London Pen Show March 2025
The London Pen Show took place on Sunday 2 March at the Novotel Hammersmith.
I had the opportunity to attend, but decided to stay at the Premier Inn on Talgarth Road, just around the corner from the show hotel. That was very convenient and an easy walk to the show itself.
The team from Write Here Pens in Shrewsbury also travelled down on the Saturday, and it was a pleasure to catch up with John, Owen, Hilary and Jasmin for a pre-show drink in the Novotel bar. I can recommend the Camden Pale Ale if you like a beer! We had the chance to have a chat with Michael, one of the owner operators of the UK pen show, and it was interesting to hear about the plans for the new Singapore Pen Show planned for later this year. It sounds a very exciting and promising event!
After an early start giving the WH team a helping hand to set up (great range of Sailor, Scribo, Taccia, Twsbi, Leonardo and new brands Stipula and Pelikan too), I dived into the show itself. It is a large and spacious venue, 200+ tables and a lot of vendors, including some from the international community specialising in high quality vintage pens, as well as retailers of new, modern pens.
It took me 3+ hours to walk around and have a good look. I then met up with customers and friends, the show is a great place to meet people in real life.
I really enjoyed the show this year. A great buzz of excitement for the first UK pen show of 2025, and my personal first pen show in 2025 too, the disco lights being accidentally switched on at one point only added to the party atmosphere!
I didn’t buy anything for my own collection, although I did pick up a couple of pens as gifts, as well as purchasing a couple for this website (thanks to Ray at Vintage and Modern Pens!) and collecting some pens that had been worked on by a nib expert (Thomas And) prior to the show. More on those to come another day.
I am looking forward to the 2 day show in October - it will be worth a visit.
