Heals (department store)
| Industry | furniture |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1810 |
| Headquarters | London, UK |
|
Number of locations
|
UK |
|
Key people
|
John Harris Heal and son (founders) Will Hobhouse (chairman) |
| Website | www.heals.com |
Heal's ("Heal and Son Ltd") is a British furniture and furnishing store chain comprising six stores, selling a range of furniture, lighting, accessories, home and garden wares. For over a century it has been known for promoting modern design and employing talented young designers.
The original Heal's firm was established in 1810 as a feather-dressing business by John Harris Heal and his son.
In 1818 the business moved to Tottenham Court Road, London and expanded into bedding, bedstead and furniture manufacture and into retailing. By the end of the nineteenth century it was one of the best-known furniture suppliers in London.
Heal's was run as a family business designing, manufacturing and selling furniture, applied arts, interior decorating and household goods until 1983. The business has subsequently been in a number of ownerships trading as a retailer.
The notability of Heal's rests upon the achievements of Sir Ambrose Heal, who worked in the company as craftsman, designer and finally Chairman, for 60 years from 1893 to 1953.
Ambrose Heal’s contribution to the business, and to British furniture-making and applied design, was his marriage of the ethos of the Arts and Crafts Movement as to beauty and utility with the techniques and economics of commerce. The combination of 'Good Design' with industrial production was contrary to the moral, hand crafted principals of the Arts and Crafts Movement but was in line with the certain European approaches to bringing high calibre product design to a middle class market.
Following the precedent of the Deutscher Werkbund, which had been established in Germany in 1907, Ambrose Heal was one of the group of designers, industrialists and business people who founded the Design and Industries Association in 1915, slogan "Nothing Need Be Ugly".
Heal developed his business as a design, manufacturing and retail concern in accord with the philosophy of which he was a key proponent.
Heal’s has operated since 1818 in Tottenham Court Road, and from the present site since 1840. Its first purpose-built store, completed in 1854, was then one of the largest in London: the architect was James Morant Lockyer who presented the RIBA with a photographic elevation in May 1855. This is one of the earliest known professional applications of architectural photography in Britain.
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Wikipedia