Glassblowing Studio in Woolwich: Bauble Class £75 at Gather

Gather Glass is a working production hot shop at Unit 4, Submarine Cable Depot, Warspite Road, London SE18 5NX, and it opens its furnace to beginners through a ladder of classes that starts at a one-hour bauble for £75 and tops out at a full day for £420. This is not a gallery you wander into. It is a studio on the banks of the Thames in Woolwich that makes handblown glassware and lighting for a living, and the classes run in the same space and beside the same furnaces. If you have been searching for a glassblowing studio in London where you can actually pick up a pipe, Gather is one of the clearest answers in south east London.

Gather sits in a shared workspace called BLOC, at the bottom of Warspite Road on the right. The studio describes the area as a vibrant arts and crafts district of South East London, between North Greenwich Jubilee station and Woolwich on the Elizabeth line, close to Greenwich Design District and surrounded by other studios and makers. The shutter door is open on the day of your class. North Greenwich and Woolwich are the nearest stations, and buses 161, 177, 180 and 472 run from Woolwich to the Warspite Road stop, with 180 and 472 also serving North Greenwich.

Phoebe Stubbs founded Gather in 2020 after twenty years working in glass. She trained at the Rhode Island School of Design, and the studio's own account of her craft traces a direct lineage through some of the most important glassmakers of the last century. Her conviction, according to the studio, is that colour is structural to design, not decorative. That shows in the collections, which carry names such as Miami, New York and Verona and are made for use. The team makes pieces for brands and designers, and its glassware is stocked at Fortnum & Mason, Bergdorf Goodman and Selfridges.

The shortest way in is the Blow Your Own Bauble experience, which costs £75 per person and runs in one-hour slots. It is designed for complete beginners. The team gathers and prepares the molten glass, you choose your colours and apply them, and then you blow the bauble yourself. The studio is honest about the result: it cannot guarantee a perfectly round bauble, but it will be entirely yours. The session is open to ages 6 and up, and children must be supervised by an adult at all times in the studio. In early December the studio also runs An Evening in the Hotshop with The Uncommon, an adults-only bauble session with a can of English wine, priced at £85.

Blow Your Own Drinking Glass is a private class for two, priced at £225 for the pair, in which each person ends up with one glass shaped in a mould. The Introductory Half Day Glassblowing Class costs £260 and lasts about three hours, with morning sessions from 10:30am to 1:30pm and afternoon sessions from 2:30pm to 5:30pm. You make one vase or carafe from start to finish. The Introductory One Day class costs £420, runs from 10am to 4pm and produces at least two pieces per person, such as a tumbler, a small vase or a carafe. Both longer classes are for ages 18 and over and need no previous experience.

In the longer classes you start with the core tools and basic techniques, then choose from curated Gather colour combinations. You gather glass from the furnace at over 1000 degrees Celsius, shape it with traditional tools and blow it into a functional vessel. The studio says the full-day class gives you time to develop control and make considered design choices, which is the difference from a short taster. Glass cools slowly overnight in the annealer, so nothing leaves with you on the day. If a piece breaks while it is being shaped or cooled, the team will try to remake it inside the same session so you leave with something finished.

Finished pieces are ready to collect from the studio 48 hours after the class. If you would rather not return, Gather can send them by courier. A bauble costs £8.95 to post, a half-day vase or carafe costs £10, and a full-day box costs £15. Larger or multiple items are priced at booking. This matters if you are visiting London from elsewhere, because it means the class does not tie you to a second trip. Gift vouchers are available at £75, £225, £260 and £420, matched to each class, and each one is valid for 12 months from purchase.

The studio provides all tools and safety equipment. You only need closed shoes and layers, because the temperature in the hot shop fluctuates. Arrive at least five minutes before your start time so the team can show you around. Changes and refunds are accepted up to a week before the class, and later cancellations carry a 25 percent late charge. The studio has two small steps at the front entrance, 12 cm and 10 cm, with step-free access via the rear of the building. The bauble session can be adapted for different mobility levels, but the tumbler, half-day and full-day classes need standing and movement.

The studio names three places to eat nearby: Art Cafe, Riverside Ethiopian and The Chef House Kitchen. Greenwich Design District is close, and the studio sits among other makers, so a walk after a class brings you past more workshops. Woolwich is the other end of the walk, with the Elizabeth line station and the river within reach, so it is easy to combine a morning class with lunch and a stroll along the Thames side of the neighbourhood. Limited on-site parking is available, with the first 30 minutes free and hourly charges after that, and the studio recommends street parking on Ruston Road.

The address is Unit 4, Submarine Cable Depot, Warspite Road, London SE18 5NX. Email info@gather.glass for questions, since the team says it can miss messages on social media. Private sessions for birthdays and work socials start from £950 and cover exclusive use of the studio for at least two hours. Corporate group days cost £3,200 and take up to 20 people. For one person who wants the best chance of making something usable, the half day at £260 is the sensible middle step. For couples, the drinking glass class at £225 for two is the better value.