Harris Lebus
Harris Lebus was a very large furniture manufacturer and wholesaler based in the East End of London in Tabernacle Street with a factory in Tottenham. The firm supplied stores such as Maple and Co., mainly producing bedroom and dining cabinets.
During the period of its finest output in the 1900s, the style of furniture is closely associated with the Arts and Crafts Movement, identified by overhanging cornices, inset door panels and square to turned legs with pad feet in the manner of William Birch of High Wycombe. The off the peg hardware is unfussy and stylistically well designed. These pieces are highly sought after.
As with many larger firms their designers are kept anonymous. This prolific manufacturer had more to do with bringing the Arts and Crafts style to the masses than any other.
In later years Harris Lebus became a household name as one of the largest furniture manufacturers in the world.[1]
War work
During the Second World War the firm produced the Airspeed Horsa glider,[2] the Mosquito multi role aircraft. The firm also undertook Top-secret operations, such as building replica Sherman tanks out of wood.[3]
After World War II
Following the war the firm became part of the government scheme to produce utility furniture bearing the CC41 mark and were central in providing cheaper manufacturing techniques to provide the country with lower cost furniture with which they could rebuild their homes, and in fact their design team invented and patented the technique of facing chip board with other woods.[4]
After financial difficulty the firm finally closed in 1969; however some could say that the technique developed at Lebus have caused the revolution in chipboard home furnishing and flat pack that many of their counterparts use today.
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