Artist School Borough Market Shard View SE1

Entire rental unit in London, United Kingdom

  1. 2 guests
  2. 1 bedroom
  3. 1 bed
  4. 1.5 bathrooms
Hosted by Natalie
  1. Superhost
  2. 9 years hosting

Listing highlights

Top 5% of homes

This home is highly ranked based on ratings, reviews and reliability.

Exceptional check-in experience

Recent guests gave the check-in process a 5-star rating.

Vibrant neighbourhood

Guests say this area is walkable with lots to explore, especially for dining out.
The Artist’s School
There are places you stay, and there are places you remember.
The Artist’s School is a hideaway in the heart of London — a private wunderkammer hidden on a quiet Dickensian street in London’s historic Borough

The space
Set inside a beautifully preserved Edwardian school building, this red-brick sanctuary is a place where time softens, imagination expands, and the city feels momentarily suspended.
Named one of London’s most exclusive Airbnbs by The London Standard (2024), this remarkable residence is less an apartment than a story waiting to be lived inside. Guests often say it feels strangely familiar — like stepping into a novel you once loved.
Moments from Borough Market and beneath the silhouette of The Shard, the apartment offers a rare, secluded, atmospheric, and deeply restorative stay in central London.
The Space
Light pours through towering school windows set high above the street, illuminating the scale of the space while preserving complete privacy. The effect is cinematic — golden mornings, long shadowed afternoons, and evenings that seem designed for lingering conversation.
Salon sofas gather around an immense cabinet of curiosities filled with objects collected across time, while long dining tables invite slow breakfasts, shared tea, or chapters written late into the night.
Nothing reveals itself all at once.
Hidden doors lead to unexpected discoveries:
• a secret bathroom glowing with soft “moonlight” illumination
• a monumental hand-stitched local map that becomes a curtain to the bed
• drawers transformed into steps ascending to a tucked-away room
• playful architectural moments that blur fantasy and function
The bedroom unfolds behind linen drapery — calm and intimate. Beside the bed sits a freestanding copper roll-top bath, perfect for unwinding after a day exploring London.
Blackout shades ensure deep, uninterrupted sleep, creating a cocoon of stillness in one of London’s most vibrant and central neighbourhoods.
This is a space made for slowing down.
Please enjoy reading our amazing 5*reviews

Guest access
Arrival
Guests enter through the ragged school’s historic arched entrance before stepping into a fully private residence overlooking the city.
You will be personally welcomed and presented with a distinctive iron key — a small ceremonial moment marking your arrival into another pace of living.
The apartment becomes entirely your world throughout your stay.

Original classroom chalkboards — chalk provided — invite declarations, sketches, or love notes left behind before departure.

Luxury services and extras to make your stay seamless
For longer or more indulgent stays, bespoke services may be arranged:
* Laundry and dry cleaning
* Massage treatments in the onsite therapy room
* Advanced facial and beauty treatments
* Holistic wellness practitioners and trusted specialists
* Curated neighbourhood recommendations and private tours upon request
* Fresh provisions from nearby Borough Market artisan bakeries and delis.
Shopping service
For bookings longer than one week, a professional weekly cleaning service is available (£60 per week).
Early check-in or late check-out can be arranged in advance where possible

Please enquire for further details or tailored arrangements.


House Considerations
The Artist School is a historic and carefully preserved space and is treated with corresponding care:
* Access is limited to named guests on the reservation only.
* Additional visitors are not permitted without prior agreement.
* Non-smoking throughout nor directly outside.
* Candles are not permitted.
* Any accidental damage must be reimbursed in full.
* Bookings made on behalf of others require advance information.

The Experience
Morning light across brick walls.
Coffee from Borough Market carried home in paper bags.
Afternoons lost in Tate Modern.
Evenings spent in a copper bath while London glows outside the windows.
The Artist School is a place for those who travel not just to see a city, but to feel it.
Guests rarely describe it as accommodation.
More often, they describe it as a memory — one they return to long after leaving. For everyone it offers something they are searching for
A romantic refuge.
A private world.

A restoration opportunity

A London story waiting to be lived.

Other things to note
For any bookings longer than one week, there will be a extra cleaning charge for each week booked. This will be for £60.00 for each extra week stayed.

We price for the single traveler first, a second guest is then added if required.

we are but a 5 min walk to London Bridge or Waterloo mainline stations.
Situated away from the London traffic, this is a quiet street within 4.7 hectres of conservation area yet so very well connected.

Please note we are not next to or on top of the railway line, as the map flag appears to show but a full street away from the slow approach to London Bridge.

If there is anything you need during your stay please let me know, i am usually ready for anything and am able to arrange many other services for you - what ever that may be.

