Leake Street Tunnel is a hidden celebration of urban art in Central London.

Located just off the bustling Southbank, under Waterloo station is perhaps the most colourful tunnel in the UK. Spray painting is normally something that is shunned, but down in Leake Street it’s encouraged. The tunnel was last open to traffic when the Eurostar was located in Waterloo. But now, it’s a pedestrian only area, full of magnificent art.

In May 2008, the Bristolian artist Banksy curated the “Cans” Festival in Leake Street. The festival extended an open invitation to urban artists to come turn a dark forgetful tunnel into a vibrant, modern art exhibition. 11 years later, in some ways the party continues. Walking through, people of all ages can be seen creating new compositions. Their canvases are previous masterpieces. Spray painting over the toiled work of another may seem unfair, but that’s the beauty of street art, it is dynamic and ever changing. This means that Leake Street is an attraction that rewards multiple visits, always with something new to see.

And it’s not just the art that makes it one of London’s best kept secrets. As I walked through one Saturday evening, one group are putting on a powerful break-beat musical display. Each with their own turntable, amazing skill and a host of records, they scratch away creating some truly unique sounds that crashingly complements the atmosphere of the tunnel. Many people are stood, quietly listening. 

So, if you want to see something a bit more fresh than the usual tourist traps in London, grab a camera and head down to Leake Street.

Read Legal Graffiti in full

We have all experienced the pressure of sitting an exam but, oh dear, school has nothing to do with university. There are three main characteristics that differ school exams/A-levels to uni examinations: complexity, time consumption and uncertainty of performance.

First of all, the contents of the module to be examined are usually a whole new bunch of stuff you have never seen before. You only need to check out the names of the subjects: structural analysis, aerodynamics… where are my known physics, chemistry or biology?

Forget about being in a class where you revise previous years’ content, as this is very unlikely to happen in a lecture theatre at 9 am. Your lectures will be filled with complicated theorems, demonstrations and other concepts which won’t be easy to understand straight away.

Secondly, one of the things that most surprised me about uni exams is the amount of time spent working and scratching pieces of paper. You can be at the library for 10 hours straight and you don’t manage to tick all your duties from the revision plan you had prepared. It can be a bit frustrating at times, but you need to realize that you do have worked hard, even if it seems like you’ve only done a couple of things that day.

Thirdly, a very interesting feeling to be mentioned is uncertainty. The two previous factors stated above trigger a sensation of self-doubt and lack of confidence. Among my classmates, I did a survey that showed that their confidence in sitting the exams was of 5.7 out of 10, being the average daily studying hours at 4 to 8 hours.

Common comments on how they were feeling include “nervous”, “panicked” or some funny others such as “feeling like a potato that is about to get peeled, chopped and fried”.

It is evident that exams can cause stress and anxiety, but, just like a good friend of mine told me, it is a matter of being practical and looking at them as means to an end. You need to pass those examinations to become who you want to be.

Surround yourself with people that make your life more bearable, even in periods of constant mental breakdowns.

With that being said, I would like to thank my class, Aero of 2022 for sharing their 1st exams experience with me and to Carrot and Gru, for being my all time supports.

Read Our first exam period in full

Like a lot of imperial applicants, I applied around October, with a cheesy personal statement. Yes, cheesy, I still look back at it now and couldn’t resist a giggle here and there. But hey, it got me here. I remembered, when I was writing it I thought, how would anyone expect a 16 y.o. to know what they want to do for the rest of their life. In that moment, I stopped and wrote not what I thought would get me in, but I wrote what makes me who I am today.

After I applied, to the 5 university choices, I waited. The waiting is excruciating, I swear it was like waiting for a radioactive detector to beep. But then the interviews, the offers started coming. One at a time, I started to relax a little bit here and there. When I got an interview (recruitment day) invitation from Imperial, I went and read the email a few hundred times to make sure it was legit.

