January to June 2025
Events run from 10:30 - 15:30 unless otherwise stated at the Congregational Chapel, Kelly Street, Kentish Town, NW1 8PH. The pedestrian entrance is between 34 & 36 Kelly Street and there is limited car parking at the rear of the building on Church Avenue, off Kentish Town Road near the corner with Prince of Wales Road. If you plan to bring a car, we recommend that you check if London Congestion Charges apply. Kentish Town Underground Station is shut. Please check your journey before you travel.
Tea and coffee are available throughout the day and there are local cafés and sandwich shops within a few minutes’ walk. There is a lift which can be used when an event is being held in the 1st floor hall.
Demonstrations and talks are £20 for members and £40 for non-members.
Workshops are £50 for members and £75 for non-members. If applicable, materials are an extra charge. We ask that you pay this along with your fee so that we can then transfer this to the instructor with their payment for the workshop.
Visits are £25.
Please contact Talitha Wachtelborn [email protected] with any questions.
Bookings for London & South Events
- The closing date for bookings is 17 January 2025. Please fill in the form by this date. We recommend that you make a note of your preferences to avoid double booking, cancellations, and unnecessary extra work for our volunteers.
- For workshops with limited places, we will need to operate a lottery system to allocate spots fairly.
- You will be notified of any places that you successfully obtain after the date listed above and will then be asked for payment.
- Zoom event log-in details will be sent after places have been allocated.
- Payment is by bank transfer. Bank details will be sent along with the notice of a successful place. Please pay promptly when notified you have a place or it may be passed along to the next person on the waitlist. This is to ensure full attendance and benefit for the highest number of members.
- Refunds are not available 2 weeks before an event.
15 February 2025 - AGM and Talks: Sylvie Gokulsing Calligraphy talk and demo
Timings: talk from 11:00-12:00 / lunch and AGM 12:00-13:00 / demo 13:00-14:00
Speaker: Sylvie Gokulsing
Location: Kelly St Lower Hall
Description: Sylvie’s calligraphic interests range from cut work to sacred geometry, to family trees and maps. She finds structures small, large, conventional and unconventional, to be a fascinating vehicle for her work. For her the challenge is to enable content and structure to resonate in a meaningful unit. She shall be exploring how and why she works in the way that she does in her talk, followed by a demonstration.
Cost: £20 for talk and demo; AGM is free but only members can vote
No limit on attendees
Biography: What began as an interesting hobby has become a lifelong absorbing passion. Sylvie studied both bookbinding and calligraphy at Roehampton, a programme which is sadly no longer available, and has been teaching calligraphy since 1996. She is a Fellow of CLAS (Calligraphy and Lettering Arts Society) and of the SSI (Society of Scribes and Illuminators). Sylvie served as SSI Chair from 2010 until 2012 and is currently the Convenor of their Creative Development Course teaching calligraphy to more advanced letterers.
15 March 2025 - Shaun Thompson Workshop: Secondary Endbands with Decorative Braiding
Time: 10:30-15:30
Teacher: Shaun Thompson
Location: Kelly St Lower Hall
Description: During the 14th and 15th century in the low countries, many primary endbands were braided. A braid is a complex structure or pattern formed by interlacing one or more strands of a flexible material such as leather or thread. This functional component of the endband is sewn through the covering of the textblock. It contributes to the stability of the connection between the cover and the codex.
During this practical workshop, students will learn a variety of braided endbands. First, participants will be guided through a primary wound endband with back beads over a single core. We will then explore two secondary braided elements: first, ‘Spanish braiding’ as described by Szirmai in The Archaeology of Medieval Bookbinding. Secondly, a demonstration of how to work the single colour ‘cross braided endband.’ An introductory talk at the start of the workshop will explain the basic technical and decorative variations of braided endbands and place them into context.
Tool list will be sent to participants in due course.
Cost: £50 for members/£75 for non-members + £10 materials fee = £60 for members/£85 for non-members
Number of attendees: 15
Biography: Shaun Thompson is the Conservation Manager at Cambridge University Library. He is a dedicated advocate for book and paper conservation in the heritage sector, specialising in the care and repair of manuscripts and printed books.
