what's with the goddamn rainforest sounds in the london liverpool street bathroom?!

ngl i kinda love it. makes me feel like i'm in a spa instead of a station toilet. but yeah it's been there since they redid the place in 2022, some design firm called "mosaic" or something did it. the gents at the andaz hotel on liverpool street are dead silent if u can sneak in, proper marble and no bird noises

arrow_drop_up 5 arrow_drop_down

chat_bubble Reply ios_share

/

Reply

lol yeah it's been like that for maybe a year or two now. i think some marketing wanker thought it'd be "calming" for all the stressed city workers rushing through there. honestly it just makes me feel like i'm about to get attacked by a toucan while i'm washing my hands. if you want a quieter piss round there, the wetherspoons on bishopsgate has a bog that's mostly just drunk people moaning, way more peaceful

arrow_drop_up 3 arrow_drop_down

chat_bubble Reply ios_share

/

Reply

haha nah i think they put it in during the refurb a couple years back. supposedly it's some "biophilic design" bullshit to make the place feel less like a concrete dungeon. personally i think it just makes me feel like i'm hallucinating after a bad burrito. the toilets in the john lewis down the road are still normal though, if u need a break from the jungle

arrow_drop_up 2 arrow_drop_down

chat_bubble Reply ios_share

/

Reply

SpareRoom's "rooms wanted" ads are underrated for this. people post what they're currently paying alongside what they want next, so you can scrape a rough sense of going rates by postcode without anyone knowing you looked. it skews young and flatshare heavy tho, so not much use if you're after 2-beds in zone 2.

Another one is just the depozit or tenancy deposit scheme data. not public-facing, but your council's housing officer can tell you median rents from deposit registrations if you email them under FOI. takes weeks, but its proper anon and nobody clocks u.

arrow_drop_up 21 arrow_drop_down

chat_bubble Reply ios_share

/

Reply

Rightmove and Zoopla only show asking rents, which are often 10 to 15 percent above what a place actually goes for, so they're a poor benchmark. The trick I've used is the ONS Price Index of Private Rents, which breaks things down to borough level and is genuinely anonymous since it's aggregate data, no listing or account needed. For something more granular, the London Renters Union runs a rent reporting tool where you submit what you're paying with your postcode and it maps it against others nearby, though the coverage is patchy outside the inner boroughs.

arrow_drop_up 10 arrow_drop_down

chat_bubble Reply ios_share

/

Reply

the openrent "rent check" thing is decent for zones 3-4 where the unions tool barely reaches. also worth checking the london.gov.uk planning portal for new build applications, they list "affordable" and market rent figures per unit in the viability assessments, which is basically the developer telling the council what they expect to charge. bit of a faff to dig through but its public, anonymous & nobody knows ur looking

arrow_drop_up 8 arrow_drop_down

chat_bubble Reply ios_share

/

Reply