London, 19–21 May 2026
For three days in May, the streets of EC1 do something they manage to do every year and yet still surprise you with. They become a working studio. Showrooms throw open their doors. Churches and crypts fill with furniture. The pavements between Old Sessions House and St John’s Square turn into a kind of moving conversation between architects, specifiers, makers and the simply curious.
This was Leandesk’s first Clerkenwell Design Week as an exhibitor, and it turned out to be a memorable one.
A home in the British Collection
We were exhibiting in the British Collection, which for the past decade has taken over the atmospheric crypt beneath St James’s Church on Clerkenwell Close. The setting is hard to beat. Vaulted brickwork. Parquet underfoot. The kind of low, considered light that flatters timber and rewards quiet design. To stand inside it with our bamboo and Dyneema sit-stand desk felt entirely right.
The British Collection has always been about championing homegrown studios, and the 2026 line-up reflected that. Releases came from Barnby Design, Fox & Furb, Chelsom, Another Country and Goldfinger among others. To be shown alongside them was an honour we didn’t take lightly.
Two awards we won’t forget in a hurry
CDW began with news we hadn’t dared expect, and the week only got better from there.
On day one, Leandesk was named winner of the Residential Furniture category at the CDW Awards, presented in partnership with Design Milk. It set the tone for everything that followed.
Leandesk was also awarded a Design Guild Mark by the Furniture Makers’ Company, recognising excellence in design for British-manufactured furniture. It’s a mark we’d long admired on other people’s work. Seeing it next to ours took a moment to absorb. Two awards in three days. We’re still pinching ourselves.
The people who made it
The numbers will say we had a busy stand. What the numbers won’t capture is the quality of the conversations. Over three days the team met workplace specifiers from some of the country’s most respected practices, architects working on build-to-rent at scale, independent interior designers, furniture buyers from major retailers, and hundreds of visitors who simply wanted a better desk for the spare room. People working in small flats. People kitting out studios. People looking for something that disappears when the working day is done.
A word from the designer
Henry Swanzy, who founded Leandesk in Cornwall and designed the desk from scratch, put it this way at the close of the week:
“There’s a particular kind of energy at Clerkenwell that you don’t find anywhere else. It’s the people. Specifiers who actually want to put their hands on the thing. Designers who ask the right questions about the mechanism, the materials, the lifespan. Coming out of three days like this with a Design Guild Mark and the Residential Furniture award has been extraordinary, and I want to thank everyone who came down to the crypt to say hello. Leandesk is a small studio doing one thing carefully. Recognition from a community this serious about design means a great deal.”
£135 off through May, in honour of CDW
To mark the festival and celebrate British design, we’re running an offer through the end of May. Every Leandesk is £135 off, the largest reduction we’ve ever made on the desk. The offer runs until 23:59 on 31 May 2026 and is available at leandesk.com/cdw.
Free UK shipping. Thirty-day returns. Five-year guarantee. Plastic-free packaging. We think that’s about as good a way as any to take a piece of Clerkenwell home with you.
For the trade
For the specifiers, architects, retailers and showroom partners we met on the stand (and the ones who couldn’t make it down to the crypt this year), we run a complimentary sample programme. We send a Leandesk to your studio or showroom for trial, along with a specification pack covering tear-sheets, CAD and Revit files and sustainability data. Henry is also happy to walk through your application personally.
Trade enquiries can be made at leandesk.com/trade-account.
Until next year
The crypt is quiet again. Old Sessions House has packed away its festival hub. The bunting along St John’s Square is down. CDW 2026 is over, and we’re already looking forward to 2027.
To everyone who visited the stand, took a card, asked a question or simply admired the desk in passing: thank you. You made it.
The Leandesk team
