Reading Week on a Budget? Sorted.

Image Courtesy: Jemima Corcoran

With daily lectures, endless assignments and society commitments, being a UCL student doesn’t always leave much time for exploring London. As the hectic first few months of term finally come to a halt, Reading Week has emerged as the light at the end of a Halloweekend, hangover tunnel. It’s easy to waste the week bingeing the latest reality TV (Love is Blind, I see you) or on another round at Spoons. So, here are some new and budget conscious activities to make sure the week isn’t only spent reading.

As we aren’t a city renowned for our excellent weather, there are plenty of indoor activities that won’t require an umbrella or anorak. Whilst the Natural History Museum and Tate Galleries are beloved by locals and tourists alike for good reason, there are plenty of other excellent, lesser-known museums and galleries that are free to enter and super close to campus. Sir John Soane’s Museum, just 24 minutes walk from UCL, is a free and bizarre collection of fine art and miscellanies. An Egyptian Sarcophagus and Venetian Canalettos are amongst the treasures collated in Soane’s 19th Century house and preserved for the public.

Equally exciting is the National Portrait Gallery. Here, English students can greet Shakespeare, Woolf, and Byron; Politics students can snap selfies with Pitt and Churchill; thespians can gaze into the eyes of Olivia Colman, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Kate Winslet; whilst budding musicians come face to face with McCartney and Jagger. After getting up close and personal with some of Britain’s most celebrated portraits, you can even treat yourself to an Audrey Hepburn-inspired cocktail in their elegant underground bar.

If exhibitions aren’t your cup of tea, London is home to countless unique, immersive experiences. Phantom Peak, a half an hour tube ride from main campus, is an interactive theme park filled with puzzles to solve, characters to meet, and souvenirs to collect. Offering reduced-price tickets for 17-25 year olds, this Camden-based attraction is unlike anything you’ve experienced before, plus it’s revisitable as the ‘story’ changes every season. Think Gravity Falls meets 1984.

Although theatre-going can often be an inaccessible pastime, there are a few hacks to get cheap seats to top-rated West End shows. Todaytix’s weekly lotteries for £10 Hamilton seats; Student Beans’ discounted tickets for loads of London theatres; returns and seat fillers from in-person box offices; or even queueing at the Leicester Square TKTS booth for same-day cheap seats.

After a day of sightseeing, there’s no shortage to London nightlife options. There’s free live music at the 100 Club, a trip through the ‘fridge’ to a secret Speakeasy (ask for the Mayor of Scaredy Cat Town) at The Breakfast Club Spitalfields, or £2 student entry at Heaven, one of London’s LGBTQ+ clubs. So, perhaps this week your essays and reading lists could share the spotlight with something unique and affordable in our beloved capital city.