Group    From 1810 

Heal's furniture store

John Harris Heal established a feather dressing business at 33 Rathbone Place, moving to Tottenham Court Road in 1818. This became a family business selling beds and moved to larger premises in the same street at numbers 193-9, previously Millers Stables, with Cappers Farm behind where the family lived. This is the site now occupied by the middle part of the current Heal's complex. 1854 these premises were reconstructed as a purpose-built shop designed by James Morant Lockyer (see picture). Ambrose Heal junior joined the firm in 1893 as a furniture designer and went on to run the company very successfully. In 1983 the business was sold to Terence Conran.

The two plaques refer to two developments the first (1917) of which replaced the 1854 building. The main Tottenham Court Road elevation looks like two buildings - Heal's to the south, and Habitat to the north - but it was erected in 3 phases. The north half (5 bays) of the southern building is 1914-17 by Cecil C. Brewer and A. Dunbar Smith. This replaced the 1854 building in the photo. The southern equal-sized extension with a near-identical facade is 1936-8 by Edward Maufe. The northern Habitat building (8 bays), complementary in design, is 1961-2 by Fitzroy Robinson and Partners. It was this last building that required the demolition of the Apollo Inn.

Londonist's 7 Secrets Of Heal's Furniture Store is worth a read.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Heal's furniture store

Commemorated ati

Heals - north

On the north-most pier of the southern building.

Read More

Heals - south

This plaque is on the last but one southern pier of the southern building. 

Read More

Other Subjects

James Upjohn
1 memorial
Hannah Barlow

Hannah Barlow

Born Bishop's Stortford. Studied at Lambeth School of Art where she was a student of John Sparkes. Began work at Doulton's in 1871, the first female employee, she specialised in painting animals. H...

Person, Art, Craft / Design

1 memorial
Charles Robert Ashbee

Charles Robert Ashbee

Designer, architect, conservationist, entrepreneur and social reformer, important in the Arts and Crafts movement. Born Spring Grove, Isleworth but brought up at 46 Upper Bedford Place, in a well-o...

Person, Architecture, Craft / Design

1 memorial
Maria Volkova

Maria Volkova

The National Gallery leaflet describes Volkova as Anrep's sister in law. But this Imago photo of Anrep and Volkova at the completed 'Awakening of the Muses', is captioned: "Maria Volkova - the only...

Person, Craft / Design

1 memorial
John Moor
1 memorial

Previously viewed

Clarence George Wheeler
War dead, WW1
1 memorial
John William Waterhouse

John William Waterhouse

NW8, Hall Road, 10

John William Waterhouse, 1849 - 1917, painter, lived here, 1900-1917. English Heritage

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator