May study abroad in London- Have some questions.
RossB
I am looking at:
http://www.chelsea.arts.ac.uk/
and
I was wondering if anyone goes there? Knows anything about the schools?
How the location is? I would be living near the schools in campus housing.
Any active juggling clubs near by? Night life? Shows? Burlesque? The
overall scene.
Any information would be greatly appreciated!
--
----== posted via www.jugglingdb.com ==----
Jay Linn
wrote:
Disclaimer : I'm a Londoner by birth and my parents still live there but
I haven't actually lived there myself for a long time. On the other hand
I'm hardly ignorant about the place.
The Chelsea location is in a swanky and expensive part of London, some
way to the West. The Elephant & Castle site is in a bustling shitehole of
the inner city, a few miles from where I was born (in Lewisham) and is
considerably more downmarket than Chelsea and also a lot more
multi-cultural and cosmopolitan than Chelsea. E&C is also quite a bit
closer to most of the more lively fleshpots of central London. Either way,
and even by the standards of a New Yorker like you, London is an
eye-wateringly expensive place to live yet rightly enjoys a reputation for
being one of the most diverse cities on the planet. It's also bloody big,
so finding shows, clubs, night life, and so on will not be a problem; but
finding the time and the money to get to them might be. Just travelling
around London can be expensive and time-consuming.
Weirdly, the juggling scene in London appears to be crap for such a large
city in a small country with such a rich concentration of jugglers and
clubs. There's Jackson's Lane near Archway; some sort of spinners and
jugglers meet at The Oval (last time I looked, anyway), and possibly some
sort of action at Circus Space. And there's never really been a decent
regular convention in London, and nor has there been a BJC there, or an
EJC of any meaningful size (London hosted the 3rd and 4th EJCs in '80 and
'81, with a combined attendance of around 150). There are plenty of
jugglers in the London area, but they all seem to be too busy being
Londoners IYSWIM. On the other hand the UK is a small country and you will
find that none of our twenty or so annual conventions are more than a
day's travel away - many are within two or three hours' drive of London -
and we rarely need to resort to flying. And continental Europe is a short
hop away and is home to more jugglers and juggling events than the rest of
the world put together can shake a stick at.
For an art student I can't think of a better place to hang out for a few
years than London, but perhaps not quite so alluring for a committed
juggler. Right now, the best place on the planet for a mixture of art,
juggling, burlesque, and general cultural melting-pot looks like Berlin
... for the time being at least.
HTH.
--
Jay Linn
Semper eadem.
jamesfrancis
Jay, why do you think the Juggling scene is crap here in London?
I admit it it quite strange compared to some of the other UK Juggling
scenes, but there is a juggling club for most nights of the week (if you
are prepared to travel a little) and plenty of friendly people at each
one. The lack of a convention isn't really that much of a problem as we
can get to at least 6-8 conventions a year within a 3 hour drive and there
are always drivers if you ask about. I guess the scene is strange though
in that jugglers tend to stick to their own clubs and a some of the top
London jugglers don't really attend any of them. There is more of a
community feel in different cities perhaps?
Ross,
I juggle at Jacksons lane on Thursday and Sunday, but have tried out most
of the other clubs at least once. Candem on Wed is real fun. Spitz on a
Tuesday is ok too. There are a couple of others further south as well
(Circus Space, Balls, Greenwich) which are probably all still running (i
haven't checked).
In terms of Chealsea or E&C, E&C is probably better located for getting to
clubs (however both have pretty good transport links). I much prefer E&C
as a place to visit (have not lived in either, but have friends in E&C).
Chealsea is a bit posh and expensive for me, and although rife with yuppy
cafe's, is lacking in old man pubs and atmosphere. They really are
different ends of the cultural specturm though so i guess the most
appropriate for you is whichever side you see yourself fitting into.
That being said, from those i know that have attended London Universities,
Campus housing usually seems to be scattered about over large areas of
London, so it is quite likely you might not actually be living in either
of those areas. There are some real crappy areas near E&C that would be
good to avoid if possible.
