Hello,
My college age daughter will be arriving in London in Janurary 2004 for a semester + in a study abroad program (we are from the US). It is located in the South Kensington area and she wiil be taking classes at Imperial College. Any information about the area,school,shops,housing, etc. would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Mary

If your daughter will be living in South Kensington, she's lucky; it's a very nice area, walking distance to Hyde Park, very good underground connections, lots of shops and restaurants. It is one of the more expensive areas of London to live.

Hi
it's an area I love to stay in when I visit.
Also walking distance to Victoria and Albert Museum and other museums, excellent Tube connections, many casual restaurants, pleasant residential streets.

Wonderful area..but I'm afraid the housing costs are out of sight!HOpefully her school will have a listing of available rentals or some other housing option.

All I can add is I"M JEALOUS!!

My niece did this, and the college found her and her roommate a place to stay. It was tiny but within walking distance for them. They walked, both together and alone, at all times of the day and night and were never apprehensive.

Six of us females of the family went to visit her at her Easter break and stayed in a flat on Queen's Gate. She knew how and where to take us around, and it was the best trip I've ever had.

How lucky she is.
We stay in South Kensington whenever we visit London. The principal shopping streets are Cromwell Road, Gloucester Road and Brompton Road. The Sainsbury's supermarket on Cromwell Road is huge and has wonderful heat and eat meals, a salad bar, and great sandwiches. She's in a safe area filled with musuems, Royal Albert Hall for wonderful concerts, helpful shop keepers in the smaller shops, lots of casual restaurants, and excellent connections to the rest of London. She'll love it and you have nothing to worry about.

Other attractions are free concerts at the Royal College of Music just north of Imperial College (The Royal Albert Hall usually has few concerts, and rather pop), and (if she subscribes) French cinema at the French Institute near the tube station.

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Sorry: I omitted German films and lectures about Germany at the Goethe Institute, over the road from Imperial College.

Ben Haines, London

Hi Again,
How easy is it to get to this area from the airport? Would she be better off taking a cab ?
Thanks
Mary

A cab is probably the worst mode of transport - expensive and often slow.

If she is traveling fairly lightly - probably not since she is going for a semester - the tube is fast and really cheap and there are no line changes. She gets on at LHR and gets off at Gloucester Rd or S. Kensington. But that is difficult with a tom of luggage.

The Paddington Express and then a cab to S Kens is an option - but still fairly difficult with a lot of luggage.

Her best bet would be a car service (like the Swiss Cottage or Ray Skinner often recommended here). It would probably be £20 cheaper than a cab and they would meet her reight in the arrivals hall and help with the luggage. it will not be a fst trip - especially during rush hour - but it would be the easiest.

I wouldn't do the tube from the airport with all the luggage she's going to have (I know she will have A LOT, as I once studied abroad).

South Kensington, what a lovely area I'm sure she'll love it, and will feel rather safe in it. Hopefully the university will assist her with the housing???

I'm jealous!