What’s life like at LSE? Well, before any such questions are even approached, the first thing to do is find out where the good coffee is (or tea). Any self-respecting student needs to be able to locate the nearest good quality coffee shop so that the neurons responsible for the kind of critical thinking we are required to do here can be switched on. Luckily, there’s plenty of places around that allow for this to happen.
Although I’m from London, I haven’t really spent much time around Lincoln’s Inn Fields or Aldwych, and so I’m as new to area as those from the furthest corners of this little globe. So my first concern was “where’s the good coffee”? Well, for a start, I find that you can’t beat the 99p filter coffee from Pret, on Kingsway (over the main road opposite the Peacock Theatre). Not all of the Pret outlets make the filter in the same way, and some do it weak, but the one nearest LSE does it nice, full-bodied and strong.
For LSE outlets, I find that Cafe 54 in the New Academic Building (NAB) does a mean tea for £1 before 9.30am. This is great for my seminar on Tuesday morning there. Plus they are open at weekends, which is great for me as I’m a part-time student and often study at the weekend. Personally, I don’t think the coffee is that great there, but with tea you can’t go wrong. What’s more simple than a tea bag with water? Pretty much tastes the same everywhere.
A little further away, on Fleet Street, you have The Fleet Street Press, opposite the glorious gothic revival building of The Royal Courts of Justice. Great coffee (though not too keen on their filter coffee, I have to say, though their espresso based coffees are good), and nice buzzy atmosphere.
Yet one of my favourites so far is just on the way to Lincoln’s Inn Fields from Holborn station, Fleet River Bakery. Such good coffee, and though a bit dearer than studenty places, the quality is great.
With the coffee sorted, studies can begin. I was pleased to discover that we are able to take our cups of brain-activating liquid into the library (closed cup, naturally!), and so now it’s just a question of finding somewhere to study and read, and avoid procrastinating. Hmmmm.
