Bookbinding at the British Library – Telltale Bookbinding

My First Bookbinding Course

I was very excited to visit London and take part in my first bookbinding course at the British Library. In all the times I have visited London and arrived at Euston Station, I’m ashamed to say, I have never turned left on Euston Road to visit the British Library. Well this time this shortcoming was remedied.

The British Library

It is a monumental and somewhat awkward, squatting edifice which lies along side the grand gothic spires of St Pancras. I found my way to the workshops which are held in the lower depths of the building, in the Harry M Weinrebe Learning Centre. Shelagh McCarthy led our two days on intensive training. She is a regular at leading workshops at both the British Library and other London institutions including the British Museum, Battersea Arts Centre and the Guardian Education Centre.

The object of the course was to give us a taster of the skills needed to make books. We learned about different structures, terminology, paper grain and its importance, all through constructing a range of different types of books.

We started with a simple pamphlet, moved on to concertina books, Japanese Stab bindings, a simple Coptic style book and on the Sunday, finished with a full casement bound book.

Within all this we were also privileged to visit part of the conservation centre and talk to one of the many conservation specialists working there.

I managed to get round the open-to-the-public exhibition and found at this time they had one of Shakespeare’s first folios on display in amongst all the other priceless works. It was such a joy to spend this quiet time in the subdued lighting with these beautiful objects. They are quiet awe inspiring and, although delighted with the work I had made over the weekend, did put into perspective how much more there is to learn in this fascinating area of bookbinding.