Imperial was not my first choice. I was settled on the idea that I’d go to Sydney Uni in Australia, personal connection and all. I know you’re thinking, isn’t Imperial an obvious choice? But university ranking was barely a factor to my uni choices. I wanted to go somewhere that makes me happy, and not severely depressed.

Okay so, what happened on the recruitment day that changed my mind. To be honest, it was the whole experience that made me fell in love with Imperial. The day started with a group activity, it was so out of the ordinary, but in a good way. Then we did like a short test, and the current students showed us around the building. I walked into the study area where there’s a view to the structure labs, I was in awed (p.s. I still have the picture from that day). For the first time, I didn’t feel like an applicants trying to get in, I felt like I belonged here and this is where I end up.

Waiting, another waiting. So much waiting, I feel like a dog waiting to be fed. But then the offer came, I was so filled with joy, I couldn’t stop smiling the whole day, I called my family straight away. I was still more excited than them though. Okay, I feel like it gets boring from here. So basically, I got the grades, I got in, now I’m at Imperial. See I make it sound so easy.

Read My Imperial Application in full

5 things I was not expecting

Moving away from home is an experience which is talked about quite often, about its excitement or its sadness. On the other hand, no one really shares their feelings about coming back home.

On the last 14^thof December, I flew back to Spain, where a few things surprised me.

1. Where is my room?

You open the door to your old house and you feel a bit out of place. You go to your room, but it seems odd, should I call this my room anymore? Or is it just a temporary place before I go back to my reality. Where is my room, at my parents´ or in London?

2. Am I not independent anymore?

You’ve been living by yourself for three months now and in that time, you haven’t had the need to explain every single movement or decision that you’ve taken. Well, that will not be the case now, you are “under someone else’s roof”, so be ready for the constant questioning.

3. Hasn’t time passed to my friends?

You haven’t seen your friends in quite a long time, things have changed, everyone has started a new life, have met new people, have gone different ways. But then, you grab a coffee with those who were your day to day smiles and you feel like in the old days. Although there are many things to catch up on, it seems like, opposed to the theory of relativity, time has contracted.

4. Am I missing the library?

You know you should be revising for the exams, but it seems that the ginger cookies flavour is telling you not to… There are some many interesting things to do… so many people to catch up with… Where’s the library? Where’s the sanctuary of the concentration?

You think of going to your town’s library… but it’s not the same.

5. Do I want to come back to uni?

You are having a nice time in your hometown, yet you know that the real drama is coming: exams are around the corner. You want to get it out of the way. Does that mean you want to go back to the stressful life? To sitting down 10 hours a day, to unsolvable tutorials… You kind of do, probably because you are missing your new friends too.

Read Coming back home for the first time in full

Located in South Kensington, Imperial is so close to all the best things in life. I wouldn’t imagine myself anywhere else. Here is the three things that kept me going even when uni life is hard. 

1. Core Collective

Can I just emphasise that Imperial is not easy (Nobel prize winners aren’t build by living an easy life). For me, working out is a temporary escape from my study. Since Core Collective is 20 minutes away from uni, it has got to be one of my favourite way to sweat (hot trainers also helps *facepalm emoji*).

2. Shopping Spree at Knightsbridge 

Can I just say that whoever says Oxford Street is the best shopping street in London is seriously disturbed. There is nothing more relaxing than walking down Sloane Street and trying on a few dozen pairs of Saint Laurent or window shopping at Bvlgari. P.s. not everyone’s list of fun things to do, but this is what makes my life at Imperial sunshine and rainbows.

3. Imperial nurtured scientists and engineers who became Nobel Prize winners, Government officials, (important people).

You know the saying: do the things you have to do until you can do the things you want to do. This saying applies hugely during my study. To be honest, all I want to do is build bridges and skyscrapers. But without the proper knowledge, guess the probability of it crashing down.

Read 3 Things that compliments my life at Imperial in full