letterpress · hand binding · paper
Fred Okonjo
One press, two hands, and a shop that smells of linseed oil and old paper. I print things slowly and bind them to last longer than I will.
- studio
- Unit 4, 118 Northdown Road
- town
- Margate, Kent CT9 2RE
- press
- Heidelberg Platen, 1961
- open
- Tue–Sat, 10:00–17:30
- books bound
- 1,412 and counting
- status
- taking commissions
Hover the name. It does something.
Selected work
Six jobs from the last two years. Some were paid, some were favours, one was a wedding present I am still slightly annoyed about.
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The Thanet Almanac, 2025
A pocket almanac of tides, bird arrivals and market days across the Isle of Thanet. Set in 10pt Caslon, printed on a Zerkall mould-made, bound in quarter cloth with marbled boards I made in the back room over four wet afternoons.
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Wedding invitations — Ama & Tom
Two-colour invitation suite on 300gsm cotton rag, deep terracotta and a moss green they picked off a photograph of a hedge. Hand-set, hand-fed, hand-delivered because the post in Ramsgate lost the first batch.
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Rebinding: a 1789 prayer book
Brought in by a family in Broadstairs in a shoebox, in eleven pieces. New sewing on linen tapes, sympathetic calf spine, original boards retained and consolidated. It will outlive all of us again.
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Broadstairs Bookshop — shop identity
Bags, bookmarks, a rubber stamp, and the paper bags they now use for everything. The stamp is cut from a linoleum block and I re-cut it every eighteen months when it wears down.
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Poems for a Small Kitchen
A pamphlet of twelve poems by a Margate poet who paid me in tomatoes for a summer. Letterpress cover, hand-sewn, printed on offcuts from the almanac so no two copies have the same paper.
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Margate Winter Lights — signage
Forty hand-printed cards suspended along the harbour arm, each with a different word for cold. They survived the wind. Two of them are still up and I have decided to leave them.
The shop
What's on the shelf this week. Prices include the paper, the ink, and the swearing.
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Notebook — quarter cloth, 96pp
Blank 120gsm cartridge, sewn in sections, cloth spine in four colours. Lies flat. Takes fountain pen without bleeding.
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Notebook — marbled boards, 144pp
Marbled in the back room, no two alike. Ruled or blank, tell me which when you order.
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Letterpress cards — set of six
Six designs, printed on the platen from old wooden type. Blank inside. Envelopes included, obviously.
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Broadstairs bookmark, lino-cut
Printed on offcuts. The lighthouse is slightly wonky and I have stopped apologising for it.
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The Thanet Almanac, 2025
Quarter cloth, marbled boards, numbered. 41 copies left of 240.
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Repairs — by the hour
Loose signatures, split spines, water damage, dog-chewed corners. Bring it in and I'll tell you honestly whether it's worth it.
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Commission — bespoke binding
Your text, your paper, your cloth. Six to ten weeks depending on the queue. Deposit is half.
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Paper offcuts — by the bag
A carrier bag of good paper. For collages, for children, for people who can't throw anything away. Me neither.
No online checkout yet — email or come in. I answer emails on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which is slower than you'd like and faster than I'd like.
About
I learned to set type in a basement in Peckham in 2009, from a man named Derek who had been a compositor at The Daily Telegraph until the hot metal went out and took his job with it. Derek was not sentimental about it. He said the machines were filthy and the hours were terrible and he'd do it all again. I believed him, which is how I ended up here.
I moved to Margate in 2015 because the rent on a workshop in London was the same as the rent on a whole shop here. I bought the Heidelberg in 2016 from a printer in Ashford who was retiring and wanted it to go to someone who'd actually use it. It weighs a tonne and a half. Getting it through the door took four men, a pallet truck, and a section of the wall that is now a slightly different colour.
Since then I've printed almanacs, wedding invitations, poetry pamphlets, shop signage, and one very strange commission for a man who wanted his own obituary set in advance. He was fine. He came in last month to ask for a reprint.
I work alone, mostly. I take on one apprentice each summer — usually someone from the art school who has never held a bone folder and leaves eight weeks later with strong opinions about grain direction. I bind about a hundred books a year and I know where every one of them went.
- press
- Heidelberg Platen, 1961, 10×15
- type
- Caslon, Garamond, Gill, and a lot of wood
- paper
- Zerkall, Fabriano, Khadi, and offcuts
- cloth
- Bookcloth from a mill in Suffolk
- glue
- Wheat starch, cooked on the hob
- apprentices
- 9 so far, 7 still binding
Workshops
Small groups, four people maximum, because there are only four bone folders and I am not buying more.
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Bookbinding: the basics
One day, 10:00–16:30. You'll fold, sew a three-section pamphlet, and case it in boards. You leave with a book you made and a new awareness of how much glue is too much glue. All materials included, lunch is not — the café two doors down does a good one.
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Letterpress taster
Three hours on the platen. Set your own name in wood type, print twenty cards, get ink on your sleeves. No experience needed. Bring an apron or accept your fate.
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Marbling paper
A messy, joyful afternoon in the back room with a tray of size and too many colours. You'll marble twelve sheets and take them home to dry flat under your own books.
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Repair clinic
Bring a damaged book. I'll look at it, tell you what's wrong, and show you what you can fix yourself with a needle and some PVA. No charge, no obligation, no judgement about the sellotape.
Booking is by email for now. Tell me which one and how many of you, and I'll confirm within a couple of days.
Visit
- address
- Unit 4, 118 Northdown Road, Margate CT9 2RE
- finding it
- Blue door between the barber and the charity shop. Up one step, mind the cat.
- tuesday
- 10:00 – 17:30
- wednesday
- 10:00 – 17:30
- thursday
- 10:00 – 17:30
- friday
- 10:00 – 17:30
- saturday
- 10:00 – 16:00
- sunday
- closed
- monday
- closed — printing day
Say hello. If you want a commission, a repair, or a place on a workshop, tell me which and roughly when.
Fred Okonjo · letterpress & hand binding · Northdown Road, Margate
Printed, folded, sewn and glued on the premises. This page was not.