Faculty Director Constance Walker, who will lead Living London: London Lives, shares the unique experiences and understanding of London that this Winter 2026 program offers.
What inspired you to plan Living London: London Lives? What did you hope to accomplish?
The new rubric “Living London” made me think about how London has fostered so many creative lives and communities over the centuries—musicians, artists, actors, writers, and so on. Program members will have the opportunity to choose a Londoner past or present to study in depth, using such onsite resources as local archives, libraries, and studios. And I also very much want us to explore how we ourselves can live creatively during our time in so rich and diverse a city.
What makes this program different from other study abroad programs?
One thing that sets this program apart is the extent to which the experience it affords is its central focus: it’s designed to let you experience the city even as you reflect consciously on what living in London means and has meant, what kind of artistic lives its resources have enabled and supported over the centuries. And another thing that makes the program special is simply London itself: it’s one of the most diverse and fascinating cities in the world, with sites from two millennia of urban life to explore. On any given day you can go mudlarking to recover fragments of the past, then go to cutting-edge pop-ups and live new music pubs. It has theater that will totally change your mind about what theater can be, it has world-renowned galleries, museums, and urban architecture, and it has great street markets and international food. It’s one of the most stimulating and exhilarating places I know.
What does a typical day look like on your program?
We’ll meet together several mornings a week for the London Lives class to talk about readings and share ongoing work. Several afternoons a week there’ll be a walk through a London neighborhood as part of the urban studies course (e.g. Brick Lane, Chelsea, Islington); you’ll also have time then for reading and research. And several nights a week we’ll go to performances, in everything from major venues like the National Theatre to experimental companies in intimate spaces above pubs. Weekends are free
for exploring the city on your own.
What does the housing situation look like, and what are the benefits of this living arrangement to students?
Students will live together in small groups, in apartments (with kitchens) located in South Kensington, close to the classroom and support staff offices. The housing is conveniently a stone’s throw away from three of London’s great museums, the Science Museum, the Natural History Museum, and the V&A, and is right across the street from the Tube and buses.
What are you most looking forward to?
I love taking students to my favorite haunts in and around London, up to Parliament Hill for a fabulous view of the skyline, to the duplex where Keats lived beside his great love Fanny Brawne and wrote the Odes, to go horseback riding across Wimbledon Commons, to a quaint used bookshop in a canal boat—and then out for the best pistachio gelato in the city.
What advice would you give to students to encourage them to study abroad during their Carleton career? What benefits do you see to the experience in general?
If you’ve never lived out of the states, living abroad will quickly teach you how American culture and values aren’t universally embraced, and how much there is to learn from the alternatives. Even if you’ve travelled abroad, it’s not the same as living abroad, when you get to know the rhythms and patterns of a particular place over time. And when again in your life will you be able to live for months in central London with friends, with plenty of free time to explore the city’s wonders?
Constance Walker is a William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of English. She has been at Carleton since 1982.
