Greenwich Leather Crafting Workshop: Three Hours for £108

The London Leather Workshop teaches its leather crafting workshop inside a working sample studio at Studio 002-003, Unit 7 Harrington Way, London SE18 5AU, on the Thames side of the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The entry class, Introduction to Leatherworking, lasts three hours and costs £108 per person in a group of one to six students. Group dates run on selected weekends, and the studio only opens on Saturdays and Sundays for classes that were booked in advance.

The business was founded in 2012 by Sara and Melissa, two Italian fashion and accessory design graduates. Sara, the director, studied fashion and accessory design in Rome, then trained in bag making in Milan and in traditional leathercraft in Florence. She also leads the in-house team of crafters. Melissa, the operations manager, came from fashion design and quality control, and she now runs sourcing, cutting and embossing for the studio's brand clients.

That client work is the point of difference. Teaching is one arm of a company that also does sampling, small-batch manufacturing, vegan leather goods and debossing for accessory brands. According to its about page, the team handles orders from 5 units up to 2000. So your class happens in a real development studio, with industrial machines and rolls of hide around you, rather than in a hired community room with a box of offcuts on a trestle table.

The three-hour introduction is the gentlest way in. You pick from a menu of beginner projects (key rings, glasses cases, card holders and bracelets) and choose your own leather and hardware colours. The course page says most people finish one to three accessories in the session. Along the way you learn how to prepare, mark, cut and punch leather, how to bevel and burnish an edge, and how simple fastening hardware goes on. Everyone also gets printed course notes to take home.

Be realistic about design freedom. This class runs on the studio's own beginner patterns, and the course page is clear that building your own design from scratch needs a private session instead. If you want something unusual, such as a phone sling or a dog lead, book private tuition and agree the brief in advance. Do not expect a group class instructor to draft a new pattern for you while five other students wait.

If you want a wallet rather than a keyring, the one-day Saddle Stitching Leather Workshop is the better buy at £213 per person. It runs for 6.5 hours, again with one to six students, and uses vegetable-tanned leather, hand tools and traditional two-needle saddle stitching. Finished pieces listed on the course page include a wallet, card holder, purse, glasses case or passport holder, each personalised with your choice of leather, thread and hardware colour.

Our honest call: if you have never held an awl, start with the three-hour class. The day course packs in more stitching than many beginners enjoy, and the studio's own timetable builds in a 20 to 30 minute lunch break on sessions over four hours, which tells you how long the afternoon runs. People who already know they love handwork will get more from the full day, because a stitched wallet takes far longer than a riveted keyring.

The course pages pitch the classes at complete beginners, couples, groups of friends and people buying a creative gift in London. Expect a mix of birthday pairs, someone working through a voucher, and design students using the class as a first step before the studio's longer bag-making and pattern-cutting courses. The about page notes partnerships with UK universities and with The Prince's Trust Enterprise Programme, so a young accessory founder at the next bench is not unusual here.

Gift vouchers start at £78, and the studio says its leathercraft classes run from 3 to 12 hours, so a voucher can cover more than the entry session. If you are buying for someone, check which course the voucher covers before you pay. A voucher that only reaches the introduction price will leave a wallet maker paying the difference on the day.

Treat the booking as firm. The studio's terms say full refunds apply only if you cancel at least eight weeks before the class. Inside four weeks there is no refund at all. Between those two points, the terms link any money back to whether your seat can be resold, and the wording on the course pages and the terms page differs slightly, so read the version on the booking page before you pay.

The studio may also cancel a group date when too few students sign up. If your chosen weekend falls through, the private class is the plan B, because it is booked by appointment on weekdays as well. Alternatively, Ten Cloudy runs private and two-person leather classes in a studio at KOPPEL Kingston, on the other side of London, if the Greenwich dates do not work.

This is not a stroll-in-from-the-Tube address. The studio's own directions give three routes: take bus 161 from North Greenwich station, about 15 minutes; take the Elizabeth line or DLR to Woolwich and change to bus 161, 177 or 180, about 10 minutes; or take a train from Cannon Street or London Bridge to Woolwich Dockyard and walk about 10 minutes. There is free parking on site, which helps if you are carrying a finished bag home.

Leave a buffer for the last leg. Harrington Way is a trading estate, and units look alike from the road, so look for the Unit 7 number on the building. The workshop is in Studio 002-003. The studio's materials shop, The Bag Making Suppliers, sits next door in Studio 001 of the same building, which is handy if the class leaves you wanting your own awl and thread.

Walk west along the riverside from the estate and you reach the Thames Barrier, the steel-hooded flood gates that span the river between Charlton and Silvertown. The Thames Barrier Information Centre stands on Unity Way, on the south bank above the gates. From the riverside path you can see the gate piers in full and watch tugs and barges pass on the tide, all within a short walk of the studio.

Heading east instead takes you towards Woolwich and the Royal Arsenal Riverside development, with its cafés and the Woolwich Elizabeth line station, which makes it a sensible way to finish the day. In wet weather, skip the riverside path, which is exposed to wind off the water, and take the bus straight back to Woolwich with your project tucked into a bag.

Address: Studio 002-003, Unit 7 Harrington Way, Royal Borough of Greenwich, London SE18 5AU. Workshop hours: Monday to Friday 9am to 6pm by appointment only; Saturday and Sunday 9am to 6pm for pre-booked classes only. Shop hours: Monday, Tuesday and Thursday 9am to 6pm, Wednesday 10:30am to 7:30pm, Friday closed, weekends on selected days by appointment.

Prices: Introduction to Leatherworking £108 per person for three hours; Saddle Stitching Leather Workshop £213 per person for 6.5 hours; gift vouchers from £78. All materials and tools are included. The Karpo APP can line up lunch in Woolwich or a riverside walk around your class time, so you are not hunting for food with sticky hands.