The best places to study in London
In this post we take a look at the best places for getting some learning done in our home city - London.
Sometimes learning at home just doesn’t work: it’s noisy, cramped, full of distractions, or maybe it’s perfect but you need a change of scene. Luckily London is full of great places to get on with your courses and finish some learning. Here are a few of our favourites…
Big places…
Wellcome Collection Cafe (and reading room)
The Wellcome Collection is where culture meets science, the Wellcome Collection cafe is where cake meets conversation. As you study you’ll find yourself soothed by the hum of thoughtful discussion, and if you need inspiration you can always dive into one of the exhibitions.
✔ Wi-fi ✔ Food ✔ Weird and wonderful reading room
Foyles bookshop cafe on Charing Cross Road
5 floors of books are topped by a light and airy cafe that serves great coffee. Cosy benches mean you might even end up swapping life stories with a fellow cafe-goer. Plus you can spend your study breaks browsing the stacks in Foyles or the secondhand bookshops along Charing Cross road.
✔ Wi-fi ✔ Food ✔ Lots of extra reading material
There’s so many places in the Barbican you can study, from the cinema bar to the Barbican kitchen. The hard concrete lines have a curiously calming effect so it’s great for work requiring concentration.
✔ Wi-fi ✔ Food ✔ Brutalist architecture
We might be biased as this was once our home, but, seeing as the British Library always appears in great places to study lists, it can’t be just us. 4 floors of reading rooms, multiple cafes, the imposing King’s library (the glass walled private collection that rises through the middle of the building) all make for a suitably studious atmosphere.
✔ Wi-fi ✔ Food ✔ Former home of FutureLearn
Small places…
The place for lovers of good coffee, Fix 126 in Shoreditch has big windows and strong brews. Perfect for bouts of studying followed by people watching.
✔ Wi-fi ✔ Food ✔ Great Coffee
If you like an energetic atmosphere and a selection of charming armchairs Timberyard is perfect. All three of its locations are usually filled with people working too, you’ll be among friends.
✔ Wi-fi ✔ Cake ✔ Armchairs
Visit the Serpentine bar and kitchen in Hyde Park for a study seat with a view – it looks out over the Serpentine lake so while you’re expanding your mind you can also observe herons, swans and…tourists on pedalos.
✔ Views ✔ Food ✔ Swans
Tucked away by Liverpool Street Station, Bishopsgate Library is a welcome respite from the unrelenting crush of the station. It features old-school wooden shelves and a magnificent domed skylight so if you squint a little bit you could probably pretend you’re in Hogwarts.
✔ Wi-fi ✔ Studious atmosphere ✔ Skylight
Ready to start studying now? Find your next course.
