Ros and squad share a four-bedroom place they’ve christened Gay House (Picture: Jerry Syder/Metro.co.uk)

For most of us the experience of renting a home starts at university.

We kick off the renting journey with a scuzzy houseshare with mice and mould, quickly learning the need for a cleaning rota and how to make sure bills are paid on time.

Things change, we move on, and soon the housemates we squabbled with about taking the bins out become a distant memory.

But weren’t those days magical? Weren’t they fun?


This week in What I Rent, we’re heading back to the days of student life by nosing around the four-bedroom house in Roehampton, London, shared by Ros, a 21-year-old part-time nanny currently doing her MA in theatre, Loui, Jack, and Cam.



This is a house filled not with your average dirty dishes and underlying tensions, but with a load of love, fun, and colour. And yes, there is a traffic cone.

Their friends live in Mess House and Big House (Picture: Jerry Syder/Metro.co.uk)

Hi, Ros! How many people live in this house?

There are four of us; Loui, Jack and Cam, who are all at the same university as us. We also have two honorary flatmates, Wilma and Lozz who helped us start our instagram.

We have four bedrooms, two single and two double, a living room that doubles as a kitchen, a big bathroom upstairs and a small loo and shower downstairs.

And how much do you pay to live here?

Jack and I, who both have the single rooms, pay £419 per month. Cam and Loui who are in the doubles pay £429. This was set by the landlord and it works well for us.

When we signed for this year we got an early bird deal so we pay less than last year.

Wilma AND Lozz are honorary housemates (Picture: Jerry Syder/Metro.co.uk)

What’s it like living together as a load of students?

It’s lovely! It works for us as we are all a team – I think a lot of students clash because they’re so possessive over whose cutlery is whose, whereas our house is a free for all.

No one has their own cupboard or fridge space, we just share and are a team.

Whoever ends up buying household items, we all chip in so there’s none of the ‘you’re using my washing up liquid’ nonsense!

We’re the house that if anyone needs a chat, hug, cup of tea or a strong drink, they can come to us. We have a ‘lost and found’ box as we constantly end up with lots of different peoples possessions.

You document all the weird lost and found objects on your Instagram, foundatgayhouse. Where did the nickname of gay house come from?

We moved into this house at the start of my third year (September 2018). At the same time, six of our friends also moved into their house and so we referred to them as big house, and they referred to us as gay house as we all identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community.



Our other friends also moved into a house this year called mess house, so together we are big gay messes – very silly.

The house was given its name as its residents are part of the LGBTQ+ community (Picture: Jerry Syder/Metro.co.uk)

And how did the Instagram start?

Generally, we all love silly bright things and our house has always been decked out with many random objects, for instance, a life-size cardboard cut out of Winona Ryder that we keep in our downstairs shower.

From the first day of moving in two years ago, we already had nicknacks lining all of our cupboards and it’s just grown and grown. When we are out shopping and see a random item that has little use or purpose, we get it.

I think someone suggested to us a while back that we should make an instagram to document everything and recently I was looking around and decided that it was time to make it.

We all thought it would be funny to write the Instagram as if we were a museum which is how it all got started. Jack’s girlfriend Lozz, who often stays with us, even made us ‘gay house’ stickers you can buy on RedBubble.

Do you feel like you have enough space for all your stuff?

No, not at all. We are all hoarders of stuff, and we have literally zero storage in the house apart from a cupboard above the stairs, which is only accessible if you’re happy to risk your life somewhat.

I also decided to move in last-minute so have the smallest room. However, in my second year I was really lucky and lived in a huge bedroom with a double bed and a sofa, but didn’t get on as well with my flatmates, and If I had the choice to swap gay house for that room again I would definitely say no.

There are a lot of interesting bits and bobs (Picture: Jerry Syder/Metro.co.uk)

Do you like the area?


We all love the house, but I’d say mainly because of the company we keep and the house mentality more than area and size.

The area is mostly good, we are right next to Richmond park and to our university, and there’s buses and trains to central London. I do wish we were closer to a Tube station.

