An exhibition of carpentry where visitors can try their hand at woodwork themselves opens next week in London’s East End in a district once the thriving centre of the furniture-making industry.
The eight-day show by members of Bethnal Green’s Carpentry Club opens next Wednesday at the Oxford House Gallery where the public is being invited to see the kind of things they make and to try out the carpentry tools themselves.
Work includes birch and oak boxes, chopping boards, picture frames, furniture and toys, cork products, sculpted bowls, security lockers, go-karts, skateboards and furniture made from old barrels.
Groups exhibiting include Bethnal Green Men’s Shed, Renewal Furniture Group’s long-term unemployed making pallet furniture and Switchback young male ex-prisoners’ charity trainees.
The area of Bethnal Green and Shoreditch were once at the heart of London’s furniture trade. Just a mile from Oxford House is the Geffrye Museum set up 100 years ago as the showcase for the craft industry and is still known today as a showcase of home furnishing.
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