Book Binding Workshop at Portico Library

Carmel Smickersgill, Tours & Activities Editor

Book now

A crossed structure notebook: Book Binding Workshop

The Portico Library, Chinatown
17 September 2025

Always double check opening hours with the venue before making a special visit.

A collection of three notebooks
The Portico
Book now

Join the Portico Library for a mindful book binding workshop. Using a non-adhesive binding techniques developed by Carmencho Arregui, you’ll sew your own book together before finishing it with card, leather or material. For the inside you will use reinforced hand-marbled paper and a supported book cloth. The workshop will be led by keen bookbinder Barry Clark with tea and coffee from the cafe served on arrival as well as a sandwich lunch included in the ticket price.

What's on at The Portico Library

Where to go near Book Binding Workshop at Portico Library

City Centre
Restaurant
Blinker

Elegant cocktail bar in the centre of Manchester, with a relaxed atmosphere and wonderfully friendly staff.

moose coffee manchester creative tourist
Manchester
Café or Coffee Shop
Moose Coffee Manchester

Moose Coffee celebrates ‘the best meal of the day’ (brunch) in American style, with stack pancakes, potato hash, Huevos Rancheros and eggs any way. There’s always a queue.

Home-X
Manchester
Restaurant
Home-X

Home-X is the online spin-off of renowned Scottish-Italian chef Nico Simeone’s Six By Nico restaurant. This is geared around kit meals to cook at home.

Manchester
Restaurant
Pho Manchester

Pho does a fine line in pho, the noodle soup that’s a staple of Vietnamese street cuisine.

Manchester
Shop
Siam Smiles

Now based at the Great Northern, Siam Smiles is a food stop that’s hot on everyone’s lips.

Chinatown
Restaurant
Manchester Art Gallery Cafe

Summery bakes, seasonal salads and fresh light meals at Manchester Art Gallery’s in-house café, courtesy of highly-regarded Head Chef Matthew Taylor.

hunan chinese restaurant manchester
Chinatown
Restaurant
Hunan Restaurant

Hunan, a Chinese restaurant in Manchester’s Chinatown, may be a bit off the beaten track – but it’s all the better for that.

What's on: Activity

Southern Cemetary Chorlton by Tom Jeffs
TourChorlton
Southern Cemetery Tour

Within Chorlton’s Southern Cemetery lie fascinating stories, beautiful architectural details, and the inspiration behind one of The Smith’s best songs.

From £20.00
Knutsford Tour
TourKnutsford
Secrets of Knutsford

From wild buildings to wilder characters, explore hidden histories and architectural oddities in the Cheshire town of Knutsford.

From £20.00
After Hours at Chetham's Library
TourManchester
Chetham’s Medieval Buildings

Join an access-all-areas guided tour of Chetham’s Library and the surrounding school – among the most venerable buildings in the North West.

From £20.00

Culture Guides

Detail of an abstract sculpture, with burned materials and rusty chicken wire at the centre, with rusted metal bars bent around it.
Exhibitions in the North

Chocolate fountains, beautiful batiks and medieval marginalia - this month's supersized Exhibitions Guide has it all.

Literature Events in the North

The autumn leaves might be falling already, but the harvest is plentiful as the live literature scene gets back into the swing of things after a summer break...

Theatre in Manchester and the North
Theatre in the North

This season’s theatre is gloriously eclectic: from radical cabaret and reinvented classics to new musicals and boundary-pushing performance.

Cinema in the North

This month we recommend a season of Film noir, cult Australian movies and a huge celebration of DIY community cinema.