Central Saint Martins alumni remember their time there
Katie Grand
"Anita Pallenberg was in my class and I remember her turning up in the foyer with a diamante-encrusted Rolling Stones tour jacket on. I remember thinking: 'Oh my God, here we go.' Giles [Deacon] was final year when I was in my first year and he was so swooned over by all the female tutors who were very used to 90% of the year being gay. He drew so well – you kind of knew that he was the star of his year.
"People who've really got something will always stand out. Of course there are a lot of nutters who make prints out of draining the blood of mice, but would they really get on at Versace? It's a fine balance of talent, madness and a bit of practicality. And I think that's why Saint Martins was a bit difficult for me – I was just too practical."
Glen Matlock
"It's a shame to see the Charing Cross Road building go. There were lots of blokes there who were working-class and there were lots of debutantes – their dad had sent them there as some kind of finishing school. There's a sandwich bar next door on the left and the sandwich bar sold Russian cigarettes, purely because of the call from all the debs. It was a good hands across the sea of all your social groups. There was a certain amount of not letting on what your social background was, but it didn't really matter. Lots of people brought different things to the table."
Antony Gormley
"I can I remember spending many evenings with my arms up to my armpits in resin – you wouldn't be allowed to do that now. Health and safety hadn't got a grip on methods of using materials in an appropriate or safe way, but I don't seem to have suffered too much.
"I transferred to Goldsmiths because I was a bit shocked by the way the sculpture first year was organised. There was a sense that making was everything – there wasn't quite enough speculative diligence in terms of what you might make. That sounds rattish but I did enjoy my time at Central very much. I enjoyed the fact it was right in the heart of town – it was very easy to get to the British Museum to see shows and you felt that you were part of the core life of the city."
Mark Titchner
"It's quite a scary building, especially the annexe. It got really dark at night and you felt you never knew who you were going to bump into.
"A big thing for me was that the technicians on the course were all young artists in their late 20s and early 30s. They'd been to Saint Martins but it was them – people like Alan Kane, Simon Periton, Colin Lowe – who would drag us out to private views, and through them we met young artists and found out about the contemporary art scene – it was something that you could tangibly be involved with."
Isaac Julien
"I used to go places like Le Beat Route – there are probably some i-D magazines that I might be in – the Scala, Steve Strange's Club For Heroes, and there was a gay club culture developing – Bang was in the same street and later on there were clubs such as Taboo. You didn't have the separation between art forms that you have now. It was all about self-styling, before the onslaught of brands. A kind of celebrity culture was developing, but it was all underground. People would be spotted in clubs and invited to Tokyo."
Christopher Booth
"It was three fun years of experimentation and exploring the city. That's what we were advised to do. In the first year my tutor David Kappo said: 'You're here, but what you should be doing is getting involved and immersing yourself in the culture of London. Blagging your way into parties, blagging your way into fashion shows and just living it, absorbing it and immersing yourself in it.' That was the hedonistic start of my first year."
Gareth Pugh
"I remember when I was applying to New Generation by the British Fashion Council, I had some work featured in the Face. I popped in to the library on my way to drop off my portfolio and they had the magazine behind the desk, but because I didn't have my library card they wouldn't let me photocopy the page for this really important application. I was like, are you serious? That's what Saint Martins is like – it teaches you that if you want something done, do it yourself."