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The Idler Academy

Bookseller. Coffeehouse. School.

"Competence is the foundation of happiness," William Cobbett.

Address
81 Westbourne Park Road
LONDON W2 5QH
0845 250 1281

Opening Hours
Tuesday — Saturday: 10am - 6.30pm
Sunday: 11am - 5pm
Monday: Closed

In Ancient Greece, the word which turned into our word for school, scholee, originally meant ‘leisure’. Education was a pleasure; it was a privilege freely chosen by the freeborn citizens of Athens. The Idler Academy brings this spirit of cultivated leisure to the 21st century, and crosses it with the lively atmosphere of an 18th century coffeehouse. We sell a wide range of new and secondhand books, largely educational in nature.

In the coffeehouse, we serve Monnouth coffee, Oolong tea from the Himalayas and Valrhona hot chocolate. We sell delicious cakes from Blueberry Hill.

We also offer a delicious Ploughman’s Lunch as well as cream teas, all made from organic and home made ingredients.

We run courses in academic and practical subjects, from Latin to embroidery, from book-keeping to ukulele, from life-drawing to ancient philosophy. This is a place to read, think, debate and learn, to sharpen your mind and learn creative skills. Above all, we seek liberty, and our Latin motto, libertas per cultum, means ‘freedom through education’.


Events

Latin for Beginners: Eight Week Evening Course NOW STARTING IN MARCH

COURSE POSTPONED
I’m afraid that we have had to cancel this course as we have not achieved the minimum number required to make it work. The course will now begin in March, precise date to be fixed. Tom Hodgkinson

Join Idler Academy Head of Latin Susanna Hislop for an eight week introduction to the joys of the Latin language. The course begins on Tuesday 10 January and runs till Tuesday 6 March (there is a break for Valentine’s Day). We will teach quickyl and intensively, using Kennedy’s Latin Primer and an old-fashioned rote-learning approach which concentrates on a thorough grammatical grounding.

Susanna Hislop is a performer, director, writer, teacher and Latin lover living in London. She studied at Cambridge University before training at the Oxford School of Drama and LISPA. She has a passion for grammar, and a hatred of poorly taught Latin.  She has been a tutor to individual students, teaching Latin, English and History from primary school to degree level, and has also taught larger classes both in schools and community centres. Until recently, she was a teacher for The Latin Programme, a charity which aims to improve literacy in state primary schools via Latin. Susanna is Artistic Director of the theatre company Slip of Steel and a Saturday girl at Lutyens & Rubinstein bookshop, and is currently writing a book about Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway.

Date: Tuesday 10 January and weekly till Tuesday 21 February (with a break for St Valentine’s Day)

Time: 6pm till 7.30pm

Place: The Idler Academy, 81 Westbourne Park Road, London W2 5QH. Tel: 0207 221 5908

Cost: £150. BOOK HERE.