City Lit bookbinding provides a comprehensive range of traditional and contemporary taught and workshop-based courses at all levels from beginner to advanced. Students studying on our courses can develop skills in traditional bookbinding, gold tooling, paper marbling, historic and experimental book structures and contemporary fine binding.
Students interested in book arts can explore both classic and innovative techniques and structures to produce unique books and editions. For students who wish to study conservation and repair, we have classes covering paper repair, the conservation and repair of cloth, leather and vellum books, hand tooling and machine blocking.
We run evening, daytime and weekend classes in our purpose-built studio that is well equipped with presses, guillotines, and hand tools and our courses are taught by tutors, who are skilled practitioners, industry specialists and experts in the fields of bookbinding, book arts, fine design binding, conservation and repair.
Browse our range of bookbinding courses in London below to choose your perfect option.
An exciting range of graded projects to introduce you to bookbinding. Come armed with enthusiasm and walk away with a stack of small books and a heap of information on materials, tools and techniques.
This one term course is designed to help students to develop their bookbinding skills. You will already have some experience of binding techniques and some knowledge of tools, materials and equipment in order to benefit from this workshop-style class. There will be the opportunity to work on your own projects, or to practice skills in which you feel less confident in order to enable you to progress to higher level courses. Not suitable for beginners.
Start your bookbinding journey with this accessible, 6 week introduction to techniques and structures. Learn how to make simple folded books progressing to a more complex stitched binding and explore the world of handmade books.
Learn how to make slipcases and clamshell boxes. Get creative with decorative and plain papers, cloth and board to complete beautiful containers to house your books and objects.