Collis Bird & Withey

Ah, the end of an era. I wanted to get my thesis hardbound in style (50,000+ words and 230 pages of pure joy) and go through it with someone to iron out any problems that may arise rather than just doing the whole shebang online, so I went to CB&W which came highly recommended by a lot of people.
The service here is fantastic and the whole process went smoothly. They have display copies of everything, a comprehensive chart of London University binding conventions, a range of different paper types, several different colours, lettering examples, and the staff go through your work with you before you process it just to flag up any potential difficulties. I also spent a good half an hour trying to find out what format my supervisor wanted (do I want the spine writing going up or down the spine?). Extremely helpful! In total, it was £72 per copy of my thesis for a two-​day service including printing (70 colour pages) — it’s a bit extra for 200+ pages. Checking with some other binders, the price was pretty good, so no complaints here.
The finished article is nice. I think I would’ve preferred slightly heavier weight paper, however, I was told it wasn’t possible seeing as it’s over 200 pages. Fair dos. Unfortunately, the printing isn’t quite up to the standard that I expected with the colour images suffering in terms of quality (colour dotting). It’s a shame as everything else was great, but the images turned out quite a bit better in my pre-​viva copies ordered through another online service. It may be worth checking with them what their printing options are if you have a lot of images in your document, or alternatively you can have it printed elsewhere for them to bind. Overall though, I’d definitely come here again if I needed things bound, if only for the service alone.

There was nothing more professional and calming and supportive than getting my dissertation bound here.
The staff are wonderfully friendly and helpful and the quality of service is absolutely great. Whatever you need for a reasonable price.
I can highly recommend them to any college student needing a binding done on an assignment, although they are located right beside London Metropolitan University.
The reception area is small, but oh so cute, with the desk décor being two huge books stack atop each other. Even the sample books are cute, with titles like B. Stoker with his MSC in Real Estate Development. It takes the edge off the stress of the student, or at least it did for me.
If I ever have to do a dissertation again, please god I won’t, i’d return there.

They say the most stressful thing in life is divorce, followed a close second by buying a home. Having written my undergraduate dissertation earlier this year, I’m afraid I beg to differ.
No sooner have you finished writing your 12,000 word, erm, masterpiece than you have to start thinking about the practicalities of printing and binding your dissertation. And in a city like London where it can take an hour to post a letter because the queues are so long and the staff so lacking, finding somewhere to have your dissertation bound to the exact requirements of your exacting lecturers can me a mission and a half.
I settled on Collis Bird and Withey for a number of reasons including, but not limited to, cost, location and turnaround time and they were nothing short of spectacular. You’d be hard pressed to find a more professional and efficient binding specialist than Collis Bird and Withey.