Jewel in the crown
Arabella Youens explores the King’s Road, now a design destination
The lighting specialist Charles Edwards originally started out selling just antiques until the American interior designer David easton asked if he could have six of a particular type of lantern that was on display. ‘I told him it would be hard to track them down, so he asked if I could make them myself—and the parallel worlds began.’ In order to avoid confusion, he set up separate premises for his new collection, so the antiques had their own space. With more than 1,000 pieces on show,
Christopher Wray—founded even earlier, in 1964—offers one of the largest and most diverse ranges of lighting in the capital, from nickel and brass to laser-cut Crystalflex and Murano glass.
For a jaunty selection of table lamps with leather shades in a range of punchy colours, check out Italian lighting designer Villaverde. The company’s stock is all made by hand and combines traditional techniques with materials such as Murano glass, metal, crystal and wood.
John Cullen Lighting not only sells highly innovative lighting, it also offers masterclasses promoting the life-enhancing benefits of good lighting. headed up by the ever illuminating design director Sally Storey— one of the country’s leading experts with a number of books to her name—it’s the go-to place to find that special outdoor spotlight or that elusive warm-white LED bedside light.
That Guinevere Antiques, one of King’s Road’s 1960s originals, has morphed from an antiques shop to a dealer with a global reputation for a range of staggering breadth reflects the evolving nature of the area. The showrooms, established more than 50 years ago by Genevieve Weaver, serve up a delicious cocktail of antiques from different periods and styles blended with lifestyle elements and—of course—the company’s own bespoke designs.
‘The change has happened organically,’ explains manager Dean Robinson, who’s been with the family-run firm for 15 years.
‘Clients have become more design-conscious; people no longer feel that, because they live in a Georgian house, they have to fill it with Georgian antiques. Today, it’s about mixing.’
The art is knowing how get it right, which is where Guinevere steps in: it can take a 19thcentury dining room and adorn it with a 1950s console and a 1940s Venetian-style mirror or hang a 19th-century Brussels tapestry behind a tan-leather 1970s sofa.
Compared to her neighbours, Julia Boston, whose shop currently brims with gilded candlesticks and carefully hung sets of framed prints of fungi, is a relative newcomer. Having opened her doors in 2002, she specialises in French antiques and decoration, including a range of tapestries, paintings and antique lighting as well as her own range of table lamps. Her ethos is to ‘provide a selection of interesting and unusual antiques that fit into the traditional and the ultra-modern interiors of today’.
The specialist furniture maker I & JL Brown is another of the long-established showrooms on this stretch of the King’s Road. Set up in the 1970s to specialise in English country antique chairs, it’s now recognised worldwide for its collection of English and French country furniture and the showroom carries an ever-changing and eclectic mix of lighting, decorative objects and fabrics.
George Smith, a manufacturer inspired by the Regency furniture designer of the same name, is a byword for beautifully crafted sofas, chairs, chaises and stools, all of which are made in workshops in the north of England. Reproduction-furniture specialist par excellence Brights of Nettlebed has
recently joined the King’s Road throng, showcasing some of its best collections—all of which have historical connections. Dorset-based manufacturer And So To Bed originally focused on fine antique beds, but later launched its own line based on traditional pieces. The current showroom has been open since 2012 and is the place to go to for anything from a Louis Philippe bateau lit to a Georgian-style fourposter via more modern designs, as well as bedroom furniture and headboards. Haute Deco offers sculptural and intricately handcrafted door handles and next door is carpet-designer Deirdre Dyson’s gallery—the fine-art-trained designer set up her business in 2000 by chance after struggling to find a carpet that she liked. In 2015, the 19th-century building was transformed into a space more akin to an art gallery, showing her carpets as contemporary works of art, with a floating steel staircase by Timothy Hatton Architects connecting all four floors of silver limestone. Deirdre works between her studio in Gloucestershire and the gallery in London. Knots Rugs, a family-run business, stretches back three generations and specialises in cutting-edge contemporary hand-knotted rugs that are produced in Jaipur in India and Nepal. Even more floorcoverings are available to view at The Rug Company’s showroom, which displays the company’s col- lection of contemporary rugs, runners, dhurries and wall-hangings. There is also a capsule collection featuring designs by Paul Smith, Alexander Mcqueen and Vivienne Westwood. Unique among the King’s Road set is the
Trowbridge gallery. Established in 1981 by Martin Trowbridge, it specialises in fineart and antique prints, black-and-white photography, textiles and original works of art—the vast majority of which is on an exclusive basis.
James Lentaigne of bathroom manufacturers Drummonds, which opened its capacious showroom here in 2014, believes this eclectic enclave has become a centre for bathrooms in the same way that Wigmore Street has become popular with kitchen brands. ‘Since we opened, other high-end bathroom shops have joined us on the street. There’s a strong team spirit among all the showrooms and we collaborate on shared events to maintain a buzz.’
It didn’t take long. The arrival of the American luxury-bathroom giant Waterworks
cemented this transition. Occupying three levels, this 3,700sq ft space is a one-stop high-end shop for everything from fittings to fixtures, surfaces to scented candles, bathrobes and bathtubs ranging from classic to contemporary styles. A year later, it was joined by West One
Bathrooms, which decided to add a King’s Road outpost to its clutch of central London showrooms attracted by the ‘constantly evolving and exciting community of interiors businesses in south-west London,’ explains the firm’s Charlotte Waters. There, clients are furnished with end-to-end design solutions for bathrooms, with a wide selection of both classic and innovative pieces, including Wall & deco waterproof wallpaper and its show-stopping Pashley bike with a basin and plumbing incorporated into the seat—perfect for a downstairs loo.
The Italian bathroom firm Bagno now also occupies a large corner spot and showcases Italian distressed-copper baths of the sort that James Bond might just climb out of (to set the scene in the mind’s eye, a dress shirt and bow tie hang loosely on a suit stand).
With the arrival of bespoke-kitchen manufacturer Mowlem, based in Newcastle, and the Italian Officine Gullo—a Florentine manufacturer of dream-like kitchens—the signs are there that more could follow.