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.
|
Once the Largest Furniture Shop in the World was based here. |
Ranking This Month: 959/2857
Pages Hit This Month: 33
Other places nearby:
A Market steeped in History», 1.2km
London's Most Female Street», 2.3km
Westfield Stratford City East», 5.6km
Fox and Lewis», 1.2km
Seven Sisters Market», 4.9km
Jigsaw and Kate Middleton», 0.6km
Treadwell's Bookshop», 0.2km
The First Shop in the World», 6.2km
Retail on the River», 1.6km
Richard Branson Lived here», 3.2km
Location Pinpointed:
pinpointing the forgotten and lost history of London
Shady Old Lady »» Car Reviews »» Classic Telly »» Peckish © 2020 The Shady Old Lady, Privacy Policy
