Stained Glass Class in Penge: £180 Saturday Beginner Day

Art With Glass runs its Beginners Stained Glass Course at 126 Oakfield Road, Penge, London SE20 8RQ, and the next date on its Eventbrite page is Saturday 14 November, 9:30 am to 5 pm, for £180. You learn to select glass, cut it and solder it, and you take home the panel you made. No experience is needed. The studio is a family-run stained glass and lead light workshop in South East London, very close to Penge West station, and the class sits alongside its day job of making and restoring window and door panels for houses across the capital.

Art With Glass describes itself as a family run stained glass and lead light workshop based in Penge, South London. The website says it specialises in creating and restoring window and door panels using traditional methods. The people who teach the class are the same people who build those panels, so what you learn is the working method of a commercial studio rather than a hobby kit.

The studio's own copy says its team has the best part of 100 years of combined experience between them. That experience covers lead light, copper foil (the Tiffany method), glass painting, sand blasting, acid etching, repairing and restoration. There is also a carpentry and security glazing team, which explains why the studio talks about doors as much as panels. A beginners class here is one corner of a larger craft business, and you can feel that in how practical the day is.

The business has 25 reviews on Google, shown on its homepage, and nearly all of them come from commission clients rather than students. They praise the way the team involved customers in choosing colours and textures, and several mention a visit to the studio to pick glass in person. For a beginner that is reassuring in a quiet way: you are walking into a place where people routinely hold up a sheet of amber glass against the light and talk through it with a stranger.

The Eventbrite listing is titled Beginners Stained Glass Course and runs Saturday 14 November from 9:30 am to 5 pm, which Eventbrite totals as 7 hours 30 minutes. The ticket is £180. The description promises a hands-on introduction to creating stained glass pieces, from selecting the glass to cutting and soldering, with experienced instructors guiding each step. It ends with you taking home your finished panel.

No prior experience is needed, and the studio asks only for a willingness to learn. The listing sets a minimum age of 15 and says the venue has free parking. Refunds are available up to 14 days before the event, so a date that suddenly clashes with a family weekend does not have to cost you the full £180 if you act early.

Before the course begins you receive a full health and safety briefing covering the materials, equipment and processes. Stained glass work involves lead, and the studio states plainly that it cannot accept bookings from anyone who is pregnant or currently trying to conceive. It also notes that the studio is not presently fully accessible, and asks wheelchair users to contact it before booking so the team can talk through what is possible. Both points are stated up front, which saves a wasted Saturday.

Booking runs through the Eventbrite organiser page for Art With Glass, The Stained Glass Studio, which the Stained Glass Courses page on the studio's own site links to with a Book Now button. That organiser page lists the Beginners course and a separate Christmas Tree Glass Fusing Studio Session, so the stained glass day is the one to target if you want to learn leadwork or foil.

Only one date is listed for the beginners course, Saturday 14 November.

One honest judgement: a single Saturday will not turn you into someone who can restore a door panel. What it will do is give you the sequence, glass choice, cutting, soldering, and a finished piece, so that you know whether you want to buy a cutter and carry on. If you only want a quick evening craft, a shorter session elsewhere in London may suit you better than a seven and a half hour day.

Art With Glass also runs a supplies counter. Its Glass Supplies page calls the studio one of London's largest coloured glass stockists and says it aims to give easy access to everything you might need for stained glass projects. Face to face sales are Monday to Saturday, 9 am to 5 pm, with last orders at 4:30 pm.

For a course graduate the useful parts are specific. The shop has a colour wall and hobby cut shelves, so you can see a sheet of glass in person before you buy it, and hobby cuts are measured pieces taken from the sheets to be easy to carry home. There is also an offcut rack for people who only need small bits to finish a project. Larger pieces are priced individually, while the rummage drawers of smaller pieces are charged by the gram.

The shop sells tools too: cutters, cut runners, soldering irons and solder fluid. If your Saturday goes well, you can leave with the kit for a second panel before you have even reached Penge West station. The website says the team is happy to answer questions on glass sales by email and offers trade account enquiries separately through sales@artwithglass.co.uk.

The studio's contact page puts it in Penge, in South East London, very close to Penge West station. The address is Art With Glass Ltd, 126 Oakfield Road, Penge, London SE20 8RQ. Opening hours listed on the contact page are Monday to Saturday, 9 am to 5 pm, which matches the course day since class runs 9:30 am to 5 pm.

Because the course lasts most of a day, plan food in advance. The Eventbrite page lists free parking, which helps if you are coming by car with a bag of tools to carry home. Leave the house a little early on the day itself since the class starts at 9:30 am and the safety briefing comes before any glass is cut.

A good walk afterwards costs nothing. The studio's commission pages talk about using the traditional designs from your street and matching panels to Edwardian houses, so spend half an hour looking up at the front doors and fanlights around Oakfield Road and the streets near Penge West. Once you have cut and soldered a panel yourself you notice the lead lines, the glass textures and the patched repairs that were invisible before.

Art With Glass Ltd is at 126 Oakfield Road, Penge, London SE20 8RQ. Hours are Monday to Saturday, 9 am to 5 pm. The Beginners Stained Glass Course on Saturday 14 November costs £180 and runs 9:30 am to 5 pm. Minimum age is 15.

The studio gives a full safety briefing before you start. Cancel at least 14 days ahead if you want a refund through Eventbrite. If you want to understand what the team does outside classes, browse its gallery of glass panels and doors on the website before you go and bring your questions for the instructors.