Shaun’s research interests include early European book structures, their structural characteristics and the materials and innovative mechanisms used to create them. He has presented his work at international conferences and published his research in peer-reviewed journals.
Shaun has taught at leading conservation schools such as West Dean College of Arts, City and Guilds London School of Art, University of Amsterdam, and the Montefiascone Conservation Project in Italy. He has made significant contributions to the field of Conservation, notably through his work as a teacher and mentor to conservation students in the UK and abroad.
15 April 2025 - Visit: Stationers Hall Library and Archive
Location: Meeting point to be sent nearer the time to participants
Description: The Archive holds the administrative records of the Company since it received a Royal Charter of incorporation in 1557. Although the Company has been involved with the licensing of books, the regulation of the book trade and some direct selling of books since its foundation, it has never had the resources or the remit to keep copies of all the books its members published. Its printed book collection has grown up mostly during the last hundred years or so, largely by gift and partly by purchase, and much of it comprises twentieth-century books relating to the history of the book, paper and newspaper trades, and the history of London and its other livery companies. A focused effort to build a reference library in these areas was begun in the 1970s but it was never possible to develop it systematically. The Company celebrates and preserves its heritage, but it cannot compete with other organizations which are better placed to deliver research libraries in book history, nor is that part of its mission.
Please be aware that the Hall is a listed building with many different levels and many stairs. They do have a stair climber for wheelchairs and disabled toilet facilities. Please notify Tal if you will need assistance so that this can be passed on ahead of the visit.
Cost: £25, including tea
Number of attendees: 40
10 & 17 May 2025 - Ann-Marie Miller Online Workshop: Parchment Wallet Binding
Note: course will be held across two Saturday afternoons. Please ensure you can attend both sessions.
Date: 10 and 17 May (two consecutive Saturdays) from 14:00-16:30
Teacher: Ann-Marie Miller
Location: online via zoom
Description: In this 2-part workshop you will make a facsimile of a small parchment stationery wallet binding, that was used as a Wine account book from the Middle Temple Archive. The books are small and designed to be portable, with lined parchment covers and a fore edge flap. They have an internal pocket and marbled endpapers. We will get to know the binding with a presentation about its structure and step-by-step slides showing you how to make it, which you will get to keep and revisit as much as you wish. We will then make the binding from scratch, using your materials kit. All materials will be cut to size and each stage will be demonstrated whilst you follow along. We will complete the binding over 2 x 2.5 hour sessions so that you have time to catch up if required.
Tool list will be sent to participants in due course.
Cost: £50 for members/£75 for non-members + £40 materials fee + £15 postage = £105 for members/£130 for non-members
Number of attendees: 10
Biography: Ann-Marie Miller is an accredited book and archives conservator based in London, and runs an independent workshop, Codex Conservation Ltd. Her passion for heritage began after studying the History of Art at the Courtauld Institute of Art. After studying Chemistry and Bookbinding she attained a post-graduate diploma and MA in conservation at Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts, London. After graduating she worked freelance as a bookbinder and conservator in both the public and private sectors and then worked for 7 years at the British Library. Ann-Marie set up Codex Conservation in 2011 where she and her small team work for a broad range of institutional clients from private collectors to national museums. She is one of the directors of Impact Heritage CIC, a not-for-profit company working with community archives to help care for their collections, create funded training opportunities, and promote the conservation profession. She is an assessor and mentor for the PACR Icon accreditation scheme, and Conservation Specialist for the Association of Independent Museums Collection Care Audit Scheme; and a freeman of the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers.
June 2025 - Book Arts Day
Location: Kelly St
Description: An annual Book Arts one day fair held in London.
Facilitated by the Society of Bookbinders.
No limit on attendees.
Fee for exhibitors: tbd
Registration date for exhibitors: tbd
Insta: @bookartsday
Website: https://artistbooks.group/book-arts-day/
