Clerkenwell Design Week 2025 Preview
With its curated exhibitions in atmospheric historic venues plus 160+ showrooms taking part, Clerkenwell Design Week (20-22 May 2025) harnesses the power of one of the capital’s most creative neighbourhoods. The D/A UK guide to these three design-packed days pinpoints what to see
Some of Clerkenwell’s most atmospheric buildings play host to shows at CDW, most of them curated thematically, from Light at former Victorian prison the House of Detention to the British Collection in the crypt of St James’s Church. Head to the latter to see Hand & Eye’s latest lighting, in delicately coloured porcelain, earthy terracotta and opal glass.
This year there are new locations in two of the area’s most famous landmarks: the church of St Bartholomew the Great (playing host to contemporary brands such as Moroso and SCP); and the centuries-old former monastery, The Charterhouse, which will include a capsule show of Spanish brands such as fabric from Pielsa and lighting from Robin.
At the Old Sessions House on Clerkenwell Green, see first-time exhibitor String Furniture’s Center Center modular furniture system, designed by Form Us With Love. You’ll also find experimental textiles (and a new collab with Coat paints) from Kirkby Design, and headboards from Treviso’s Bolzan, which has worked with India Mahdavi and Martino Gamper on its two latest releases, hot from Milan Design Week.
This area of the city is thronged with design showrooms, and hopping between them (especially on CDW’s late night on Wednesday 21 May) is a convivial way to check out new collections. At MillerKnoll’s St John’s Square showroom – a 1,700 sqm space over three floors that opened last September – in-house brands Knoll, Herman Miller and Maharam will be supplemented by work by Hay, including the X-Line chair, a 1970s design by Niels Jørgen Haugesen, recently revived.
At Mater on St John Street, see the Danish brand’s new Terra lighting, designed by OEO Studio and made from a patented material made from post-consumer waste from damaged/unwanted electronic devices and coffee waste. There’s more lighting at J Adams & Co (also on St John Street), which is showing new products including the Strata Circular light, a technical feat of curving, fluted glass tubes.
Workshop is a group show put together by the design and careers platform Collate, taking over a shopfront at 30D Sutton Street from 20-22 May. The concept is that of a “live” studio where designers and makers can showcase their process, materials and finished pieces.
Participants include Sedilia, showing its Roll Top chair upholstered in textiles from Yarn Collective; and extruded clay tableware from Maison S Sommet, while a collaboration between YesColours and Tamart will see the former’s paints adorn a series of the latter’s three-legged Central stools. The show is open from 10am, but roll up for the excellent combination of aperitivo and fries every evening from 4-7pm.
As per previous years, CDW has commissioned some special installations to enhance your perambulations around the neighbourhood. Alex Chinneck’s headline project at Charterhouse Square plays with architectural elevations in an installation made from salvaged steel, while Clerkenwell Green hosts Brick from a Stone: Arch Revival, a pair of stone arches designed by Hawkins\Brown, designed to show off the incredible potential of stone as a structural building material, using British-quarried bricks from Albion Stone and Hutton Stone.
Automatica is a series of vending machines dotted around (outside Farringdon station, Old Sessions House and inside Church of Design at St Bartholomew the Great), designed in collaboration with architect Simon Astridge. Pick up a token from the Solus showroom on Clerkenwell Road to vend yourself a tile sample from Italgranti. For down-time Hawkins\Brown’s Biscuit Bar at 30 Clerkenwell Road recreates a 1940s tea spot, incorporating furniture made from colourful faced ply by Sons of Beasley.
The official talks auditorium at The Charterhouse will be worth a trip in itself: designed by Kapitza, the London-based design studio founded by sisters Petra and Nicole Kapitza, it will feature the studio’s signature joyful colour and geometric shapes, a very contemporary interpretation of the historic building’s ornate plasterwork ceilings. Speakers include Sabine Marcelis and Alex Chinneck; book tickets here.
Showrooms and studios run their own programme alongside, with more than 170 events. On the evening of Tuesday 20 May at Conran and Partners (30a Great Sutton Street), come to a panel discussion moderated by D/A UK’s Elizabeth Choppin: tying in with Finnish lighting company Secto Design’s takeover of the studio’s windows, Finnish Sensibility – Reflections on Light, Longevity and Living Well features Secto’s Joakim Jusélius, Conran and Partners’ Amy Blight and industrial designer Roland Ellis of Relative Distance. RSVP here.
