On a major London project and living in digs or a shared house rather than a hotel. What the shared house actually gives you, what it does not, and how to use a long posting.
By KF.Social·5 min read·Published 11th September 2026
You are on a major project in London. Rail, a tunnel, a power scheme, a large building, and it runs for a year or three. You are not in a hotel: you are in digs, a company house or a room in a shared place with other people off the job, and you go home at weekends or every other weekend if the shift pattern allows it.
This is a different situation from a two week business trip and most advice aimed at work travel does not fit it. You are here long enough that a year of empty evenings is a real amount of your life, and you are also not moving here, so the advice aimed at people relocating does not fit either.
01What digs actually give you, and what they do not
The house solves more than a hotel does. There are people in the kitchen. Somebody puts the football on. There is usually a lift to site and someone to go to the pub with on a Friday, and after a hotel that is a substantial improvement.
What it does not solve is anything past that. Everyone in the house is from the job, so every conversation is the job, and after a few months the sameness of it wears in a way people do not expect from something that started as company. The house also does not survive the project: it disperses when the work does, exactly like the site does.
And there is no privacy in it, which matters more over a year than over a fortnight. There is a real difference between not being alone and having company you chose.
02The advantage of a long posting, which most people waste
Here is the part worth taking seriously. Somebody in London for two weeks genuinely cannot build anything. You can. A year or two is long enough to join something and become a regular, to get properly good at something, or to know an area well enough that people recognise you in it.
Almost nobody on a long posting does this, and the reason is understandable: the first months feel temporary, so you behave as though you are passing through, and by the time it is obviously not temporary the habit of not bothering has set. Then the project ends and you have spent two years in a city you never used.
The fix is to decide early that this counts as living somewhere, even if the job is finite. Practically:
Join one thing in the first two months. It is far easier at the start, when being new is normal and you have not settled into the house routine. A gym is not this. A club, a team, a choir, a class, anything with the same people in it week after week.
Pick it near where you sleep, not near the site. Site is where you already are. The point is to have somewhere else.
Make it a thing you would do anyway. Something you already like beats something you think you should do, because you will still be going in month eight.
03The weekends home, which cut both ways
If you go home at weekends, it keeps the important part of your life intact and it is the right call. It also means you are never in London at the weekend, which is when almost everything social happens, and it is the main reason people on long postings end up with no life at either end: full weekdays here, full weekends there, nothing anywhere that is yours.
Staying in London one weekend in six is a genuinely different experience of the posting. Not every weekend, and this is not an argument for going home less. One in six is enough to see the city as somewhere people live rather than somewhere you work.
04Weeknights, honestly
After a shift on a site you are physically tired, which is not the same as the tiredness of a desk job and does not respond to the same things. Being told to go out is often just wrong.
What tends to work is one fixed weeknight rather than a general intention to do more. A Wednesday, protected, with something in it. The rest of the week can be the house and an early night without that being a problem, because the week has one thing in it that is not the job.
05What we do, in one paragraph
KF.Social books you a seat at a table of six in a London restaurant on a set evening, with other people who are in London for work. It is 15 pounds for the seat, plus your food and drinks at the restaurant. On a long posting it is most useful as the fixed weeknight above, or as the thing you do on a weekend you stay in London rather than travelling home. Everyone at the table got here the same way you did, so there is no explaining why you are in London on a Wednesday. The restaurant lands about six hours before and the table about an hour before. Cancel 72 hours or more ahead and the 15 pounds returns to your card, and inside 72 hours not at all. London only. The tables coming up are here.
Related Questions
Are digs better than a hotel on a long job?
For company, generally yes: there are people in the kitchen and someone to go to the pub with on a Friday. For privacy, no, and that matters more over a year than a fortnight. The limit is that everyone in the house is from the job, so every conversation is the job, and the house disperses when the project does.
Is it worth joining something if the project only lasts two years?
Yes, and two years is the reason. Someone here for two weeks genuinely cannot build anything and you can. The common mistake is treating the first months as temporary, because by the time it is clearly not temporary the habit of not bothering has set.
When is the easiest time to join something on a posting?
The first two months. Being new is normal then and you have not yet settled into the house routine. Pick something near where you sleep rather than near the site, and something you would do anyway, because that is what you will still be attending in month eight.
Should I stay in London some weekends instead of going home?
One weekend in six is enough to change the posting, and this is not an argument for going home less. Full weekdays in London and full weekends at home is the pattern that leaves people with nothing of their own at either end, because the weekend is when most social things happen.
What works on a weeknight after a shift on site?
One protected weeknight with something in it, rather than a general intention to do more. Physical tiredness from a site is different from desk tiredness and does not respond to being told to go out. The rest of the week being the house and an early night is fine if the week has one thing in it that is not the job.
KF.Social
