The Lawrence London Centre is located in a rented building in South Kensington, in the heart of central London. Nearby public transportation provides convenient access to all parts of the city. The Centre accommodates 24 students and also houses two offices, a classroom, a computer room, a quiet study space, a small practice room for muted playing, and a Clavinova.
Most lectures take place in the Centre classroom located on the ground floor of the building, although classes also regularly meet at museums, concert halls, theatres, and other locations throughout London.
Housing and Meals
Students
are housed in double, triple, or quad rooms with en suite cooking
facilities, including a small countertop, a two-burner hotplate, a
refrigerator, and a sink. Cookware, dishes, silverware, towels,
bedding, and linens are provided. Bathrooms and telephones are shared.
A major grocery store is located near the Centre, and students cook the majority of their meals. They may also take some of their other meals at the many pubs, restaurants and cafes located in central London.
Technology and Computing Information
There are four Windows-based machines (all networked for high-speed internet access), one open Ethernet hook-up for laptops, and a laser printer for student use in the computer room. At times of midterms, papers, and final projects, demand for these machines is high so bringing personal laptops is encouraged. Because of space restrictions, only one laptop can be connected to the internet and used in the computer room at a time. However, many students with laptops choose to work on their computers in alternative locations and use the computer room for printing.
The London Centre has wireless internet access for those students with laptops. The wireless access points use WiFi protected access (WPA) which is the successor to wired equivalent pricacy (WEP). Students with Mac laptops should know that WPA was not supported on Mac operating systems until version 10.3 and these laptops will need to run operating systems at least as current as 10.3 to be able to use the wireless access.
Some students find it helpful to bring a memory stick they can plug into a USB port on any of the computers. The computers are networked with common storage space and using a memory stick or a disk allow students the flexibility of accessing their work on any machine.
The computers are also equipped with CD burners and a there is a memory card reader available for getting digital pictures to CD-Rs. Blank CDs are available at a small cost from the Centre office. The multi-format memory card reader works with the following kinds of digital camera cards: Memory Stick, Secure Digital (SD), Compact Flash, SmartMedia, and MultiMediaCard.
