Location / Venue

SIGDIAL 2009 is being hosted at Queen Mary University of London, on the Mile End Campus. The campus is close to Mile End station, just two stops on the Underground from Liverpool Street.

Venue & Accommodation | Dinner | Internet Access | Getting Here | Airports

Conference Venue & Accommodation

The conference itself will take place on the first floor of the Francis Bancroft Building, with plenary sessions in the Mason Lecture Theatre, and registration and poster sessions just across the corridor. The college-provided accommodation (see the registration page) is in the next-door building, Feilden House:


Click here for a larger map

If you have booked accommodation, please go to France House when you arrive, to check in at the QMUL Residences office on the ground floor. The office is staffed 24 hours a day, but please try to arrive after 12 noon to ensure that your room is ready (when you leave, checkout is 10am). Both Feilden and France are shown on the map above, and are marked as buildings 36 and 38 on the QMUL campus map.

The address is:
Queen Mary University of London
Mile End Road
London E1 4NS, UK

Conference Dinner

The conference dinner includes a Thames boat trip and is included as part of the registration fee. The trip lasts 4 hours: we leave from Embankment Pier in central London at 19:00 on Friday evening, and will go east to Greenwich and the Thames Barrier, and west to the Houses of Parliament.

The boat is called the Hurlingham (run by Thames Cruises): you need to get to Embankment Pier (see map below) by 19:00 to get on board. We will return to the same place at 23:00.

The easiest way to get to Embankment from the conference venue is via Underground: just take the District Line westbound from Stepney Green station to Embankment station (9 stops, which should take about 20 minutes).


Click here for a larger map

Internet Access

Wireless internet access will be available at the conference venue itself; details on how to connect will be available closer to the time. However, QMUL supports eduroam, so if you are a member of a participating institution, you won't have to do anything - it'll just connect without any extra setup. We highly recommend setting up to use this if you can (mainly because it's so useful and works in so many places)!

You should make sure that you have eduroam working at your institution before leaving, though - it can be a bit tricky to set up initially (there's no software to install, but you do need to tinker with security certificates). Just ask your local IT people: it'll be worth it - you'll be able to connect anywhere that supports eduroam.

Getting Here

You can go to the QMUL website for more information about the Mile End campus and how to get there, and for a full campus map.

The nearest Underground stations are Mile End (Central, District and Hammersmith & City lines) and Stepney Green (District and Hammersmith & City), each about 5 minutes walk away. Central London is very close: Liverpool Street station is only two stops on the Central Line (5 mins) from Mile End.

Trains from Paris and the continent arrive at St Pancras; from there it's 20-25 minutes on the Underground. Trains from elsewhere in the UK could arrive almost anywhere, but for airport train information see below.

The number 25 bus (Oxford Circus to Ilford - see here for a route map) travels along Mile End Road at five to ten minute intervals throughout the day, and stops outside the College.

You can use the Transport for London journey planner (on the right) to see how to get here from anywhere in or near London.
Journey Planner

Airports

The closest airport is London City Airport, 25 mins away by public transport. Next closest is Heathrow, with Gatwick, Stansted and Luton all further away - but they all take about an hour to get to QMUL. In rough order of travel time, fastest first: