Learn Stuff On The Cheap

It's all very well to go out and absorb beautiful things by osmosis, but sometimes you have to work a bit harder than simply visiting a gallery. As the time for new year resolutions approaches, we thought it was time to flag up the City Lit centre in Holborn.

City Lit is an adult education college that has been running for more than 85 years. They provide courses for 24,000 students a year and offer more part time courses than any other equivalent college in London. City Lit do courses in all sorts of things. We did a superb course called "Poetry on the Edge" where we would look at a few different poems each week and have discussions about them. Later we took part in a course on 19th-20th century art and more recently we took a course in Introduction to Freelance Journalism. All three courses were enjoyable in different ways, all were worthwhile. They offer courses in all sorts of things from Clowning and Performance to Political Philosophy.

It's all housed in a beautiful but impractically designed modern building (see above) just off High Holburn. They also have an extensive library and open access to computing facilities. The good thing about City Lit is that all the courses are heavily subsidised by the government so it's not generally all that expensive. The average evening course will consist of twelve 1-2 hours sessions and will cost about £70-£100 though it does vary. However, they have heavily discounted rates for anyone receiving income based benefits so it can actually turn out to be much cheaper than that.

Meanwhile, it's a fine way to occupy yourself for one evening a week and it feels good to do something where you have to involve yourself rather than just passively observe the work of others. It's a fantastic place and well worth checking out, but courses often get booked up very early so be sure to act quickly if you see something that you like.