The Goodlife Centre
What is it: An independent DIY learning space in London’s Bankside.
Why you’ll love it: Classes are open to everyone (well over 10), so whether you are homeschooling, retraining for work, or exploring new skills for pleasure, there’s something to learn. With subjects as broad as Carpentry, Furniture Making, and Home Maintenance, that workshop could cover making a plant pot holder or simple bookbinding, learning modern upholstery or woodcarving, or delving into Log Cabin quilting or cold process soap making. You’ll come away with practical knowledge, more confidence in how to use those power tools, do things for yourself, and make whatever you need to happen in your home.
What you need to know: Inspired by her first “Tools for the Terrified” course in 2009, founder Alison Winfield-Chislett — formally a product designer at Asprey and Tiffany and author of The Girls Guide to DIY — developed the idea for The Goodlife Centre. From its first bright studio workspace in 2011 to its current permanent home in a renovated cardboard box making factory, The Goodlife Centre’s central location has given weary Londoners an escape into making.
What they offer online and off: During closed times, classes head online and are on-demand, with current offers including Basic Tiling, DIY drills, and Basic Practical Electrics. The Goodlife Centre can even send you a Practice Box, so you’re DIY endeavors are more played with than permanent.
Why we think it's special: If you’ve never learned how to ‘do things’, and you often turn to Youtube for how to rewire a plug or paint a wall, The Goodlife Centre’s experts offer the foundations and confidence to tackle repairs, restore unloved items, and make things from scratch. Becoming self-reliant is empowering, learning to take care of our homes and not outsourcing our own skills a way of reconnecting to our environments. Working with our hands again also gives us access to the analog world, getting us off our devices and into a learning experience that is all about the moment, the physical, the tangible. But these skills are impactful beyond the satisfaction of reupholstering a chair. Our throwaway culture is having serious consequences for our environment. By relearning basic object survival skills, we can reduce the amount that is wasted when something is deemed unbroken or unfixable.
In their own words: “The Goodlife Centre provides interesting practical ‘hands-on’ workshops where everyone can gain new skills and enjoy expanding their confidence and abilities. All classes are open to men and women and are intended to teach skills to beginners and are not intended as trade training courses. We do not test or evaluate – so you can relax while you learn.”
Something to do: Hesitate before you bin something you believe to be broken. Possibly it’s not and there’s a simple fix. Try to repair something (with safety cautions in mind) before you decide to replace it. Take Do Nation’s Pledge to Fix It.
To find out more: Website / Instagram / Facebook / Twitter
Photo: Vic Philips
