7th SIPTA Summer School
Venue & Travel
Location
The school will take place in room CM107 of the Department of Mathematical Sciences, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE. This is number 15 on the Durham map or the building on the Google map below.
Accommodation (if you booked it through the registration webpage) and lunches will be held in Collingwood College. The college is within walking distance (30 minutes) from the railway station. If you opt to take a taxi from the railway station, taxi drivers should know where Collingwood College is.
Travel
To get to Durham by plane, the easiest option is to fly to Newcastle airport, and continue to Durham by public transport, either by
taking the metro from Airport to Central Station (20 minutes, around £3, you need a single ticket, 3 zones),
take the train from Newcastle Central Station to Durham railway station (10 minutes, around £6), and
walk through Durham’s beautiful city centre from Durham railway station (40 minutes), or take a taxi (10 minutes, around £10)
or
taking the metro from Airport to Gateshead (20 minutes, around £3, you need a single ticket, 3 zones),
take the X2 bus from Gateshead bus station to Durham bus stop Mountjoy (60 minutes, around £5), and
walk from the Mountjoy bus stop to the department (1 minute),
or
- take a taxi at the airport directly to the Durham University science site (between 40 and 90 minutes, depending on traffic conditions, around £65, and around £43 if you book in advance.
From London, there is also a good train connection to Durham. Especially for longer distances, such as London-Durham (but not for Newcastle-Durham), you are very strongly advised to book your train tickets well in advance to get reasonable rates. The difference can be up to a factor 10.
If you are walking, take into account that Durham is fairly hilly. The city is very small, still it is easy to get lost due to the shape of the river. Keep count of your number of river crossings to know which side of the river you are (the most common paths from the railway station to the Maths Department cross the river either 0 or 2 times).
More information about travelling to Durham can be found on Durham’s travel info site.
Tourism
As Durham is a particularly beautiful small city (its Cathedral and Castle are a UNESCO World Heritage Site), with all attractions at short walking distance from the University and its colleges, this is an ideal opportunity to also spend some time as a tourist—see the “this is Durham” website.