Tag Archives: london glassblowing

Beautifully blown in Bermondsey

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BERMONDSEY STREET IS only about 500 yards in length, and about 200 yards of it runs under the railway tracks and has no shops, eateries, or any other outlet open to the public. The remaining 300 yards of this thoroughfare is a delight to visit. It is lined with numerous cafés, restaurants, and a couple of pubs. In addition, there is a good picture framer, several art galleries, some fashionable shops, a church, and a museum of fashion and textiles. There are also a couple of open spaces – small parks. Apart from the magnificent Caphe House – a superb Vietnamese restaurant, one of my favourite places on this street is London Glassblowing (see: https://londonglassblowing.co.uk/).

London Glassblowing is a gallery dedicated to the display and sales of artistic glasswork creations. It was founded by Peter Layton, who was born in 1937 in Prague (then in Czechoslovakia). Fleeing the Nazis, his family moved to Britain in 1939. They settled in Bradford near his grandfather, a pathologist who was a colleague of Sigmund Freud. Initially specialising in ceramics, Peter went to teach at the University of Iowa in the USA. While he was there, Peter soon became fascinated with glass and studied in the institution’s glass blowing programme. After his return to the UK, where artistic glass blowing was not yet highly developed or even highly regarded, he opened the London Glassblowing Workshop in Rotherhithe in 1976. After moving to several different locations, it arrived at its present home on Bermondsey Street.

In addition to displaying fine works of art made with glass, visitors to the gallery can watch the glass blowers at work. This is fascinating to see. When we visited yesterday, the 16th of February 2024, there was a group of young children watching the glass blowers at work. A gentleman was patiently explaining what the glass blowers were doing and how they were achieving the exquisite multicoloured vase they were making. It was only when I got home that I realised that the person explaining was none other than Peter Layton.

Blowing in Bermondsey

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IT IS UNNECESSARY to travel from London to Venice to see masterpieces of glass bowing. You need only make your way to Bermondsey Street in south London where you will find London Glassblowing. It is both a gallery and workshop set up by Peter Layton, who is now over 80 years old and still creating beautiful artefacts. Layton was born in Prague and grew up in England. After studying ceramics at London’s Central School of Art and Design, he taught ceramics at the University of Iowa in the USA. It was there that he discovered glass blowing and took to it. When he returned to England in 1976, he established his London Glassblowing in London. It has been located at its present address for about 15 years. Before that, he was in Leather Yard. Apart from creating works of art in glass, he also teaches and mentors other glass blowers.

Whenever we visit Bermondsey Street, we make a point of visiting Layton’s establishment. Always the works on display are both beautiful and highly inventive. Occasionally, if we reach the place at the right time, we can watch glass blowers at work in the invariably hot workshop behind the gallery. Unlike the workshops we have visited on the island of Murano (near Venice), the works produced in Bermondsey Street – both sculptural and functional – are tastefully contemporary and often avant-garde.