In this story:
Every other of the many paint and sip classes in London gives you a teacher, a reference image, and step-by-step instruction. Art Play London's Unguided Free Flow Painting Workshop gives you none of that — just a canvas, a wall of paints, a bar, and two hours to do whatever you want with it. No paint-by-numbers here. It's £12 to £20, it's in Old Spitalfields Market, and it has close to 500 reviews at 4.8 stars, which makes it one of the most-reviewed single classes in the city.
With 150,000+ reviews and a 4.9-star average across ClassBento's 15,000+ classes to measure it against, that's a properly strong showing — and it's a big part of why Free Flow keeps coming up as one of the better picks in the category.
What "unguided" actually means (and why some people prefer it)
There's no instructor walking the room, no reference painting to recreate, and no brief beyond 'paint whatever you like.' You choose a standard canvas or an X-large one, or — an unusual option — a 23cm blank bear shape to paint instead of a flat surface (you can't pour paint on the bear during Free Flow sessions specifically; that's reserved for a separate guided fluid-bear workshop). One visitor reviewing the session put it well:
I really enjoyed being in my own world, helping myself to as many paints as I needed. They provide everything which was really nice. The canvas was big and the place is popular as it did get busy but that didn't disturb my creativity. So glad I booked!
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Meet Art Play London, the studio behind it
Art Play London was founded by Silva Castellani in 2018, starting out in galleries including Phillips and a run of pop-up venues around the city before opening a permanent East London studio in Old Spitalfields Market in February 2022. The studio also has an environmental angle worth knowing about: it's a collection point for the worldwide Precious Plastic community, taking in HDPE plastic that would otherwise end up in landfill or the ocean, shredding and melting it down into plant pots, coasters and other objects.
What's actually provided, and what it costs
Unguided Free Flow Painting Workshop, Art Play London, Old Spitalfields Market runs up to 2 hours for £12-20, with extra time available at £8 an hour if you're not ready to stop. All materials are included — acrylic paints, brushes, palette knives, pencils, aprons — and the studio runs a full bar (coffee, soft drinks, wine, beer, cocktails) plus pizza and snacks to buy on top. It's a short walk from Aldgate East, Liverpool Street or Aldgate tube stations. Well-behaved dogs are welcome, and if you don't want to carry a wet canvas home straight away, the studio will store it for up to seven days for £3. A smaller Unguided Free Flow Painting Workshop, Chelsea location also runs the same format on a smaller scale (1-20 guests, £18) if East London isn't convenient.
Who this suits (and who might prefer a guided class instead)
This is the right pick if you want a low-pressure creative hour without committing to a group booking or a specific date months out — Free Flow sessions run daily and you can turn up solo, with a partner, or with friends without pre-arranging anything beyond a ticket. At £12-20, it's also the cheapest class in the entire paint-and-sip category by some distance, and the ratio of reviews (nearly 500) to price suggests plenty of people come back more than once. It's the wrong pick if what you actually want is a teacher explaining technique, a step-by-step result to aim for, or a party format built around music and drinks packages — for that, our guide to neon paint and sip in London covers a format built specifically around instruction and atmosphere — with a bit of glow thrown in — rather than creative freedom.
Browse the full range of paint and sip classes in London if you'd rather compare the unguided format against a taught class first.
Runs regularly
Islington
1 to 30 guests
20 years in business
9k followers
