29/08/25
The London School of Mosaic - Final Update
As we reach the close of The London School of Mosaic as an organisation, we’re delighted to share some truly positive news about how our legacy will continue. Thanks to the dedication of our community, friends, and partners, many of our activities, spaces, and traditions will live on.
Undercraft
We’re thrilled to share that, working with Camden, a new organisation has been identified to take on the Undercraft building. Even better, they share a similar ethos to ours and bring strong experience running community-focused ventures. This means all licence-holders will be able to continue in the building just as they do today. Handover is already underway, and the new organisation will make their official announcement next week.
Mosaic Community
We’re proud to see our community grow, with many of you swelling the membership of BAMM and keeping the spirit of mosaic alive and strong. We strongly suggest you check them out and subscribe for UK based mosaic news and opportunities. They can be found at https://bamm.org.uk/
Diploma
Discussions continue with a prestigious London-based institution, known for its focus on heritage crafts, to develop a new home for our Diploma programme. We hope to bring you further good news soon.
Short Courses
Working Mens' College situated in Crowndale Road, Camden will take over our existing roster of short courses. Courses are likely to start in January 2026 and will, as far as possible, be taught by our wonderful short course tutors - Paula Ligo, Catherine Parkinson, Rada Stilianova, and Debra Collis. WMC is a friendly adult college with an ethos of service to the community which has recently collaborated with Tessa Hunkin and the Hackney Mosaic Project to create a mosaic to celebrate their 170th anniversary, making now the perfect time for them to add mosaic courses to their wider arts portfolio.
Please check the WMC website for more information in due course.
https://www.wmcollege.ac.uk/170-mosaic-project/
Assets & Materials
Thanks to your support, we’ve safeguarded many of our artworks as community assets. David Tootill, our founder, is helping us to find new homes for them where they can be enjoyed. Much of the studio equipment and materials will go to new homes where the Diploma and short courses will continue, while our recent materials sale raised the essential funds needed to carry us through August. This meant our Diploma students could graduate, and we could ensure a smooth transition for the Undercraft. A heartfelt thank you to all who contributed.
Public Realm Mosaics
We’re still looking for volunteers to help check and maintain the mosaics already out in the community. It’s a lovely way to stay in touch with mosaic friends—if you’re interested, please get in touch with Joanna Lewis at joanna.lewis@lsomosaic.com
Commissions & Partnerships
Our projects and commissions are being passed into the capable hands of staff, freelance tutors, and Diploma graduates, ensuring this work continues to flourish.
✨ Thank you all for being part of this journey. With your support, the London School of Mosaic’s vision continues to live on—through spaces, friendships, and a growing community dedicated to mosaic.
Saying Goodbye to the London School of Mosaic:
We will update this page regularly with details and updates on our closure, up until August 29th 2025.
After this way may have infrequent updates with larger news items.
11/08/25
Updated Studio Sale List
We’re having a big clear-out! Here’s a rough guide to the kinds of materials and tools available after setting aside stock for legacy kits. Stock is limited and sold on a first-come, first-served basis. We will have card readers on the day and you can also pay in cash although we cannot guarantee change.
Smalti
Vintage smalti (thick off-cuts): Was £32/kg → £15/kg, sold by weight.
Smalti pizze (round and small square whole pieces, wide colour range): Approx. £40/kg → £20/kg, sold by weight.
Modern pre-cut smalti (small cuboids): Was £50–£80/kg → £30/kg, sold by weight.
Smalti off-cuts: Price to be confirmed, may be sold by the cup.
Note: Main smalti boxes in Italian studio are excluded for now.
Natural Stone
Wide rods (listelli) in multiple colours: Was £13–£15/kg → £1/rod (£4/kg).
Very thin rods: £5/kg.
1cm cubes (good colour range): £5/kg.
Marble off-cuts: FREE.
Pebbles, marble sheets, slate, oddments: FREE.
Ceramic Tile
Cinca and other assorted tiles: Was £12–£16/kg → £5/kg.
Broken crockery: FREE (please leave some for classes).
Vitreous Tile & Other
Full sheets: Was £5–£24 → £5/sheet (Bisazza orange £10/sheet).
Loose tiles: £5/kg.
Large stock of teal/dark blue/grey loose tiles: FREE (great for community projects).
Tile fragments: FREE.
Other non-standard materials: £5/kg.