Hope some of the above may have been useful. Look forward to maybe
juggling with you someday.
James
Jay Linn
<jimm...@hotmail.com.nospam.com> wrote:
> Jay, why do you think the Juggling scene is crap here in London?
Because London has never seemed to deliver a juggling scene befitting
it's size. I think what I meant is that it's a bit crap for it's size, not
that it's outright crap. For instance I'm amazed that London has never
delivered a major convention.
I was glad to hear there's a club of some sort in Greenwich, where I grew
up, but disappointed that it doesn't seem to have made its way on to the
IJDb clubs database. But then neither has the Oddballs one in Camden.
Anyway, apologies to any and all disgruntled Londoners out there whose
pride I may have injured. As it happens most of my earliest experiences of
juggling happened in London - the International Festival Of New Circus in
July '88; the buskers festivals at Covent Garden; the opening of the
original Circus Space on North Road; Saturday juggling at Colombo Street
in Blackfriars; the Paddington festivals; various festivals of street
theatre, and especially the one in Golden Square that nearly got me a spot
at the London Palladium; and so on. But the London scene has always seemed
to comprise a variety of fragments rather than dispersed but unified whole.
I'd cheerfully be proved wrong though.
sylphskin
Felt the need to write after reading the other responses :P
I studied for a while at Central St Martins, which is the third of the
three great (by which I mean famous) art colleges in London. Both Chelsea
and LLC are great places to study and offer awesome, well-taught courses.
To correct some misinformation, Chelsea Art College is mostly not in
Chelsea any more, the new main campus is right next to the Tate, in
Pimlico - the point still stands though - this is right in the centre of
London, and is generally quite expensive. This would mostly impact on your
rent though, and if you are in halls, then you should be ok.
Transport is expensive, but if you get a student monthly/yearly
Travelcard, it's actually pretty reasonable (correct me any London
students, but I think it's about 70 or 80 quid a month?), covering you for
all buses, trains and metro within the zones you've paid for.
The real problem, I find, with the London juggling scene is that London is
basically too big. Not so many people go to more than one club, people
gneerally don't go to more than one club. (Yes, yes, I know a couple of
people do). As James said though, there is a club basically every night of
the week if you're prepared to travel. You can find a list of the clubs on
the jugglingdb database.
I've also been finding out recently that there are a hell of a lot of
incredibly talented jugglers and circus artists who live in London, but
just don't go to clubs at all... they live in big warehouse conversions
with huge living rooms and really high ceilings - their spaces at home are
so much better for practising than any of the clubs, that they don't
bother to go. They also host cabaret and circus nights and stuff like that
in the warehouses.
If you do decide to head to London, I would advise hanging around the
Circus Space, and if you are a serious performer, trying to get into their
ACDC (Artist and Company Development Centre)
Hope that helps, let me know if you need more info.
What circus skills are you into? That might help you get a bit of
direction towards which clubs would be best for you - for example,
spinners and hoopers tend to congregate at Spinning@ on a Tuesday night.
Cheers,
Oli
RossB
Thanks for the info! What areas would I want to avoid, so I have an idea.
Thanks!
RossB
Thanks for the detailed info!
RossB
it more residential?
Juggling is a hobby that I am passionate about. Toss juggling. A place to
practice each week would be nice.
jamesfrancis
hmmm, I am bound to offend someone here who lives in south London, and as
i have never lived south of the river, i am really only going on
occasioanl visits and friends opinions. Therefore anyone feel free to
correct me....... but i've always felt here are several areas directly
south of E&C though are pretty rough and run down.
I'm sure you can find some better first hand experience one way or the
other by browsing internet opinions somewhere.
James
jamesfrancis
>
> On Sat, 26 Dec 2009 11:15:00 -0000, jamesfrancis
> <jimm...@hotmail.com.nospam.com> wrote:
>
> > Jay, why do you think the Juggling scene is crap here in London?
>
> Because London has never seemed to deliver a juggling scene befitting
> it's size. I think what I meant is that it's a bit crap for it's size, not
> that it's outright crap. For instance I'm amazed that London has never
> delivered a major convention.
