L. Cornelissen & Son

About this place

There is a shop on Great Russell Street in Bloomsbury that has been selling artists' materials since 1855. Most people walk straight past it. That is their loss. L Cornelissen and Son was founded by Louis Cornelissen, a Belgian lithographer who fled Paris during the 1848 revolutions and landed in London, reportedly on the advice of J.M.W. Turner himself. He set up selling pigments, engraving tools and printmaking supplies, and artists have been coming ever since. Step inside today and the original Victorian fittings are still there. The drawers still pull open to reveal calligraphy nibs in every conceivable size. The shelves still hold pigments stacked in jars from floor to ceiling. And behind the counter, kept quietly out of sight, sits real gold. Over twenty shades of it, alongside palladium and platinum.