Beds and Mattresses since 1979
Quality and Value direct from the makers
Showrooms: 281 Hackney Road, London E2 8NA
Parking: The Yard, Yorkton Street, London E2 8NH
Open: Mon - Fri 10 - 6 Sat 10.30 - 5 Sun 11 - 5.00
Call us on 020 7739 3480
Over 30 years ago, whilst selling their wares in Covent Garden’s Craft Market, carpenters Mel and Julian became aware that affordable, locally produced furniture was becoming increasingly hard to find. They placed an advertisement in their local paper depicting an elephant standing on a wooden bed, draped with a saddle cloth on which was emblazoned….
Julian Litvinoff and Mel Fawcett started making beds in 1979
Bed and breakfast?
Within a short time they had restored a charming listed building in Clerkenwell. This was their first showroom.
It was too large for their needs, because they were only making one bed at the time - the still popular and practical ‘Custom’.
To help pay the rent they opened a wholefood café at the back. This became very busy, and at lunchtimes customers would perch on the beds to eat the home produced fare.
Due to this unexpected success they moved their showroom to Camden Town, allowing the café to expand to its full potential.
The café continued to flourish for twelve more years before reverting back to a bed showroom for a further six.
Camden Lock
By 1985 Mel Fawcett had moved on to devote more time to travel and writing. Julian continued to run the business and opened the new showroom opposite Camden Lock.
Sales increased and we introduced our still unrivalled 'Lifetime Structural Guarantee’ on bed frames.
At this point we decided to make our own mattresses. This enabled us to offer even better value, service and quality control.
The ‘Victorian’ shop front was designed and built by Julian. Some years later the building burned down in the infamous Camden Lock fire.
Shoreditch
In 1995 we opened our current showrooms close to the Shoreditch workshops.
This enabled us to display over twenty beds and nine different grades of mattresses, and ample free car parking*.
As one of the few remaining furniture manufacturers in the area, we are proud to follow the 200 year old tradition of supplying high quality, affordable products direct from the workbench to the customer.
In this spacious showroom we also display an eclectic range of furniture, handicrafts and accessories.
* For those travelling by rail, the newly opened Hoxton Station is just a few minutes walk away.
Shoreditch has re emerged as one of the most vibrant districts in London with thriving street markets, art galleries, fashionable bars and restaurants. It has attracted many new cutting edge enterprises, especially in I.T. and other creative fields.
We welcome this trend, but shall continue to offer a more traditional service - quality handmade furniture direct to the public at ‘East End’ prices.
Following in the footsteps of our predecessors, our beds and mattresses are taken to homes all over the world because it is hard to find equal quality and reliability elsewhere.
* More about this historic furniture district can be found in the nearby Geffrye Museum.
London’s historic furniture making district
Hackney Road was until recently at the centre of a flourishing furniture making industry*. For over two centuries hundreds of small workshops and factories produced goods for the finest shops and exported their products all over the world. People would flock there every Sunday to snap up the bargains which were piled high on the pavements, direct from the makers’ own factory outlets at ‘East End’ rather than ‘West End’ prices.
281 Hackney Road, Shoreditch (today)
‘JUMBO’ 5 ft Pine Beds - £59 !
Our first showroom in Grays Inn Road, Clerkenwell.
Creaky headboards and bases are not inevitable.
The methods we use to ensure that our beds stay solid, can be found here.