Second and holiday homes.............2
Young people's engagements with
heritage.........................................4
Stopping the rot.............................4
Banks: who needs them?................5
Improvement of cottages................6
Soup kitchens................................6
News in brief.................................7
Local plan: landscape.....................8
Mr Robertson's Sideboard..............9
King Charles II Coastal Path..........9
Planning Matters..........................10
Quiz: Lanes.................................11
About Alnwick Civic Society........12
Who's Who?................................12
Diary dates..................................12
Robertson, Thomas; Robertson & Son
Alnwick, Northumberland and London; cabinet maker, upholder, house furnishers, timber merchants, auctioneers and joiners (fl.1834-c.1914)
Thomas Robertson was born in 1805. His first recorded business address was at 10 Narrowgate, Alnwick in 1834.
Census records indicate the growth of his business: in 1851 he employed twenty-five men; by 1861 there were twenty-eight men, nine boys and four women working for him; and there were fifty-six men, fifteen boys and seven women in his employment in 1871. It is also said that he owned a sawmill at Waterside, on the opposite side of the estuary of the River Aln from Alnmouth, enabling him to process the timber he imported.
The firm bought in designs from the Edinburgh architect, John Small and also produced furniture designed by Maurice Bingham Adams (1849-1933). Robertson also made furniture for other makers/retailers as illustrated in Jas. Shoolbreds’ catalogue of 1882 which featured a design for a cabinet to be made by Robertson & Son, Alnwick.
In 1881 Robertson was awarded the contract for supplying the desks, presses and other fittings for the New School of Art, Bedford Park, Chiswick, London [The Furniture Gazette, 27 February 1881]. The firm is also known to have supplied furniture to Alnwick Castle which remains in situ.
Thomas Robertson died in on 22 February 1882 in Alnwick and was buried in the local cemetery [England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1837-1915].
The firm moved their London premises in 1882 from 82 Charlotte Street, Fitzroy Square to the Athenaeum, 1 George Street, Euston Road, which was also the base for their London agent, E. Lloyd [The Furniture Gazette, 11 March 1882].
The Building News, 26 May 1882, commended a bedroom suite made by them: ‘the constructive lines are all of the most simple character and are thus designed with the idea of the work being largely executed by the aid of machinery’. The bedroom suite was designed with space underneath to aid cleanliness (illus. Agius (1978), p. 79).
A cabinet made by Robertson & Sons, ‘designed [by Adams] for inexpensive manufacture, the doors being repeats of each’ was shown at the Manchester Exhibition in 1886 (illus. Agius (1978), p. 138).
Robertson & Son, cabinet makers & upholsterers, were still listed at 10 Narrowgate, Alnwick [The Furniture Gazette, 1886]. They participated in the Newcastle Royal Jubilee Exhibition, 1887 [The Furniture Gazette, 1 June 1887].
The Furniture Gazette, 15 July 1890, recorded the formation of the firm as a limited company. The company of Thomas Robertson & Sons, Ltd, with a capital of £15,000 in £5 shares, was established to take over the business of Thomas Robertson & Sons, cabinet makers & upholsterers of Alnwick. An agreement of 27 June 1890 made with William & Charles Edward Robertson (sons of Thomas), cabinet makers of Alnwick & Charlotte Holland, daughter of Thomas Robertson & wife of George Edward Holland, of Ranelagh Street, Chelsea, and others was scheduled to the articles of association. George Edward Holland was part of the Holland & Sons firm, London.
The firm of Thomas Robertson & Son, Ltd was listed in Kelly’s Directory 1914 still at Narrowgate, Alnwick, as auctioneers & valuers, cabinet makers & upholsterers.
Salerooms by Barbara Wodehouse