Hackney, east London · bound at the kitchen table since 2022

Tallow Lane Bindery

Hand bookbinding at a kitchen table in Hackney

Fig. 1 — a folded section sewn across two tapes, kettle stitch at head and tail.

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A kitchen table in Hackney, east London

Books put together, and put back together, one evening at a time

Notes from a kitchen-table bindery in Hackney: case binding, sewing signatures, reading paper grain and mending worn paperbacks with simple hand tools.

I bind and mend books on a kitchen table in Hackney, one evening at a time, and write down what worked so that the next book goes together a little more squarely than the last.

Turn to the contents

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On the shelf so far

IFinding the grain before you cut anythingIISewing signatures on a kitchen table with a home-made frameIIIA first case binding, and the boards I cut too tightIVMending paperbacks: loose pages, cracked spines, and when to stop
  1. I.Finding the grain before you cut anythingPaper, 26 January 2025
  2. II.Sewing signatures on a kitchen table with a home-made frameSewing, 18 May 2025
  3. III.A first case binding, and the boards I cut too tightCase binding, 12 October 2025
  4. IV.Mending paperbacks: loose pages, cracked spines, and when to stopRepair, 19 April 2026

Pencilled inside the tool box lid

Four rules the table keeps

I use simple tools and common materials on purpose: a bone folder, an awl, a metal ruler, a set square, linen thread, wheat starch paste and PVA. Nothing on this site is a recommendation to buy anything, and nobody pays for a mention. Where I give a measurement, it comes from my own table, my own paper and my own flat's weather, which in winter includes a radiator that makes everything curl. Adjust for yours.

  1. IFind the grain before the knife touches anything.
  2. IISquare the boards to the book, not to the ruler.
  3. IIIPaste for paper, PVA for cloth, and a waste sheet under both.
  4. IVMend what the reader needs, then stop.