Hotels near School of Life

The School of Life offers so much more than your average shopping experience. In fact, it doesn't do it justice to label it a mere shop - it's a philosophy. The brains behind the outfit include serious writers, thinkers and influential cultural figures including Alain de Botton, 'The Idler' author Tom Hodgkinson and documentary photographer Martin Parr. The shop, which they describe as "a chemist for the mind", includes such mentally medicinal items as tomes on 'The Art of Travel' and developmental psychology. At the back is a classroom created by artist Charlotte Mann where regular evening and weekend courses take place centred on the five central themes of our lives - work, play, family, politics and love. Part shop, part classroom, wholly thought provoking.