Are there any issues with the house?

Mould. So much mould. We aren’t allowed to use candles which I find entertaining as there is no way our house could burn down with all the damp.

How have you made the house feel like home?

We have done our best to decorate it as much as we can with what we have.

We can’t paint or hang things up but we have made do by blue-tacking everything and anything on to the walls.

We also have things like our craft boxes, and you’ll often find us sewing, painting, drawing etc. We also have a pile of blankets for anyone to use and several pillows.

And loads of glorious decoration (Picture: Jerry Syder/Metro.co.uk)

Our house came fully furnished but we’ve all personalised our rooms with bits of furniture like shelves and mirrors. I’ve recently discovered the beauty of little drawers and my room is packed with them. This year we have bought two shelves and a shoe rack for downstairs, and I bought my keyboard to uni so now we have a music and crafts corner.

My favourite addition is our Alexa that we got on sale for £23. When you tell her ‘gay house’ she turns the living room lights to red, orange, green and blue so all of our shadows are rainbows.


Do you have plans to move any time soon?

We come to the end of our tenancy in September and we all will have finished our studies by then so we’re not sure yet. If we did stay together next year we would try for a bigger place – I’m sick of my room being the size it is!

Fair. Shall we have a look around?

Looks fun, right? (Picture: Jerry Syder/Metro.co.uk)

Keep your eye out for a load of cushions and blankets (Picture: Jerry Syder/Metro.co.uk)

The kitchen (Picture: Jerry Syder/Metro.co.uk)

The requisite booze collection (Picture: Jerry Syder/Metro.co.uk)

Prepare for an onslaught of fridge decoration (Picture: Jerry Syder/Metro.co.uk)

(Picture: Jerry Syder/Metro.co.uk)

It’s called art, look it up (Picture: Jerry Syder/Metro.co.uk)

Hey, baby Yoda (Picture: Jerry Syder/Metro.co.uk)

There are lots of excellent mugs (Picture: Jerry Syder/Metro.co.uk)

Upstairs we go (Picture: Jerry Syder/Metro.co.uk)

Here’s Jack’s room (Picture: Jerry Syder/Metro.co.uk)

Look at that collection (Picture: Jerry Syder/Metro.co.uk)

Cam’s room (Picture: Jerry Syder/Metro.co.uk)

Bring back lava lamps, we say (Picture: Jerry Syder/Metro.co.uk)

Here’s Loui in his room, complete with Winona Ryder (Picture: Jerry Syder/Metro.co.uk)

There’s not much storage (Picture: Jerry Syder/Metro.co.uk)

Points for the presence of St Trinians (Picture: Jerry Syder/Metro.co.uk)

We found it! (Picture: Jerry Syder/Metro.co.uk)

Oh hey, Moomins (Picture: Jerry Syder/Metro.co.uk)

(Picture: Jerry Syder/Metro.co.uk)

Note the towels (Picture: Jerry Syder/Metro.co.uk)

Ros in her room (Picture: Jerry Syder/Metro.co.uk)

Finally, the bathroom (Picture: Jerry Syder/Metro.co.uk)

That’s quite the selection of toiletries (Picture: Jerry Syder/Metro.co.uk)

There is a problem with mould (Picture: Jerry Syder/Metro.co.uk)

Wow (Picture: Jerry Syder/Metro.co.uk)

And look at all those toothbrushes! (Picture: Jerry Syder/Metro.co.uk)

What I Rent is a weekly series that’s out every Tuesday at 10am. Check back next week to have a nose around another rented property.

How to get involved in What I Rent What I Rent is Metro.co.uk's weekly series that takes you inside the places people are renting, to give us all a better sense of what's normal and how much we should be paying. If you fancy taking part, please email whatirent@metro.co.uk. You'll need to have pictures taken of your kitchen, living room, bathroom, and bedroom, plus a few photos of you in your room. Make sure you get permission for your housemates! You'll also need to be okay with sharing how much you're paying for rent, as that's pretty important.

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