bills/taxes included. Thanks!

If you can find a flatshare  for £400 a month in those areas you should bite the people's hands off.
Flatsharing amongst young professionals is so incredibly competitive at the moment. You can't share with students as it makes them ineligible for free council tax, so you need to share with the young worker types, most of whom who live in Shoreditch/Camden will have cool jobs and be very picky, so if you want any kind of flatshare that's fun/cool you'll need to meet them, then they take a decision as a house on who they want to live with them. You'll likely be turned down... a lot.

I've got a couple of friends going through it at the moment, one has a budget of £600 a month and has seen some horrendously tiny places in Shoreditch/Old Street, and the two she did find that were good both chose someone else.

One of my friends is living in a Vegan house, pretending to be vegan and secretly eating steaks whenever she's not at home

£400 inclusive is quite a tight budget! That's under £100/week, and Camden/Shoreditch will have slim pickings.

I think you could find a flatshare in South Ealing or Northfields. They are both cute, safe little areas. There's a Uni in Ealing so lots of students, buzzy atmosphere. Maybe look around Acton too, if you fancy west London. I don't know much about southeast. It's cheaper, for sure, but not necessarily safer.

Brixton, Balham and Clapham could work for you as well. Lots going on, northern line to old street. Maybe Dalston or Bethnal Green will come up trumps.

It's all well and good us giving you areas, but really your area might be dictated by your price. So, keep an eye on gumtree to get a good idea on prices. And don't rule out single rooms!

I'd recommend spareroom.co.uk. You can do a search by commute duration (i.e. 20 minutes from Waterloo) and then there are some side bar options, one of which is price. I've used this site quite a bit recently and it's really good. Just found a new place with it, too. I love all the options it offers because I've had pretty strict stipulations with my searches recently!

You won't find much in Clapham for under £400. That's where I've been looking and I have a budget of £750; most stuff is coming in at £600 and upwards. I'd say some areas of SE London might be an option at that price, but don't expect to be in a pretty area. Parts of Peckham, New Cross and Camberwell are cheap, but there are always reasons for that. Although I went to uni with a few people who lived in Peckham and they found it perfectly fine. It just depends on the neighbourhood.

You can definitely get rooms quite far out for £400pcm, but then you're looking at a £200-£300 a month for commuting, and I'm not sure an internship will cover all of that. Most internships I had would cover costs 'within reason'.

Good luck!

Try North London, Turnpike Lane or Wood Green, it's 3 zone, Picadilly line, and 20mn from Centre of London, close to Camden and you should be able to find place for that price.