The 5 Best Art Supply Shops in Southampton

July 23, 2026

The 5 Best Art Supply Shops in Southampton | Discount Art Supplies

Written by Paul Worrall

My own experience of Southampton amounts to precisely one visit, and even that was really just a stopover — catching a ferry across to the Isle of Wight a few years back, with maybe forty minutes spare beforehand to grab a coffee near the docks. So I’ll be upfront: everything else I know about this city’s art scene comes from properly digging in rather than wandering its streets myself. Which is a shame, because what I found while researching this guide suggests Southampton deserves a longer stop than the one I gave it.

A working port city with a proper university art school in Winchester School of Art, a contemporary gallery doing serious exhibition work, and a community of independent makers operating quietly without much fuss — Southampton has the bones of a decent art scene, even if it’s not the first place that comes to mind when people talk about UK creative cities. Sixteen years in the UK art supplies industry, nearly a decade running digital marketing for ARTdiscount, and now running Discount Art Supplies — a price comparison platform reaching over 36,000 UK artists every week — gives me a decent sense of what actually matters when judging a city’s art supplies offering, even from the wrong side of a ferry terminal. If you’re planning visits to nearby cities, also check out our guides to the best art supply shops in Bristol and the best art shops in Brighton.

1. Povey @ Perrys

If you’re in Southampton and need art supplies for a journey home, or you’re a student or resident looking to properly develop your skills, Povey @ Perrys is the genuine specialist the city centre has been missing from most online guides. It’s the kind of independent that locals know about and visitors usually don’t, which is exactly the sort of shop worth highlighting properly rather than letting it get buried under chain stores in search results.

For Southampton artists wanting a dedicated specialist rather than a general craft superstore, this is the first stop worth making before anywhere else on this list.

2. Hobbycraft Southampton

The honest version of Hobbycraft, consistent with every other city guide I write: not specialist, not deep in professional-grade range, but genuinly useful for what it is. Hobbycraft Southampton is consistently praised in reviews for its extensive range and exceptional customer service — knowledgeable, friendly staff who’ll help locate specific products or explain how something works rather than leaving you to wander. One review specifically notes it’s conveniently located next to Haskins and accessible from the motorway network, making it an easy stop whether you’re local or passing through.

The trade-off, as one reviewer fairly points out, is that you pay a premium for having everything under one roof — it’s often cheaper to find the same items elsewhere if you’re prepared to shop around. Check our Hobbycraft discount code guide before visiting to offset that premium with the student or Blue Light Card discount.

3. The Southampton Bead Shop

A genuinly specialist destination and one of the better-reviewed independent shops in the city — described by regulars as a “true Aladdin’s cave of treasure” for beads, crystals and pearls, with particular praise for the quality of their Swarovski crystal range. The Southampton Bead Shop also runs workshops, which is the kind of community-building activity that turns a shop into a proper creative hub rather than just a retail unit. Staff are repeatedly praised as helpful and knowledgeable, always able to track down exactly what a customer is after.

For jewellery makers, mixed media artists and anyone working with beadwork as part of a broader craft practice, this is a destination worth the trip on its own merits.

4. John Hansard Gallery

Not a supplies shop, but worth including for what it represents about Southampton’s creative seriousness. Launched in 1980 and affiliated with the University of Southampton, John Hansard Gallery showcases innovative work by UK and international artists through exhibitions, off-site projects, research, publications and education programmes. For artists wanting genuine inspiration alongside their materials shopping, or simply to understand what a city’s contemporary art scene is actually capable of, John Hansard Gallery is the proof that Southampton takes this seriously.

5. Red Hot Press Printmaking Workshop

Red Hot Press Printmaking Workshop Southampton

Founded in 2004, Red Hot Press is a dedicated print facility catering for relief and intaglio printmaking techniques, running courses and weekend workshops for everyone from interested beginners through to accomplished printmakers. The facility can also be hired by experienced printmakers on a daily basis, which is a genuinly useful resource for anyone in the region serious about printmaking but without their own studio setup. Printmaking remains one of the more underserved disciplines in most UK city guides, and Southampton having a dedicated specialist facility like this says something properly positive about the depth of its creative community.

A Note on Art Supplies in Southampton

Southampton’s art supplies scene is genuinly more substantial than its reputation suggests. A proper independent specialist, a well-loved bead and jewellery destination, a serious contemporary gallery tied to the university, and a dedicated printmaking workshop running courses for the whole community — that’s a more complete creative infrastructure than many cities of comparable size manage. It doesn’t shout about itself the way Bristol or Brighton do, but it’s there if you know where to look.

Next time I’m passing through for a ferry, I’ll be building in more than forty minutes. For professional-grade materials and the best current UK prices across all major art retailers, Discount Art Supplies compares prices in real time so you always find the best deal before buying anywhere.