Somewhere Different - 27 Lonsdale Road

Great coworking coliving place on the beach in the UK

This is my 4th year in a row staying here. It is a wonderful co-working place that gives you the opportunity to meet people from all over the world and learn from them. You get to learn about different places they come from, where they have been and the type of work they do. It gives you great ideas! The house has a variety of rooms to choose from, a wonderful kitchen and a great co working room. Duncan, the owner, arranges great weekend excursions, guests cook group dinners and nightly outing to pubs and sporting events. I highly recommend and hope to be back next year!

I was there for about three months, mainly because I had doctor's appointments in Manchester, but I work in online sales, and that's my day job. I think the host of this co-living space can't handle criticism, and he shouldn't be running such a place in terms of interpersonal relationships, because he's simply someone who has mental health issues himself. That's my opinion. For example, it was enough that I pointed out several times how dangerous it is when someone leaves the oven on overnight and you come into the kitchen in the morning to find it full of gas. This happened three times, He sees it as criticism if you tell him to change this and behaves like a spoiled child and will ask you to leave than...... He's unable to accept other opinions and feels directly attacked, which manifests itself as Kayla describes below. This makes the atmosphere unpleasant because not everyone wants to be a sheep in the flock and behave like that. The rooms are small but cheap, and there are many other good accommodation options in Blackpool if you check the relevant websites. The kitchen is large and spacious, as is the co-living room. During my stay, many guests weren't from the online work sector, retirees between 60 and 70 years old, or simply Airbnb guests.

Very good place to stay for short or long term! Everything is very well structured and organized: a fully furnished kitchen, a large working room with monitors, cleaning always maintained, washing and drying machines, rooms with their own sink, and a stable and fast internet connection. The price is very attractive, and there is a great supermarket nearby. The beach is close, and Blackpool is logistically well located for reaching Liverpool and Manchester.

I stayed at this co-living for two months, from September to the end of October 2025, and will share both the positive and negative aspects of living here because, to be honest, the host's attitude would make me avoid returning in the future. Let’s start with the positive: Alex, the cleaner, really keeps the house in shape. She does a weekly cleaning and also helps organize activities and Sunday dinners. During my time here, we had many Sunday dinners (Mexican, Ukrainian, Japanese), which were lovely. The fridge and pantry system is also nice and organized, so you have space for your things and don’t lose track of your shopping among everyone else's. The co-working room is also great. Loved the second monitor, and the desk and chair I had were cozy. Also, the people (at the time of my stay) were amazing. We made good friendships, joked, and went out together. Definitely connections I will keep in my life. We stayed in the double room, which was a good size. Now, let me get into some negatives, which unfortunately involve more stories around the host. Because while the smaller rooms are quite small and the shower is a bit small, that’s fine to deal with Let me start by saying he was gone for most of the time I was there (from like mid-Sept), so I only spent about 2 weeks around him. He lives in the basement when he is back at the co-living. Some things that left a really negative impression of him on me: 1. The first morning I was there, he asked me if I had heard about the story that there was a mental health crisis there long before (my partner was there when it happened, hence the connection to bring it up). I’ll just leave it this way, his views of depression and mental health seemed very unempathetic to me. 2. I had an issue with the downstairs dryer. There are set times and require money for every 45 minutes of use. In an hour and a half, the clothes barely driend. With the cold outside, hang-drying wasn’t convenient. I asked if I could use the dryer that Alex used for the bedding, and he insisted, “It’s the same dryer,” but he was still okay with me trying it, which I appreciated. Well, it was not the same dryer, and took about an hour, which was great. It’s just weird to say “it’s the same” when it clearly wasn’t. 3. When it started to get cold and the heating kicked on, the rooms barely warmed, and the bedrooms were often freezing (as someone who gets cold easily, and the insulation is not great). After 20 C, the heating turned off. That’s fair except the rooms felt closer to 16 or 17 sometimes. When I asked about what the temperature was set to, he replied 20 C. When I asked the room it was measured from, instead of replying in the group, he directly messaged me and told me I could leave if I wasn’t happy. The message was unnecessarily condescending, defensive and long in my opinion, especially as I was just asking simple questions. He also said (see screenshot) "I'm not putting the heat to 24" which is not even something I asked. As a guest, having a host that treats me like over simple concerns is a red flag. Anyways, I noticed the thermostat was in the coworking room and assumed that the temperature was being taken from there. Mind you, the co-working room was one of the warmer rooms in the house so it’s no wonder the bedrooms felt much colder. In some of the issues above where it seemed the right thing to do was say something, I even got the sense others didn’t complain because they didn’t feel comfortable to speak up. After my experiences speaking up, it's understandable. All in all, some people were fine with him, but I know he didn’t like me, cause I complained about what I saw as reasonable things or would challenge his ideas. I won't say people shouldn’t stay, but I’d say if the host sounds like someone you wouldn’t want to spend a month or longer around, then maybe check to see if he’ll be there as he does travel away at times. The house can have incredible people and I don’t regret a thing, but I wouldn’t come back as the host was not a positive community builder in my opinion.