Bookbinding was first offered at the Leicester School of Art in the 1901-02 session. The prospectus stated that ' practical instruction will be given in all the branches of the craft '. By the 1930s teaching had expanded and the subject was taught as part of the Department of Printing and Book Production which offered day and evening classes for apprentices and journeymen in bookbinding and machine ruling. The course was designed to lead to the City and Guilds Institute qualification. Students were taught 'practical bookbinding', 'design', 'theory and English', and 'ruling'. There was also a course in 'bookcrafts' for trainee art teachers.
In the 1950s the Bookbinding Department came under the School of Printing. Students had to be employed in the industry or be preparing to enter it. The syllabus gave complete basic training in both letterpress and stationery binding. Part time students undertook a 5 year course which combined practical work, theory and design. The prospectus advised: 'a complete course comprises folding, cleaning, mending, guarding, sewing on cords and tapes, back gluing, cutting of edges, rounding and backing, marbling, edge-guilding and colouring, headbanding, covering in cloth, leather, vellum and other materials, hand lettering and tooling, gold and colour blocking, inlaying, spring back account books, laced banded ledgers, looseleaf books, repair and restoration of old books and bindings' . Importance was placed on design and decoration while experimentation was encouraged: 'the scope of the work is governed only by the limitations of the student '.
Formal teaching in bookbinding appears to have stopped when the College of Art became Leicester Polytechnic in 1969 and subjects from the School of Printing were absorbed within the new Graphic Design course.
From the guide to the Bookbinding Classes, Leicester College of Arts and Crafts, 1930-1955, (De Montfort University Archives and Special Collections)
