London Maker Festival

May 24, 2024

Earlier in the month, I attended the mini London Maker Festival hosted by the South London Makerspace.

The two day festival showed the best of the makerspace and its London makers.

The Makerspace is located in Herne Hill in South London, a short stroll from the railway station.

After crossing the road and walking past some shops the entrance can be found by entering the yard between the rows of shops and turning to the left. The maker space is housed in two arches at the end of the yard.

I entered the far arch first, the front area housed a handful of maker stalls and the technical exhibits. The makers had utilised the 3D printer and laser cutter to make complex art works, jewelry and homewares.

The arch was deceptively big and the large areas at the back had the tools such as the laser cutter which was being explained. The sewing space was running workshops making bags and the 3D printers were printing vases and batches of fidget rings for the visitors to take away. The hosts were friendly and clearly explained how you were given inductions to the tools before using them. I chatted with Brian who talked about some of the projects people were making in the space and he suggested I visit the second arch to see his giant sculpture.

In the second arch was the wood and metal areas. A large number of benches showed the tools and projects from the members. There was a fantastic smell of freshly cut wood and Mark gave me an ad-hoc lesson in using a router plane, a tool I have in my toolbox but have never really used. There was a good range of large power tools such as the CNC router that had a room to itself.

Mark also explained how the metal shop had been setup with help from the near by Society of Model and Experimental Engineers.

Makerspace are a great place to share tools, ideas and skills and the South London MakerSpace is no exception. I would recommend it to anyone who’s looking to make and doesn’t have the space in their London house or flat.

Hopefully, I’ll have a chance to visit my local makerspace on Ipswich before too long.