Turning Earth Leyton
Experience ceramics at Turning Earth Leyton, a pottery studio in Walthamstow offering monthly memberships, weekly classes, week-long intensive courses, and a professional incubator studio.
Experience ceramics at Turning Earth Leyton, a pottery studio in Walthamstow offering monthly memberships, weekly classes, week-long intensive courses, and a professional incubator studio.
Turning Earth Leyton is a centre for ceramics which opened in the Lea Valley in 2013 out of an 8,500 sq. ft top-floor open space of an old hardware factory. Its ceiling, a saw-tooth glass structure, allows abundant of natural light to work in, a vast area of birch-ply tabletop space to spread out on, and ample high-end, silent Shimpo/Nidek pottery wheels ready to use.
The centre includes a large open-plan membership studio where trained artists, serious hobbyists, and beginners work together in a community environment, with the benefit of shared facilities. It also includes one of Turning Earth's spacious 'Learning Hubs' for classes and in-depth development, as well as extra facilities for extra-curricular opportunities, such as outdoor Raku-style firings, Gas-kiln firings, a water backed spray booth for advanced glazing techniques, and a relaxing break-out kitchen area for lunch and a cup of tea.
Argall Avenue is on the border between Clapton and Walthamstow, next to Lea Bridge station. It's a 7 minute walk from the station, which - via Tottenham Hale or Stratford - gets you to Liverpool Street in less than half an hour, or to central London in about 20 minutes. It’s also an easy hop to Walthamstow Central station on the Victoria line on the W19 bus.
Have a look at our gallery of studio images, or pop in for a visit during our opening hours and see it for yourself.
Discover the joy of working with clay on one of our extensive ceramics courses. Whether you’re a beginner looking to get your hands messy for the first time or an experienced artist interested in refining your techniques, our courses offer something for everyone. In terms of pottery creativity, the sky's the limit; and clay is virtually limitless.
Courses for All Skill Levels
No matter your level or experience, everyone is welcome to join our thriving community of artists and makers. Our membership is open to all and offers everything you need, at whatever level you are at, to connect and invest in your creative talents.
Membership includes anytime access during our opening hours, up to 15 hours a week. With any membership plan you get your own personal storage shelf (approx. 90cmx45cmx45cm), experienced technicians to fire your work, use of equipment and up to 30 litres a month of set temperature firings. The only additional thing you need to buy is clay, which we sell on-site at competitive prices.
As a studio member, you’ll enjoy exclusive access to a wide range of benefits, designed to enhance your artistic journey:
There's always a technician on site to advise members on how to use the equipment, and on the best way to carry out a project. This isn’t structured teaching, as such, but if you want advice on technique they’ll be happy to make suggestions. If you are a bit rusty, don’t worry, you are not on your own!
If you would like private tuition to learn a new process then you can get discounted tuition from Turning Earth teachers or technicians. This costs £30 an hour for one person or £45 an hour for two people.
Glazes are ready-mixed by our staff with test tiles, so you can see how they will look on different clay bodies. Our technicians are on hand to pack the kilns, so you don’t need to worry about that.
Yes, anyone can sign up, as long as they are responsible in the studio. If you are a complete beginner, we recommend you take an introductory class, but after that, you are welcome to become a member and keep practicing at your own pace. There’ll be people on hand to help you. Everyone has to start somewhere and you’ll be amazed at how quickly you’ll improve.
Turning Earth membership is for people aged 16 and above. We cannot have younger children alone in the studio due to the risks inherent in using raw glaze chemicals, sharp tools, and electrical equipment.
Turning Earth is not set up to accommodate professional potters in the studio. Having one or more production potters in the studio would tie up our equipment and make it difficult for others to have access. We want to make sure that facilities are always available for our members whenever they choose to visit. If you are a full-time or professional maker wanting a fully equipped space to run your business then please look at joining In Production, our professional studio in Leyton. It has been designed especially for career makers as so many of our hobbyists have taken their practice to the next stage after spending time at Turning Earth.
Whether you’re looking to master your craft, or just put your hands in some clay and make something, Turning Earth will allow you to work at a pace that suits you. Come whenever suits you, whether your free time is on a Sunday afternoon, or a Thursday lunchtime, or if it changes from week to week.
Turning Earth offers monthly membership instead of hourly or daily rates because every piece you make goes through several steps and takes weeks to complete. You are given your own personal storage areas on-site to store your clay and work-in-progress between visits.
Turning Earth membership is for everyone—inquisitive beginners, off and on hobbyists, and experienced artists. There’ll always be someone on hand in the studio to answer your questions. But if you’d rather have something a little more structured, we run regular classes as well.
Turning Earth is set up for part-time use. This is how we keep costs down for everyone, because this way we can all get the cost benefits of hot-desking and equipment sharing. If we had full-time potters in the space it would tie up the facilities and it would give less value to our part-time members. For this reason, the maximum time a member can use the studio in a week is 15 hours.
We don’t expect that all our members will want to use the studio as much as this. But even if you used it for less than half of that time, you still get great value from Turning Earth. If you come for 5 hours a week, for example, £245 a month still works out at around £12 an hour, compared to the £18 an hour of limited access you might get at other studios.
Our experience is that the equipment provided is plenty for the number of members, as people tend to come and go organically and use the studio at different times. However, on the rare occasion that all of our wheels are in use at a certain time, it would be useful if you could limit your use of that process to 3 hours. If this ever becomes an issue we'll purchase more wheels, but you’ll really help us out by being aware of it and being flexible.
Clay is available for purchase at a discounted price. We also have basic tool kits and throwing bats available. If you want to add additional storage space, this can be bought for a small monthly add-on fee.
We are 7 minutes walk from Lea Bridge Station, with trains arrive twice an hour to Tottenham Hale and Stratford. Here's the timetable. From Tottenham Hale (7 minutes journey away) it's a short snap into central London via the Victoria line, and a quick overground journey to London Liverpool St.
The W19 from Walthamstow Central stops just around the corner (and leaves to go back there from right outside the building). We are 7 minutes walk from Lea Bridge Road, served by 55 and 56 buses into Hackney.
We are also well-served by the cycle routes around the Lee Valley - one of them leads right up to the door. Just navigate through the Lee Valley Riding Centre to avoid all roads!
There are two large private car parks just next to the building. They are very reasonably priced - it's £3 for a 3-hour stay or £6 for an eight-hour stay.
Access: Elevator and stairs. Wheelchair access by the elevator.
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