13-21 Curtain Road, EC2A

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This is the earliest surviving example of a showroom-warehouse in Shoreditch. It was built in 1861 as a manufactory and showroom for J B Richards, who supplied Maples in Tottenham Court Road. The building was an impressive structure for its time, dictated by increased mechanisation within the furniture trade and an expanding product range. The ground floor contained a counting house and ‘splendid showrooms’ for finished goods, while the first floor was devoted to the display of cabinet and upholstered furniture. The cabinet-making workshops occupied the third and fourth floors, the latter also containing the polishing, upholstery and carving departments. From 1881 it was long occupied by B Cohen and Sons as showrooms and offices.
The impressive seven-and-a-half bay façade is of off-white brick with giant pilasters. It has a moulded cornice and pairs of segmental-headed sash windows to most bays. The ground floor has brick piers and fascias, but has been reworked including the adaptation of a former carriage way into an entrance. The interior retains cast-iron columns and timber joists but has been extensively refurbished. The large windows are typical of furniture showroom-warehouse.

Victorian (1838-1901)

warehouse-showroom associated with the furniture trade

This building is one of earliest examples of a fully developed showroom-warehouse for the furniture trade which was the most important industry in South Shoreditch in the 19th and early 20th centuries.