Woolwich Leather Crafting Workshop: £58 Card Holder, Hamson

Hamson Handcrafted, Unit TB26, The Atrium, Thames-side Studios, Harrington Way, London SE18 5NR, is a one-woman leather crafting workshop on the Woolwich riverside where Sheena Hamson teaches three set projects. The three-hour card holder class costs £58 per person when two or more book together and £65 for a solo booking. A 3.5-hour belt class and a 6.5-hour shoulder bag day run on dated sessions sold through ClassBento.

Sheena describes herself on her about page as the founder and sole proprietor of a small, one-woman leather goods company. Before she launched the Hamson brand in 2019, she spent over 20 years in luxury leather goods manufacturing, including many years in the Asprey leather atelier on Bond Street. She still freelances for brands such as Burberry, alongside commissions, her own designs and the weekend classes.

That background shapes the teaching more than the marketing. A September 2026 student credited her experience in saddlery and the luxury leather industry, and others keep returning to the same words: patient, clear, organised. You are learning from someone who has sewn production pieces for a Bond Street house, so expect small corrections to your stitch spacing and edge finish rather than a relaxed craft-club afternoon where anything goes.

Her own shop pieces are cut only from oak bark leather made by J & FJ Baker in Devon, which she calls Britain's only remaining traditional oak bark tannery. Each hide takes 14 months to tan using oak bark and water. The classes page promises best quality vegetable tanned leather, and the bag listing on ClassBento names Italian vegetable tanned leathers, so do not assume your class project uses the Devon hides.

Introduction to Leather Work, Make a Card Holder, lasts three hours for one to four guests. You work with pre-prepared leather pieces, so the session concentrates on assembly and hand stitching rather than cutting from a hide. It needs no previous experience, and it costs £65 if you book alone or £58 each for two or more. A July 2026 reviewer took her son along and called it a relaxing couple of hours.

Create Your Own Leather Belt runs for 3.5 hours with one to three guests and costs £95 for a single booking or £85 each for two or more. You pick the leather colour, the stitching and the style of buckle. The bespoke shoulder bag is a 6.5-hour day at £190 for one guest or £175 each for two or more, with your own colour combination of leathers and trimmings.

Pick the belt if you want the fullest taste of the trade in a short sitting. The official classes page lists pattern placement, cutting, skiving, hand stitching, riveting, edge burnishing and machining, and a belt touches more of those steps than a card holder made from pre-cut parts. It is also the most reviewed of the three, with 13 five-star reviews on her ClassBento page against eight each for the card holder and the bag.

Our honest view: skip the shoulder bag as a first booking unless you are certain you can give it the whole day. One student on her site wrote that it took about six hours to finish, and the price only drops to £175 per head if someone joins you. Book the card holder first, see whether you enjoy stitching, then come back for the bag with a friend.

The 2026 reviews read like a list of occasions. One couple chose the shoulder bag day for their third wedding anniversary and had Sheena entirely to themselves because nobody else had booked that date. Another pair made belts as a Valentine's Day activity in February. A parent brought their son to the card holder class in July, and an older review on her site came from a student spending birthday vouchers from friends.

The card holder takes up to four guests and the belt up to three, so the table stays quiet. Bag students mention the option of embossing their initials on the leather, and belt makers mention choosing the leather colour, the stitching and the buckle style themselves. The bag day runs 6.5 hours, so pack a proper lunch rather than relying on the estate.

There is no walk-in shop and no published opening schedule. Every class is sold as a dated session through the ClassBento calendar linked from hamsonhandcrafted.co.uk/classes, and the same classes also appear on Wecandoo, where one 2024 student redeemed birthday vouchers. Book as a pair whenever you can, since the second person cuts the per-head price by £7 on the card holder and by £10 on the belt.

If every date this month is full, The London Leather Workshop teaches beginner classes in the same Harrington Way complex, with a bigger studio team and its own weekend calendar. It suits people who want a wider menu of small accessories. Hamson remains the better choice when you want one maker guiding a party of two or three through a belt or bag from start to finish.

Thames-side Studios sits on a riverside industrial estate west of Woolwich town centre, on the stretch of the Thames between Charlton and the old dockyard. The quickest rail link is Southeastern to Woolwich Dockyard from London Bridge or Cannon Street, followed by a walk of roughly 10 minutes. From Woolwich station on the Elizabeth line or DLR, buses 161, 177 and 180 head west towards the estate in a few stops.

Once inside the complex, head for The Atrium and look for unit TB26, because several studio buildings share the Harrington Way entrance and the numbering is not obvious from the gate. A September 2026 student described the studio as easy to reach. If you are carrying home a finished bag or a still-stiff belt, a tote bag helps on the bus.

A short walk west lies Maryon Park, the sloping Charlton green where Michelangelo Antonioni filmed Blow-Up in 1966. Its wooded rise is still recognisable from the film, and the upper paths look over the rooftops towards the river. It makes a calm half hour after a three-hour stitching session, particularly on a dry late afternoon.

Going the other way, the Thames Path runs past the riverside edge of the old Royal Dockyard at Woolwich, founded under Henry VIII, towards the free Woolwich Ferry crossing. On grey winter days the path is exposed to wind off the water, so after a full bag day it is better to skip the walk, take the bus back to Woolwich and eat near the station.

Address: Hamson Handcrafted, Unit TB26, The Atrium, Thames-side Studios, Harrington Way, London SE18 5NR. There is no public phone number. Email sheena@hamsonhandcrafted.co.uk, especially if you want a bespoke commission. Classes: card holder, three hours, £65 solo or £58 each for two or more. Belt, 3.5 hours, £95 solo or £85 each. Shoulder bag, 6.5 hours, £190 solo or £175 each.

A September 2026 student noted that everything was provided, and you leave with the finished piece. Children can attend with a parent according to a 2026 card holder review, but no minimum age is published. The Karpo APP can suggest a lunch stop around Woolwich Arsenal or a quieter route along the river, so the trip from Harrington Way back into town fits around your session.