The London Print Studio has closed down, a victim of the pandemic, half a century after it was founded.
The LPS, at 425 Harrow Road, west London, was one of a handful of top-quality artists’ print facilities in London. Its closure will be a blow to artists throughout west London, many of whom relied on its equipment to function.
It was where I learned to print, some 25 years ago, and for many years where I produced my Comic Art screenprints.
I have now developed ways of making screens and printing in my own home-studio, after the spring lockdown made it impossible for me to operate elsewhere.
An official announcement for the LPS said: “We have found it impossible to run our studio with its course programme and other activities during the pandemic. Accordingly, the studio will close from 1st October. Staff will be made redundant and the building will close down.”
Founder John Phillips and others started screenprinting posters – including for punk band The Clash, about which the LPS would later mount exhibitions – in the 1970s in a former taxi-meter factory just off Marylands Road in Maida Vale. He eventually set up the purpose-built LPS and for many years it ran with a variety of grants from the Arts Council and local authorities.
Pictured: that’s me printing at the LPS
