The best shops for art and craft materials

Get creative and start crafting

In an increasingly homogenised world of plastic this and assemble-at-home-designed-in-Sweden that, we're always on the look-out for something completely original - and, Louis Spence notwithstanding, it's always a treat when we find it.

It's good for the soul to adorn your abode with an item which someone has spent hours toiling over; a vehicle for creativity and skill, embellished with the imperfections of material and maker. And that maker could be you.

So head to one of the art and craft material outlets in our list and whatever you fancy turning your hand to: be it painting, sketching, pottery, needlework... whatever... just give it a go.

And who knows, there could even be a new career just around the corner...

The London Graphic Centre image
The London Graphic Centre
16-18 Shelton Street WC2H 9JL
Covent Garden 0.07 miles
Art & Craft Supplies
Opening Times

London Graphic Centre is the choice of any self respecting graphics student. You’re studying illustration at Camberwell? This is where you come for pens, pads, markers, adhesives and studio equipment. Plus there are Moleskin notebooks and, you know, famous writers and artists used those. Most people will recognize the Covent Garden (the flagship) store but there are smaller outposts across London.

Loop image
Loop
15 Camden Passage N1 8EA
Angel 0.22 miles
Knitwear & Textiles
Photos

At the crafts end of ‘arts and crafts’ Loop is a knitters delight. Located on Camden Passage, Islington, it is a Mecca for all things crocheted. You’ll find yarns aplenty, needles, buttons, magazines, beads, pompom kits and anything else that the keen haberdashery enthusiast could desire.

Hobby Craft image
Hobby Craft
Greenford Road UB6 0UW
Greenford 0.28 miles
Art & Craft Supplies
Opening Times

With stores dotted around London <a href="http://www.allinlondon.co.uk/directory/stores_102460.php">Hobby Craft</a> are really invested in keeping you crafty. They stock art materials, haberdashery, yarn and jewellery products. One trip here and you’ll never have to buy anything again – because you’ll just make it all!

Cass Arts image
Cass Arts
13 Charing Cross Road WC2H 0EP
Leicester Square 0.09 miles
Art & Craft Supplies
Opening Times

The original Cass Art started with the mission statement ‘Let’s fill this town with artists’. Since then the company has <a href="http://www.allinlondon.co.uk/search_results.php?q=cass%20arts">grown</a> and depending on where you are in London – yes, we’re looking at you Hackney Wick - you might think they’d succeeded. Filled with artists themselves, the shops are as good for materials as they are for good advice on all matters art.

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Slancho Gled
66 Chalk Farm Road NW1 8AN
Chalk Farm 0.17 miles
Gift Shops
Opening Times

Whether a serious pro or a mere dabbler, Slanchogled will have your needs covered. Big project, little project, it doesn’t matter here. There are professional artists’ materials from companies like Van Gogh and Derwent as well as modeling clay, flowers, leaves and fabrics for the craft side of things. Plus they offer a bespoke decoration design service for that special occasion that you can’t do yourself.

Cass Art London image
Cass Art London
66-67 Colebrooke Row N1 8AB
Angel 0.35 miles
Art & Craft Supplies
Opening Times

This may not be the birthplace of Cass Art but the Angel space is a mega behemoth of arts and craft materials. Spray paint, oil paint, easels and canvasses almost cover entire floors while there are enough pens, pencils and crayons to colour in, erm, the whole world. Cass Art also have a great children’s section that hosts regular classes on weekends and during school holidays.

L Cornelissen & Son image
L Cornelissen & Son
105 Great Russell Street WC1B 3RY
Art & Craft Supplies
Opening Times

L. Cornelissen & Son has been in business since 1855. The shop certainly appeals on an aesthetic basis thanks to its history but the traditional artists’ materials you’ll find here are also a draw. It’s like swapping London for Hogwarts; the shelves are lined with bottles and packets of chalky pigments and paints and the curious shop is a fine quaint antiquity. They even sell Dragon’s Blood – although that’s nothing more exciting than a red resin.

Atlantis Art Materials image
Atlantis Art Materials
Unit 1 Bayford Street E8 3SE
London Fields 0.09 miles
Art & Craft Supplies
Opening Times

Appropriately named due to its size, Atlantis Art Supplies is arguably London’s preeminent destination for artists’ materials and tools. The warehouse is possibly Europe’s largest fine arts store with a gigantic amount of floor space filled with canvasses, paper, card, brushes, sponges, graffiti pens and innumerable types of paint.