Beads, millefiori, clay shapes: Priced individually.
Tools & Equipment
Big cutting/power tools: Around 50% off retail.
Hand tools: Low prices (e.g. £1 for a screwdriver).
Glass cutters, wheeled nippers, specialist tools: 50% off retail (availability may vary).
Substrates & Sundries
Wooden boards, mesh, frames, pots: Low individual prices (e.g. £1 for small board/pot).
Large slate pieces: Priced per piece.
Polystyrene sculpting blocks: 50% off retail.
Open grout/adhesive: FREE.
Closed grout/adhesive, pigments, isolastic: 50% off retail.
General art supplies: Priced individually.
Mosaic Artwork
Small miscellaneous mosaic pieces: Priced individually.
Pieces from the London Bridge mosaic: FREE.
Books & Other Items
Back issues of Mosaic & Glass / Andamento: Half price.
LSoM tote bags: Around £1.
Other miscellaneous non-mosaic items: Priced by negotiation.
💡 All prices are a guide only. Some items will be individually priced or negotiated on the day.
08/08/25
Items in Studio Sale
We’ve been preparing for the studio sale and after setting aside provisions for the studio-in-a-box legacy kits we will still have:
Lots of vitreous glass tiles: in many colours
Lots of marble: in various colours, in rods and cubes
Vintage smalti in various colours: some are still in whole pizzas
Lots of tools: nippers, hammers, hardies, craft knives, drill attachments, tile cutters, motorised tile cutters, screwdrivers
Adhesives: glues, grouts in various colours, adhesives
Picture hanging kit: d rings, mirror plates, hanging wire and so on
Substrates: plywood, MDF, wediboard, miscellaneous tile backer board
Most of the art supplies you would expect a craft school to have
Many wood work tools
Lots and lots of furniture
Stationary
A small amount of picture frames
There will be some bags that we will give away for free.
05/08/25
Studio-in-a-Box – Continuing the Legacy
We’re preparing "studio-in-a-box" legacy kits for those interested in continuing LSoM’s Diploma or Short Courses under a new name or organisation. The kits will include tools, materials, and relevant intellectual property — everything needed to begin offering courses based on our existing model.
Check back to see the list of items and costs on the week of the 11th August, and if you are seriously interested, please get in touch directly with Jo Lewis to discuss.
05/08/25
Studio Sale
Wednesday 13 to Friday 15 August
11:00 am – 4:00 pm each day
LSoM Workshop, 181 Mansfield Road, NW3 2HP
Even after making the studio-in-a-box provision for LSoM’s legacy, we will still have a wide selection of surplus materials, tools, mosaics, books, and studio ephemera. These are the final pieces of the space we've all built together, and we’d love to see them find new life in your hands.
We are working on an ‘imperfect list’ of items, but this won’t include everything for sale and will focus mainly on bulky items such as furniture. As many of you know, the school is a treasure chest of mosaic materials and that they are hard to itemise. The best way to find out what is on offer is to come to the sale.
On Friday 15 August, we will display a selection of mosaics that we are offering to the community free of charge — for public installation. These pieces are part of LSoM’s legacy and are intended to live on in shared, accessible spaces, not private collections.
If you have an idea or plan for how and where a mosaic could be installed in the public realm — in a park, school, library, community centre, street corner — we would love to hear it. We’re inviting proposals and suggestions from individuals, groups, or institutions who want to give these works a visible, lasting home.
Please bring your own packaging if you're purchasing items. If you buy something but cannot take it away immediately, all items must be collected by Friday 22 August.
05/08/25
Farewell Party
Friday 15 August
4:30 pm – 9:00 pm
LSoM Workshop, 181 Mansfield Road, NW3 2HP
This will be our final chance to gather in the space that has held so much energy, creativity and community over the years. Please come and share memories, stories, and a drink with old friends. BYOB encouraged.
We invite you to bring printed photos, letters, drawings or any memorabilia to help us decorate the space. After the event, these will become part of a scrapbook, which we will scan and upload to a legacy website as part of a permanent community archive.
Please share this party to mosaic friends and supporters. Everyone is welcome.
05/08/25
#londonschoolofmosaic – Social Media Takeover and Archive
On Friday 15 August, we’re asking everyone who has been a part of LSoM’s journey to post photos, memories, and reflections to Instagram or Facebook using the hashtag:
#londonschoolofmosaic
We hope this will serve as a social media takeover — a powerful collective moment that reflects the breadth of the community LSoM has touched. All content shared will be gathered into a lasting digital archive alongside the scrapbook and party decorations.
