KIRKHAMFurniture-Making1982.pdf

with the ouality trade.
The areas of London in which furniture-making was concentrated
changed in the years between 1700 and 1870. In 1700, the location of
furniture-making was shifting westwards, as the wealthier classes occupied
the new residential areas built in the west of' London after the Great Fire
of 1666. The main furniture-making area in 1700 was St. Paul's Churchyard
but, by mid-century, it had been superseded by the Long Acre-St. Martin's
Lane area 23 . Many skilled craftsmen found work even further to the west,
in the area around Soho Square, Golden Square and Carnaby Market 24 . By the
1790s, the Bond Street Area was popular while Piccadilly, New Bond Street
and Oxford Street formed the centre of the West End trade in the early
nineteenth century25 . This area was still important in 1870 but the focal
point of the trade r-ad by then shifted to the Tottenham Court Road area26.
However, these were only the main centres: furniture was made outside them
throughout the period. Furniture continued to be made in St. Paul's
Churchyard, for instance, and the largest firm in the second half of the
eighteenth century, Seddon of Aldersgate Street, had premises in the area
just north of the City where land was cheaper than in the West End
J.L. Oliver, who charted the location of furniture-making
establishments in the nineteenth century, estimated that there were sixty-
six firms in the City and East End in 1801, with Alderegate Street and
St. Paul's Churchyard predominating 28 . A shift further east was accelerated
by the opening of new docks in the early nineteenth century and the
est8blishment of nearby timber yards and saw mills which supplied a growing
East End furniture trade 29 . They mainly supplied materials to 'trade
working masters, i.e. men who employed a small number of men, usually
between two and five, and worked to orders given them by large
establishments 30 . Manufacturing firms, most of them small, which retailed
27
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