A list of my favorite shops for buying art supplies when I'm in London.
When it comes to buying art materials in London, you've got quite a bit of choice both centrally and slightly further afield. This is a list of my favorite art supplies stores (many of which do online sales too).
This is top of my list because of its convenient location, just around the corner from the National Portrait Gallery (and National Gallery on Trafalgar Square), at the bottom of Charing Cross Road. It's a tiny shop packed with art materials (and often people). Don't expect to find anything unusual or every brand of paint, but it's got most of the mainstream supplies and a good range of sketchbooks. Prices are competitive, and look out for "specials" which are often a very good buy.
Address: 13 Charing Cross Road WC2H 0EP
Open: Every day
Cornelissen's has been in business since 1855 and you can't beat the shop for character, with its shelves stacked with bottles of pigments and little packets of all sorts of traditional artist's materials (plus the more 'usual' supplies). Don't be intimidated by it looking like a shop for serious professional artist's only. I've always found the staff friendly and helpful, and they don't mind if you just gawk at things such as "dragon's blood" (a natural resin).
Cornelissen's prices are competitive, if not always the cheapest, but if you're looking for a specific art material or something less commonplace, it's the place I'd go.
Address: 105 Great Russell Street WC1B 3RY (down the road from British Museum)
Open: Monday to Saturday
Besides being well stocked with art materials (painting, drawing, and graphic), this shop is a great place for buying arts-related gifts from mugs to pencil organizers to quirky sketchbooks.
Location: 16-18 Shelton Street WC2H 9JL (one block across and two down from Covent Garden tube station)
Open: Monday to Saturday
Paper, paper, and more paper... from blotting paper to the finest artist's paper, plus related supplies such as bookbinding and printing materials, sketchbooks, and notebooks, that's what makes Falkiner's so fine.
Location: 76 Southampton Row WC1B 4AR. (The closest tube is Holborn, but if you're at the British Museum you're fairly close. Turn left when you come out the museum's main entrance, keep going until you get to a T-junction, cross the road and walk right for a bit.)
Open: Monday to Saturday
Atlantis is a bit of a mission to get to, but worthwhile for the competitive prices if you're buying quite a few tubes of paint and for the pleasure of browsing around. I have on occasion found the shop's stock quite depleted when looking for brushes and pastels, as if they were waiting for a delivery.
Location: 7-9 Plumber's Row E1 1EQ. (Take the tube to Aldgate East, use the Whitechapel exit, turn left and it's down a few blocks, across the road.)
Open: Every day
This is more of a general store than a specialist one, stocking artist's supplies, graphics materials, and some crafting supplies. I always pop in if I'm in the area for a browse (though Broadwick Street is one to get your map out to find!).
There's a branch of Cass Arts very close too, at 24 Barwick Street.
Location: 26-28 Broadwick Street W1F 8HX
Open: Monday to Saturday
Cass Art's flagship store is also a mission to get to and I wouldn't go unless you were in Islington for some other reason, couldn't find something elsewhere, wanted to browse in a larger art materials store (three floors), or wanted an excuse to ride the longest escalator at any tube station (Angel).
Location: 66-67 Colebrooke Row N1 8AB
Open: Monday to Sunday
Other London Art Materials Shops
There are of course a variety of other places to buy art supplies in London. Shops I've heard about but haven't been to (yet) include:
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