{"id":349255,"date":"2025-08-16T13:39:23","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T13:39:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/349255\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T13:39:23","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T13:39:23","slug":"its-like-a-horror-movie-stomach-churning-sea-of-rats-explodes-over-door-in-london-estate-as-locals-say-they-are-living-in-a-victorian-britain-hellhole-slum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/349255\/","title":{"rendered":"‘It’s like a horror movie’: Stomach-churning sea of rats explodes over door in London estate as locals say they are living in a ‘Victorian Britain hellhole slum’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Horrific footage shows how rats have infested a whole block of flats in London<\/a> and turned it into a ‘Victorian Britain hellhole slum’.<\/p>\n

Terrified residents are fleeing the block and moving out after feeling ignored and abandoned by the housing association responsible.<\/p>\n

The footage shows dozens of rats scurrying across the wall and fixtures of a bin and utility room in Crystal Court in Hackney.<\/p>\n

Families living there say they ‘constantly’ see the vermin and hear them during the night, leaving them unable to sleep.<\/p>\n

Families say they have spent more than four years begging the housing association, Notting Hill Genesis, to rid the block of the rats.<\/p>\n

Destin Domokundi, a 22-year-old-student who has lived there with his mother since 2012, said the ‘disgusting’ issue had been raised ‘over and over’ with the management.<\/p>\n

He said: ‘It’s been an issue for years, not just recently.<\/p>\n

‘This became an issue four years ago. It’s gotten really intense recently. People have been scared to go into the bin room.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

A sea of rats explodes over a doorway amid a infestation at Crystal Court in Hackney, North London\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Rat <\/p>\n

Rat scuttle up the railings in the bin room at the estate before escaping through a hole in the ceiling\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Rats <\/p>\n

Rats scurry over the floor and climb over the railings on the bin room at Crystal Court in Hackney, North London<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The rat infestation at Crystal Court is so severe that locals have compared it to a ‘Victorian slum hellhole’<\/p>\n

‘Even myself, I’m not queasy around rats, but it’s too much for me. You have to give the door a little tap to spook them before you go in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘I feel they are making their way up the stairs. I can hear them in the ceiling.’<\/p>\n

Another resident, who has lived in the property for 13 years and pays more than \u00a3900 for her flat a month, says she is kept awake at night by the sound of rats scurrying above her ceiling.<\/p>\n

She\u00a0 said: ‘I can hear them in the walls. It’s mostly at night – but even in the day you hear packs of them scurrying about.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘It has been affecting my mental health – I haven’t had a full nights sleep in over a year. It’s awful.<\/p>\n

‘Next door had a leak really bad because rats bit through the pipes. So they had to move out for a year.’<\/p>\n

The resident, who asked not to be named, showed emails about the rat problem to the block’s management officer from August 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She said that pest control attended last year to lay down traps – but the problem has become increasingly dire since then.<\/p>\n

\"Destin <\/p>\n

Destin Domokundi (pictured), a 22-year-old-student who has lived there with his mother since 2012, said the ‘disgusting’ issue had been raised ‘over and over’ with the management<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

A rat scales the railings in the bin room before trying to escape up a hole gnawed in the ceiling<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

A dead rat is left on the floor at the bin room where pest control have laid down poison and traps<\/p>\n

Pest control have now returned to lay down further traps and lock the bin room, but some residents had not been informed and now cannot top-up their gas from the metres housed in the bin and utility room.<\/p>\n

Mum Pauline Aldred, 46, who has lived there for two years, said: ‘It’s absolutely horrific. It’s like a horror movie. I cry myself to sleep sometimes at how bad it is.<\/p>\n

‘I am terrified of rats and any vermin. This is the worst situation I have ever been through in my life. It’s utter hell. The housing association has not helped.’<\/p>\n

Another local said: ‘It’s the pits. It’s like a Victorian Britain hellhole slum.<\/p>\n

‘It’s third world. This should not be Britain in 2025. It’s disgusting.’<\/p>\n

A housing manager visited the block earlier in the week – and blamed the rat problem on resident’s not properly disposing of their rubbish, according to residents.<\/p>\n

One resident said: ‘They have said the other block’s bin room is spotless, and they have a rat problem too.<\/p>\n

‘I think the problem is a vicious cycle. I think that people just open the door and throw the rubbish in because they are scared to go in.<\/p>\n

\"Some <\/p>\n

Some residents are so terrified of the infestation they refuse to go into the bin room to drop off their rubbish bins\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Locals <\/p>\n

Locals said they have complained to management at the block in Hackney but ‘nothing’ is done<\/p>\n

‘Eleven days ago I sent a formal complaint, but I have had nothing back from them. So now I have gone to the housing ombudsmen.<\/p>\n

‘Once a year we have the housing officer come around. No disrespect, but she’s quite young. She doesn’t understand.’<\/p>\n

Destin added that the rat infestation is just one problem of many facing the block’s beleaguered residents.<\/p>\n

He said: ‘I feel that a proper renovation of the bin room would be a good first step. We haven’t heard anything from them. The whole estate is a mess.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘The lift barely works. Post turns up weeks after it’s supposed to have been delivered. We used to have a cockroach problem in the early 2010s.’<\/p>\n

Notting Hill Genesis houses around 130,000 people in London and the south-east.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Notting Hill Genesis, said: ‘We are tackling ongoing pest issues at Crystal Court and apologise for the impact this has had on our residents whilst we have been working to resolve matters.<\/p>\n

‘Household waste left in communal areas has now been cleared and we have carried out extensive pest control and prevention work, within Crystal Court.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘Work to clean and remove waste from the bin store has been completed and cleaning will continue to keep the space sanitary.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘We continue to work with residents and have advised them to take additional care when disposing of waste to prevent these issues from reoccurring.<\/p>\n

We will continue regular communications with residents every two days and continue to support them as we resolve this issue.’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Horrific footage shows how rats have infested a whole block of flats in London and turned it into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349256,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,92,393,4884,257,12,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-349255","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-dailymail","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-london","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115038726943582278","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}