Maple House
Once the Largest Furniture Shop in the World was based here.
Location: 149 Tottenham Court Road
Description: Now a retail and apartment complex on the east side of Tottenham Court Road, close to the junction with Euston Road, is where Maples Furniture Store used to be. Today it's a supermarket and computer store.
Sir John Blundell Maple (1845-1903) was a self-made, and perhaps the most successful of all Victorian retail entrepreneurs. He achieved great wealth, became a politician, a horserace breeder and a member of the Prince of Wales's set. His emporium here in London's Tottenham Court Road furnished everyone who was anyone in Victorian society and was better known as The Largest Furniture Shop in the World.
Maples manufactured their own luxury furniture in a complex eventually so vast that by the 1880s it occupied an area where once stood 200 houses. They were timber importers, and exporters of furniture and fittings to all parts of the world. They used steam power and electricity, had a fleet of horse-drawn vans, depository and showrooms, and employed a vast workforce.
Maples furnished palaces all over the world, including Tsar Nicholas's Winter Palace, the Hofburg Imperial Palace in Vienna, all the great hotels, and town and country homes.
Prestigious British embassies were all furnished by Maples.
In 1997 the store was declared bankrupt and was taken over by the retailer Allders.
Madness lead singer Suggs grew up in a nice flat above Maple's on the corner with Grafton Way.
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Once the Largest Furniture Shop in the World was based here. |
Ranking This Month: 414/2930
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Other places nearby:
Trinkets, Gems and Tourists», 1.0km
Walthamstow Market», 6.6km
John Lobb Bootmakers», 1.3km
Exchange Alley», 2.2km
The First Shop in the World», 6.2km
The Year Round Christmas Shop», 2.6km
Tip-Top Umbrellas», 0.6km
The General Trading Stores», 2.3km
Binks in Bates», 1.0km
Habitat & Joseph's First Home», 2.5km
Location Pinpointed:
pinpointing the forgotten and lost history of London
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