I fled the Nazis as a child… I’m still working at 89: Meet the London glassblower who sells hand-crafted masterpieces for up to £20k
Peter Layton, regarded as the founding father of British glass as an artform, often describes his industry as the ‘Cinderella medium’.
But stepping inside London Glassblowing in Bermondsey, south London, there is nothing about his work that suggests it is an overlooked or under-appreciated movement.
An explosion of colour greets visitors from the pieces on show in his bustling studio.
‘I think people walk through our door and their jaws drop,’ says Layton. ‘“What, you do all this with glass?” some say.’
With the firm celebrating 50 years in business this year, Layton oversees one of the world’s foremost glass art galleries – and he is still going strong into his 90th year.
‘I am reasonably healthy still, but this is a labour of love for me,’ he says.
Glass act: Peter Layton wants to revive glass as a medium and his business turns over £2M
London Glassblowing’s pieces can sell for anything from a few hundred pounds to £20,000.
‘The process is so wonderful, seeing what comes out, and people really have an affinity with the material.’
London Glassblowing, which employs 20 part or full-time staff, has a turnover nudging £2million and is profitable year-on-year.
‘Although it is an ancient medium and more developed in the US, it is almost new to the UK audience,’ says Layton of studio glass.
‘It has been an uphill struggle in a way, but I feel we are getting somewhere.’
This year Layton received the inaugural lifetime achievement award at the week-long Collect art fair at Somerset House in central London.
He says the London Glassblowing stand ‘was one of the more exciting and had a bit of glitz’, generating about £100,000 in sales.
Layton was born in Prague in 1937 into a prosperous Jewish family. In 1939, they were forced to flee to England.
The family boarded what turned out to be one of the last trains to leave the Czech capital as the Second World War erupted.
He grew up in Bradford and counted David Hockney as a local contemporary, both having been noticed by art teachers at their respective schools.
Following national service, Layton turned his attention to ceramics, which he taught in the 1960s in the US.
With the studio glass movement taking shape – but not before a few near-death experiences experimenting with his ceramics – he returned to the UK in 1968 to start his long career.
Peter Layton in his studio where the burners run all hours as he continues an ancient tradition
He set up a studio in 1976 at the towage works by the Thames at Rotherhithe, where he stayed until the early 2000s. Facing rising rents nearly 20 years ago, he angrily went to discuss the issue with his landlord and on the way came across his present location.
Rent and rates today touch £50,000 a year, he says, and with the burners on at all hours, the studio is conscious of carbon emissions and whether they should turn to electric furnaces.
‘But you worry how reliable the supply will be and whether the cost of that will exceed the cost of the gas,’ he says.
‘As artists, we are interested in exploring ideas and expressing ourselves. Running the business side is pretty tough and not all of us are cut out for that. We have grown organically and I dragged my wife in 15 years ago and she has really helped us to grow.’
His wife, Ann, is now the director of the gallery. While there is a serious collectors’ market in the US and Japan, Layton says there is an opportunity for Britons, adding: ‘For the work that goes into glass, it is still very under-priced. You are getting an art object for next to nothing.’
Peter says his studio is conscious of carbon emissions and whether they should go electric
The father-of-three is also at pains to explain the ‘tragedy’ of the National Glass Centre in Sunderland, which closed its doors in July.
His industry is facing uncertainty with other art programmes closing.
‘The glass industry, once centred around Stourbridge, has virtually died,’ he says of the West Midlands town. ‘There are small pockets in the UK but the studios are really where the glass industry is in the UK.
‘Part of our mission is to promote glass as a medium. I have spent my last 50 years pushing it and I am keen to see it continue.’
London Glassblowing’s pieces – from baubles, vases, surfers’ waves and perfume bottles to sculptures and bespoke pieces – sell for anything from a few hundred pounds to £20,000.
Layton says: ‘We are supporting a lot of people and there are fewer opportunities elsewhere. We are a beacon for other galleries.
‘It’s inspiring to push each other and that there is a standard here. It’s important that there is a next generation as there is a voice and vision in your work.’
