Short Courses To Help You Find A New Passion
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Pasta Making
Head to Covent Garden any Tuesday evening in June for an interactive introduction to making restaurant-quality pasta. Overlooking the open kitchen in La Goccia (one of Petersham Nurseries’ restaurants in Floral Street), there’s a pasta making workshop where you’ll learn how to make traditional dough recipes and six different types of pasta, all of which you can easily recreate at home. Enjoy a glass of wine of prosecco on arrival, snacking on focaccia and olives as you learn; then after the class you can book in for supper at either La Goccia or The Petersham with a 20% discount.
Visit PetershamNurseries.com
Printmaking
Based in Clapham in southwest London, Lavender Print School’s Introduction to Printmaking workshop is the perfect primer for creative enthusiasts, beginners or anyone wanting to learn a little more about printmaking. You will be shown two techniques – lino and drypoint – choosing one to explore for the rest of the session. Drypoint involves scratching an image into a thin plastic or metal sheet using a range of metal tools; the lines that are made are then filled with ink and transferred onto paper. Lino is also known as relief printing and works in the opposite way to drypoint; you will work by cutting away everything but the image, then ink the outlying surface and print onto paper. You will leave with your own handmade prints as well as the technical skills and knowledge to continue your artwork beyond the workshop.
Visit LavenderPrintSchool.co.uk
Cookery Skills
The family run Avenue Cookery School in Wandsworth has over 70 short courses to suit everyone, no matter your age or ability. For example, in the Bao Class you’ll learn how to make one of Taiwan’s most loved and delicious dishes – gua bao – with an array of delicious fillings. Or you could improve your knife skills to make your time in your kitchen more enjoyable and your prep a lot quicker. While in the sushi workshop, you’ll master the fine art of making different types of this Japanese favourite.
Visit The AvenueCookerySchool.com
Butchery
The Ginger Pig's butchery classes are a must for carnivores. In its Marylebone or Borough Market shops, you can learn the best cuts to buy, and how to roll, chop and slice meat from the bone. Classes include a full demo, lots of hands-on butchery work and an informal dinner at the end with plenty of wine. Perfect for this time of the year, the BBQ cuts session will show you how to trim and butterfly onglet into steaks, bone and butterfly half a leg of lamb, make and hand-press chuck steak and bone-marrow burgers, and teach you about marinades.
Visit TheGingerPig.co.uk
Calligraphy
In the cobbled streets of northwest London’s Hampstead Village, Burgh House is a great place to escape and enjoy a relaxing afternoon learning calligraphy with Katie Noakes, founder of London Calligraphy. Whether you have never used a pen and ink before or have always had a love for calligraphy and beautiful handwriting, there are courses and workshops available for beginners and improvers alike, as well as private lessons.
Visit LondonCalligraphy.com
Cake Decorating
There’s something very calming about baking, whether it’s measuring out quantities of flour and sugar or the smell of your cake in the oven. But are your creations sometimes less than aesthetically pleasing? Whether you want to create, say, an elephant cake for your grandchild or a beautiful wedding cake, decorated with hand-painted roses shaded with edible dust, for your daughter’s wedding, the London Cake Academy has a vast choice of masterclasses to choose from. Based in Queen’s Park in northwest London, the company developed and grew from Samantha Brown’s home cake business when she discovered she loved to teach.
Visit LondonCakeAcademy.com
Floristry
A trailblazer in the world of floristry education since 1999, McQueens Flower School in London’s Mayfair offers a variety of courses for budding florists – whether you harbour a dream of taking an interest in flowers to a professional level, are looking for a therapeutic hobby or simply want to learn how to put together a stylish bouquet. Classes range from half-day and one-day workshops for beginners to four-week diploma courses.
Visit McQueensFlowers.com
Beekeeping
Before you embark on a longer course, find out if beekeeping is really for you at a one-day taster with Celia and David Rudland of East Surrey Bees in Whyteleafe (between Caterham and Purley). Their apiary has different sizes and styles of hive in operation, and during the day you will get a chance to ask all the questions you may have while looking at colonies, tasting different honeys and finding out how to get started. You’ll learn all about the beekeeper’s year and the time, cost and effort required to keep a hive of healthy bees, so you can make an informed decision as to whether this is for you. A ploughman’s lunch is included, with homemade bread, pickles and cake.
Visit EastSurreyBees.co.uk
Mudlarking
Currently one of London’s coolest hobbies, mudlarking is the practice of scavenging through river mud for items of value or historical significance. If wading through the mud on the banks of the Thames to hunt for hidden treasure appeals, there are a few organisations that have permission from the Port of London Authority to run regular organised mudlarking tours (see below) – and beware illegal rogue tours. Should you want to go alone, you will need a permit, and there are rules and regulations as well as protected areas; you will also need to report any finds. Lara Maiklem is one of our most well-known mudlarkers – she’s scoured the banks of the Thames for over 20 years in pursuit of objects from Neolithic flints to Roman hair pins, Tudor buttons and Victorian toys. Worth a read before you start is her new book, A Field Guide to Larking: Beachcombing, Mudlarking, Fieldwalking and More, which tells you all you need to know to go mudlarking on the Thames including suggested locations. Her first book, Sunday Times bestseller Mudlarking: Lost And Found On The River Thames is more of a personal memoir of her relationship with London and its river.
Visit Thames-Explorer.org.uk & ThamesDiscovery.org
Pottery
If you want to start making your own ceramics and fancy sinking your hands into some wet clay, a three-hour introductory session at Studio Pottery London in the heart of Victoria is a brilliant way to get a feel for it. Each participant has their own wheel and will be guided through the process by an expert tutor – you will learn how to wedge (prepare), centre the clay on the wheel and throw (pulling up the walls of the clay into a cylinder); all of which makes for an uplifting and inspiring experience. You will throw multiple pots and can choose one to be glazed and fired, which you can pick up within four weeks. The studio also offers intermediate and advanced classes if you want to take things further.
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