Whether you’re near or far and whether LSoM was a large or small part of your life, we want your voice in this final chapter. Please share the message far and wide, especially if you cannot attend the Farewell Party in person.
05/08/25
Call for Volunteers
We are asking for help from the community in the following areas:
A team to maintain our mosaic estate, including the public projects of LSoM and those of Southbank Mosaics. Ideally 2–3 lead volunteers, with others supporting. Materials will be made available for the care of public works.
Support for the Studio Sale — particularly those comfortable taking payments via Zettle. We will accept cash, but cannot guarantee change.
A small team to help move any remaining items to a new storage space in the building on the weekend of 30–31 August.
If you can help with any of these roles, please get in touch.
05/08/25
Community Wall Contributions
We are inviting contributions to the jungle-themed community mosaic wall just outside the London School of Mosaic. This wall has been a long-standing, joyful part of our public presence, and we’d love for it to continue growing — even after the school closes.
If you'd like to be part of it, please create a ceramic or glass mosaic (paper-faced or mounted on mesh) and drop it off at the LSoM office by Thursday 22 August. We expect to recieve most of these on the day of the Farewell Party, 15th August.
Our friend, neighbour, and long-time volunteer Neil Bell has generously offered to install these works gradually over time. It’s a beautiful way to leave a lasting contribution to the school’s legacy in the local landscape.
05/08/25
Short Courses, Studio Sessions and Closure
The London School of Mosaic’s last day of operation will be 29 August 2025.
Courses will run up to and including this date but any courses scheduled from 1 September 2025 onwards will be cancelled and refunded.
You can still book studio sessions for:
the week of the 4th August
Monday 11 August
Tuesday 12 August
the week of the 18th August
The last day of Studio Sessions will be the 22nd August. You must remove your work from the building by then.
23/07/25
Picking up work from our workshop
On a practical note, if you have a completed or partially finished mosaic in our building at 181 Mansfield Road London NW3 2HP, please come and collect it between 11am and 4pm on weekdays, no later than Friday 22 August.
Please share the information above widely. We want to give everyone who has been a part of this school a chance to say goodbye, to take something with them, and to carry something forward.
We are very grateful to everyone who has been part of the wonderful journey of The London School of Mosaic.
Thank you to all,
The London School of Mosaic Team
16/07/25
We are Closing
It is with great sadness that we announce The London School of Mosaic is closing because it is on the verge of insolvency. After eight years working to promote mosaic art within the UK, we want to express our deepest gratitude to all those who have studied or worked with us.
Initially founded as Southbank Mosaics in 2004 by David Tootill, we have produced over 350 mosaic installations in public spaces working with hundreds of volunteers from all walks of life, taught 4000 students on short courses, welcomed over 60 students to the Diploma in Mosaic Studies (the highest-level mosaic training in the UK), promoted mosaic art widely including in the national press and broadcast media and even produced the Christmas light show for the Shard in 2023. None of this would have been possible without the support of the community we love; institutions such as BAMM and ASPROM and countless mosaic professionals, who have all shared their expertise and support with us and our students, volunteers and friends.
The London School of Mosaic’s last day of operation will be 29 August 2025. Courses will run up to and including this date but any courses scheduled from 1 September 2025 onwards will be cancelled and refunded. There are still spaces on some courses scheduled in August, so people who have booked for courses in the autumn can switch on to one of these courses. New bookings are also very welcome.
On a practical note, if you have a completed or partially finished mosaic in our building at 181 Mansfield Road London NW3 2HP, please come and collect it between 11am and 4pm on weekdays, no later than Friday 15 August.
We are continuing to work on how to further the legacy of LSoM and the development of mosaic art in the UK more generally and we would like to call on the wonderful mosaic community for any help in this.
We are very grateful to everyone who has been part of the wonderful journey of The London School of Mosaic.
Thank you to all,
The London School of Mosaic Team
29/08/25
Looking back
Over the years, photographer Stephen Young has beautifully captured the energy, laughter, creativity, and friendships that filled our studios and the Undercraft.
These photos remind us that LSoM was about the community that grew here, the relationships that shaped us, and the joy of making together.
