Home · Notebooks and journals · Smythson

Portobello Notebook in Ludlow - Dark Brown

SmythsonMade in the UK

£260

The classic Portobello notebook is handcrafted in England from the finest leather and makes the perfect desk companion. Our signature gilt-edged, pale blue featherweight paper and a grosgrain bookmark are elegant finishing touches Dark brown Portobello notebook bound in grained calf leather 192 leaves of gilt-edged, pale blue ruled Featherweight paper Made in England Dimensions:W21 x H26cm / W8.5 x H10"

Smythson's own words, read from their page.

Buy from SmythsonPrice seen 2026-09-05. Affiliate link.

Where this comes from

The part other shops don't tell you. Three separate questions, kept separate on purpose, each with its source.

UK company
Registered at Companies House as FRANK SMYTHSON LIMITED, number 03594597. Checked 2026-08-29.
Means the business is a British legal entity, not a British-sounding name owned elsewhere. It says nothing about where anything is made.
UK operations
Stated by the company: "Warehousing, Customer Service & Production - Swindon" Source.
Means people employed here, or premises they actually work from. We keep this separate from the company badge because a registered office can be an accountant's spare room, and a company can be registered in Britain while everything it does happens somewhere else. Where we have not looked, we say so rather than assuming.
British-owned
No majority shareholding traced outside the UK. Companies House.
Read from the register of people with significant control, following the chain of holding companies. It does not gate anything: a firm can be made here and owned elsewhere, and that is worth telling you rather than hiding.
Made in the UK
The maker states: The classic Portobello notebook is handcrafted in England from the finest leather and makes the perfect desk companion. Our signature gilt-edged, pale blue featherweight Source. Their words, not ours; we have not independently verified it.
This is about the individual product, not the company. A British firm can sell things made abroad, which is normal and not a criticism. We would rather tell you which is which than average them into a score.