Shop, shop, shop!

Question of the week: “The Christmas crunch is just around the corner! Where do you like to do most of your Christmas shopping?”

"Considering my lack of patience when it comes to shopping, I'd recommend any place that is not crowded, offers great deals either because the stores are generally affordable or have items on sale and, lastly, there must be loads of eateries around so I can look forward to a reward after a day full of laborious shopping. Since no such place exists in London, I would suggest compromising your shopping times and go to Oxford St, but instead of pushing through the crowds on a Saturday morning, go on the last opening hours of a Monday or Thursday night, say between 7.30pm-9pm. Oxford Street can actually be very pleasant this time of year, as long as you miss the surge of crowds, where you can feel the spirit of the season through random choirs, blinking lights, and decorations absolutely everywhere."- Christina

* Photo by markhillary, used under Creative Commons, with thanks.

Shop, shop, shop!

Question of the week: “The Christmas crunch is just around the corner! Where do you like to do most of your Christmas shopping?”

"London has so many markets where you can find original, often handcrafted presents. Spitalfields market one of my favourites. The Stableyard market in Camden is a great place to shop for presents, though it gets very busy on the weekend. In the last minute Christmas rush I pop down to Borough market for edibles and consumables to make hampers, Borough Market is fantastic during the festive season."- Heather

* Photo by WTL photos, used under Creative Commons, with thanks.

Shop, shop, shop!

Question of the week: “The Christmas crunch is just around the corner! Where do you like to do most of your Christmas shopping?”

"Camden Town Market and Brick Lane. Loads of intriguing items available at cool prices!"- Prof Kucich

* Photo by Franco Caruzzo, used under Creative Commons, with thanks.

Shop, shop, shop!

Question of the week: “The Christmas crunch is just around the corner! Where do you like to do most of your Christmas shopping?”

"I’m planning a visit to Greenwich Market to finish up my Christmas shopping – lots of hand-made goodies and indie shops mean that I should be able to find jewellery that my mum will love, cute toys that my nephew and nieces will enjoy that don’t need batteries, and something my hard-to-buy-for brother doesn’t already have! I also plan to pick up some mulled cider and walk up to the top of Greenwich park, to escape the crowds and recharge my festive batteries with a visit to the deer who roam the woods there."- Miss Alice

* Photo by Ian Wilson, used under Creative Commons, with thanks.

Study Space

You asked about alternative study space near Conway Hall

- Heather answers,

"Most of these are coffee shop style areas (a fair few are tried and tested by myself during my masters a few years ago!)

• Royal Festival Hall - various study friendly spots in the building, free wifi 
• Imax - Benugo coffee house - on the Lower Ground floor at the Imax
• Oasis Hub Coffee House -Kennington Road (a coffee house situated inside a church building - so there is lots of space, can get busy at lunch times but tends to be quieter in the morning or afternoons, free wifi) 
• BFI - Benugo coffee house/kitchen (big sofas and comfy seating, not a lot of table space but you can sit there a long time with one coffee without being moved on, free wifi ) 
• Waterloo Library on Lower Marsh 
• Costa - Kennington Road - A fairly quiet coffee house (by Costa's standards)" 

Miss Alice adds:

"Just around the corner from the London Centre, you’ll find the Westminster Reference Library, with three floors of study space as well as specialist collections in art, theatre, law and business.

Further afield, try the Bishopsgate Library, to study in a beautiful Victorian reference library surrounded by hundreds of books on London , or the Guildhall Library, which may be less beautiful than the 15^thCentury Guildhall it sits alongside, but offers plentiful study space, and a rich London-focussed collection.

For non-Library options, you could break out the books in the British Museum’s Great Court, or make revision a pleasure with tea and cake at YumChaa on Berwick Street, where they have a capacious basement area, or a book shop cafe - maybe the Cafe at Foyles, or closer to home, the Costa upstairs in Waterstones on Trafalgar Square."

* Photo by Auntie P, used under Creative Commons, with thanks.

Spread The Good Cheer

Question of the week: “Can you recommend a tree lighting, jolly fair, or festive market to boost your Christmas spirit in London?”

"Whilst studying at drama school in my late teens, it was necessary for me to work all available free hours that I could find to supplement my living costs (so what’s new?). Opting for the easy solution, I took up work as a waiter and spent a number of seasons employed at my local Café Rouge in Hampstead. As many will already know, higher degrees of pay can be earned during unsocial hours and I found myself willingly working late on Christmas Eve, and for as much as I expected to have any festive spirit dashed by working those crucial hours I instead found myself flung headfirst into the Christmas atmosphere through engaging with a steady stream of extremely cheery families & well wishers.

Ever since then (and yes, it feels like an age ago) I’ve tried, where possible, to visit Hampstead as late as I can on Christmas Eve to indulge in the general feeling of everyone savouring the last few hours of socialising before digging their heels into some arduous ‘quality time’ with close, and sometimes all too distant family."-Hal

* Photo by Arslan, used under Creative Commons, with thanks.