East End furniture makers
In the 19th century the East End brought in goods from around the world via the docks. But in another business the East End supplied the world itself — as the home of factories which furnished the homes of Britain and the Empire. Before the 1830s most London furniture makers were based in the centre of London turning out posh pieces for the big houses of the West End. But new houses were shooting up in the East End, needing plentiful furniture and quick – a new business was about to be born.
In 1801 there was just one furniture firm in Shoreditch’s Curtain Road, 50 years later it was the hub of an East End business employing tens of thousands and producing the majority of the capital’s output. The boom started with the opening of the East India and West India Docks and a new, plentiful supply of cheap timber. The building of the canals brought the timber inland, with sawmills setting up business alongside, and hundreds of small workshops sprung up in Bethnal Green, Shoreditch and Hoxton to produce cheap furniture. It was cheap and easy to set up on your own, the workers needed only enough cash to buy wood to work on one piece at a time. The ‘small master’ system took root, with craftsmen working from tiny rooms or garrets, and so they became known as garret masters.
While the skilled West End masters put off marriage and children to dedicate themselves to their trade, the garret masters planned to have as many as possible. Families of six or more were not unusual, with all taking up an unpaid duty with the master, maybe as young as six. The great Victorian chronicler of East End life, Henry Mayhew, recorded the tale of a Spitalfields garret master in 1850. The man started his 16-hour day at 6am, put his children to the same work six days a week, then sent his wife out to walk miles to sell their wares. For all that work, the family would earn just 16 shillings, and they often went to bed unfed. As the master said: “Unless a man has children to help him he can’t live at all.”
Soon, many of the Jewish immigrants were flooding into the trade and by the turn of the century owned many of the firms. Lobovitch, Hyman, Galinsky and Dolnisky around the Whitechapel Road became famous names. Customers could try Caplins or Percy Young on the Commercial Road or Wickhams – the “Harrods of East London” – on the Mile End Road. The biggest of them all was Lebus of Tabernacle Street, by the end of the 19th century the major furniture-maker in Britain. By the time the firm moved out to Tottenham Hale in 1903, it employed more than 1,000 people. The industry was at its peak as the new century drew on, but World War Two brought disaster. Shortages of materials forced the Government to introduce Utility Furniture, using wood sparingly and produced in limited runs.
Many big factories were turned over to aircraft manufacture, small firms simply went under. Big names like Lebus and Beautility simply disappeared. An East End industry, which had led the world, vanished almost as quickly as it had appeared. For more information read Furnishing The World by Kirkham, Mace and Porter, Journeyman Books.