One of London’s top universities is embroiled in a bitter dispute with hundreds of students over noisy building works which are "rendering sleep and study impossible".
University College London (UCL) started demolishing a building adjacent to the students' halls in Bloomsbury a few weeks ago - midway through the critical exam period.
The university is knocking down Waites House next to their halls Campbell House, with work taking place Monday to Saturday and starting at 8am each day.
Students are complaining that the works are waking them up in the morning and causing insomnia brought on by noise as "loud as a motorway."
They say the reverberations cause their desks, chairs and mirrors to shake.
The UCL students' union is demanding a term's rent in compensation and advising tenants to withhold their latest payment - about £1,500 each and worth £300,000 for all 200 people living there.
It is calling for the work to be halted until the end of the academic year.
Classics student Shaniqua Hunter said: "I can’t even make phone calls, watch television, study, take a nap or listen to music in my own room.
"I desperately try to cover my rent with my part time job while I’m studying just to be driven out of my own room. Conditions in Campbell are unliveable."
A spokesman for University College London said students have been offered alternative study space while some have been found bedrooms elsewhere.
He added: "Five students have already availed of the extra bedroom offer. We are continuing to co-operate with students on the monitoring of the noise levels."
This latest 'rent strike' follows a similar dispute at another UCL block, Hawkridge House in Kentish Town.
There the university stopped construction work - which was being carried out to repair storm damage - and offered compensation, though many have since refused to accept the "meagre" £132 tendered and are appealing for a more substantial offer.