>
> I was glad to hear there's a club of some sort in Greenwich, where I grew
> up, but disappointed that it doesn't seem to have made its way on to the
> IJDb clubs database. But then neither has the Oddballs one in Camden.
Oddballs is on the database:
http://www.jugglingdb.com/clubs/index.php?record=909
Don't know if Greenwich is still about. I just heard a rumour there was a
club above a pub somewhere.
>
> Anyway, apologies to any and all disgruntled Londoners out there whose
> pride I may have injured. As it happens most of my earliest experiences of
> juggling happened in London - the International Festival Of New Circus in
> July '88; the buskers festivals at Covent Garden; the opening of the
> original Circus Space on North Road; Saturday juggling at Colombo Street
> in Blackfriars; the Paddington festivals; various festivals of street
> theatre, and especially the one in Golden Square that nearly got me a spot
> at the London Palladium; and so on. But the London scene has always seemed
> to comprise a variety of fragments rather than dispersed but unified whole.
>
> I'd cheerfully be proved wrong though.
>
I think your comments are fair. Was just interested in your opinion.
Thanks for sharing
Will S
Ross - I would avoid anywhere with bad transport links. Most journeys in
London take around an hour so I would bear that in mind. I've lived in
areas
where you can only get in or out by bus, and it gets very old very fast.
Also
remember thinking about getting back at night - are there night buses or
is it
near a tube station etc? Remember London is very expensive if you're
living on
foreign currency, and very few Londoners can afford to live in Chelsea (or
within a mile of it).
There are juggling nights Sunday - Thursday and yes you will need to
travel.
South London sadly doesn't have a club at the moment, unless you fancy
heading
to Croydon - it's about an hour away. I'd recommend Camden, it's pretty
central and fairly easy to get back from. The beer in the pub is also good.
Hope that helps,
Will
RossB
check out a
map and find out where the housing is.
Iain Murray
> Thanks for that info! I will keep that in consideration. Time for me to
> check out a map and find out where the housing is.
If you want to know how to get between places and how long it will take,
see:
http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk/
When I lived in London (2002-6) I found it pretty accurate. You may need
to tweak some of the advanced options to get what you want. Not you can
set the journey time, which will let you see what the late-night options
are.
Iain.
PS I'll be at turbofest, so could potentially discuss London with you
then. However, I don't know the areas you're interested in (London is
big!).
SuchaMuggle
>Right now, the best place on the planet for a mixture of art,
> juggling, burlesque, and general cultural melting-pot looks like Berlin
> ... for the time being at least.
>
> HTH.
>
I must agree with Mr. Linn about Berlin.
If I could live, study or juggle anywhere in the world right now (or
indeed, at any time in the past), I would choose Berlin.
I was there for the celebrations of the Wall Fall 20th anniversary, 9
November, and the juggling scene was jarringly good. There's a juggling
meeting in a decent space EVERY night of the week, and the 2 meetings I
went to (Sun and Tues) had very high technical levels and friendly people
who spoke great English. The night of the Wall Fall celebration, the city
picked students from the State Circus Arts School to escort the world
leaders under the Brandenburg Gate during the festivities, and my friend
Bart Hoving the juggler from Netherlands was selected. He got to meet
Gorbachev, Merkel, Sarkozy, and some woman named Clinton! Whoops, I'm off
topic. New paragraph!
I asked someone there why Berlin has such a great juggling scene and she
said it's cheap to live and eat in Berlin, so artists love to move there.
I guess your heart/mind is set on London, but if you could study in
Berlin, I think you'd love it. I loved the place every time I visited,
from '95 to this past year, and only on this last visit did I know about
all the jugglers and meetings. Berlin has so much interesting history and
a great mix of the modern and classic in almost every bit of the city's
look and feel.
You'd learn a language other than English, as part of the bargain.
Happy new year and happy travels!
John
RossB
school.
And the only options for me and my major are the schools in London. I do
plan to
travel whenever I can. I really to want to check out Berlin. That would be
a lot of
fun.