If for any reason there is a need for me to come to the property between 10pm-8am there will be a call out charge for out of hours attendance.
This will be the return cost of the black cab to the property.

Any breakages will be charged for in full.

No candles.

This is a non-smoking building.

Please note that we are unable to accomodate bags prior to check-in

Where you'll sleep

What this place offers

Kitchen
Wifi
Dedicated workspace
Washing machine
Bath

Select check-in date

Add your travel dates for exact pricing

Rated 4.96 out of 5 from 198 reviews.

Guest favourite
This home is in the top 5% of eligible listings based on ratings, reviews and reliability
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Overall rating

  1. 5 stars, 97% of reviews
  2. 4 stars, 3% of reviews
  3. 3 stars, 1% of reviews
  4. 2 stars, 0% of reviews
  5. 1 stars, 0% of reviews

Rated 4.9 out of 5 stars for cleanliness

Rated 5.0 out of 5 stars for accuracy

Rated 5.0 out of 5 stars for check-in

Rated 5.0 out of 5 stars for communication

Rated 5.0 out of 5 stars for location

Rated 4.9 out of 5 stars for value

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Where you’ll be

London, England, United Kingdom
This listing’s location is verified.

Neighbourhood highlights

You will be
3 mins walk to Borough Market (bars, restaurants, riverside walks, cobbled streets and old warehouses)
The Everyman cinema has just opened at Borough Yards, next door to the Borough Market, Showing mainstream, Classic and independent films.
Early check in arriving on the red eye arrive and and go to Borough Market for a monmouth coffee or Spanish breakfast at Brindisa
5-10 mins walk to The Cut (Old Vic, Young Vic, Waterloo Station and the South Bank). The Anchor and Hope which is a local gastropub on The Cut where the food and atmosphere is out of this world, one of AA Gills top five most memorable dishes and a true British experience and highly recommended if you’re looking for local bar scene.
25 mins walk to Spitalfields Market, Brick Lane and Red Church Street.
10 mins walk to St Paul’s over the wobbly bridge nxt to Tate Modern
25 to Westminster and the Houses of Parliament on the riverside walk
7 mins to Hyde Park by tube from Southwark station
7 mins to Green Park. Wolsey Ritz and Bond st.
40 mins to the centre of the park a lovely walk along the south side of the embankment passing Shaespears' Globe, Tate Modern, The Sea Containers Mondrian, National Theatre, South Bank Festival Hall, The Hayward Gallery crossing over on Hungerford Bridge, crossing Trafalgar square and along the Mall to Buckingham Palace. St James’s Park starts there and connects to Hyde Park at Hyde Park corner.
There's a lot of art going on in surrounding Bankside, Whitechapel, Spitalfields and Bow. There is also a lot of good food of course Borough Market, and loads of new Resturants on Southwark st, Flat Iron Square all along the Southbank walk and Pont de la Tour and St Katherines Dock at Tower Bridge.
I am a huge fan of 40 Matlby st for creative tasty modern food or the Anchor and Hope on The Cut, for traditional hearty English food lunchtimes the superb and specialised italians O'ver or Padella at the Borough Market and El Vergal Argentinian and organic on Southwark Bridge Road.

You rarely hear a sound from neighbours and at weekends the area is eerily quiet. A perfect hideout in town. Being so close to the river, the South Bank and up to London Bridge and up to under the Shard is quite magical in any weather. Early fog and late balmy evenings and you can be one minute in a crowd and then quite alone
Accommodation:
The space is really best suited for 1 or 2 people.
And is not suitable for children or pets.

Meet your host

Superhost
244 reviews
4.96 out of 5 average rating
9 years of hosting
My work: Producer
Lives in London, United Kingdom
Business
Hi! Welcome to London. I am a photographer/producer and guardian of both a wonderful old school building as well as the Chairmakers House . I am not a management company and I provide a more personable service tailored for each guest. Creativity is something to be practised every day as part of life - not just in the media you choose to work with. This is the approach I take with these apartments. Borough is an amazing neighborhood - a still rare and unknown part of London that oozes with history and vibrancy. If you need top tips on where to go, what to do or where to eat then I have the best local knowledge for you. I came here eleven years ago and I haven’t left. I look forward to meeting you and sharing my knowledge of this magical corner of old London town.

Natalie is a Superhost

Superhosts are experienced, highly rated hosts who are committed to providing great stays for guests.

Co-Hosts

  • Zanna

Host details

Response rate: 100%
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Things to know

Cancellation policy
House rules
Check-in: 16:00 – 19:00
Checkout before 11:00
2 guests maximum
Safety & property
Carbon monoxide alarm
Smoke alarm
Not suitable for children and infants