Contemporary Applied Arts is London’s original multi-disciplinary applied arts gallery.
Celebrating its 75th year, it has championed and promoted the very best of British craft.
Contemporary Applied Arts has a remarkable history. The idea of a members’ selling organisation was developed while planning the future of the crafts during the Second World War. As a result, five societies – the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, the Red Rose Guild, the Society of Scribes and Illuminators, the Senefelder Club (devoted to lithography) and the Society of Wood Engravers – came together to create the Crafts Centre of Great Britain. The Centre opened as a showcase for the crafts in April 1950. Its premises at 16-17 Hay Hill, just off Piccadilly, were fitted out stylishly by the architect Sergei Kadleigh. In 1953 the Centre became a trading body, as opposed to merely a showroom.