A British Affair: Nightlife in London

Dancing at Crush 

Since the first thing that fell out of my LSE summer student welcome package was an invitation to a clubbing event, I'm going to dedicate this post to London nightlife. It's one of the fun aspects of the program if you choose to participate (which most students who live in the LSE residences do). Every Friday, the Three Tuns pub and Garrick cafeteria on the LSE campus are converted into a lounge and dance floor for an event called Crush. It's a night out for students at the LSE Student Union from ten in the evening 'til two in the morning and a convenient place to meet up as it's near the Holborn residence and also close to many London clubs if you plan to go out later. There's also a vibrant nightlife for students on weekdays, as on Mondays there are VIP nights at Tiger Tiger and on Thursdays there's a Full Moon Party (with lots of neon paint!) - though, I must admit that I've never attended the week-day events since I need a full night's rest to be even mildly functional the next day. 

One thing that I learned is that when you're living somewhere with a vibrant nightlife is that it's really important to consider your own rhythm (how much sleep you need, how long you take to finish the readings for lectures, whether you will even be able to get up in the morning after a night of dancing, when you need to go home to be fresh for the next day) so that you don't show up unprepared to classes (especially since in the program I'm in, they are very fast-paced and intensive). Normally, I tend to just go out for drinks & debate after dinner at one of the regular haunts, since it's much easier to conserve energy this way. Some good pubs around our area include White Hart (two paces away from our residence) and Prince of Wales (in Covent Garden, about five minutes away by foot) - the latter is quite fun to visit, as the entire bar is covered in neon star post-its with messages from guests all over. It costs one pound to post a star, and this amount goes to charity. Below is a photo of another spot for an easy night out; Roadhouse in Covent Garden is a disco-pub with live rock and pop music every night. 

(Left) One of the stars we posted at Prince of Wales (Right) Taking the tube to club Movida.