Atkinson & Co.; Atkinson, E. (1845-1889)
Atkinson & Co.; E. Atkinson
Westminster Bridge Road, London; bedstead manufacturer & retailer, cabinet manufacturer (fl.1845-89)Graham Gadd Archive. © National Museums Scotland.
A billhead (above), dated 1845, for E. Atkinson with cabinet, upholstery and carpet warehouses at 71-75 Westminster Bridge Road, Lambeth, is included in the Graham Gadd Archive (NMS).
Atkinson & Co. was listed in the 1871 London Post Office Directory as upholsterers. The Furniture Gazette Directory (1876) recorded the firm as bed & mattress manufacturers of 198 Westminster Bridge Road and in 1877 at 198-212 Westminster Bridge Road as cabinet makers. In the same year the firm exhibited at the Liverpool Royal Agricultural Exhibition [The Furniture Gazette, 21 July 1877].
Many of their commissions in the 1880s were recorded in The Furniture Gazette including 500 iron bedsteads for Lambeth Workhouse [21 January 1882]; furniture and upholstery work to Toole’s Theatre (formerly the Folly) [18 February 1882]; furnishing the Board Room of the Guardians’ offices at Epsom [17 March 1883]; beds for the new infirmary for the Guardians of Fulham at a tender price of £843 [29 March 1884]; and re-covering and re-filling 90 mattresses for the Mile End Board of Guardians at the tender price of £26 12s 6d [1 November 1886]. Also furniture for the new infirmary near the workhouse at Barnet for the Guardians, and 150 iron bedsteads to the Workhouse, Princes Road, London, for the Guardians of Lambeth [1 May 1888], 500 hair mattresses for the Guardians of Lambeth [1 July 1888], mattresses to the Eastbourne Infirmary [1 February 1889], school furniture to the Hanwell School [1 June 1889]; and furniture to the London School Board [15 September 1889]. The same publication of 27 December 1884 noted that the staff of the firm were given holiday for 24-29 December 1884.
The Furniture Gazette, 1 April 1886, announced the death of Mr Peter Bowie of the firm on 16 March 1886 at 326 Clapham Road. The firm was listed in The Furniture Gazette: Classified List of the Furniture, Upholstery, and Allied Trades (1886).
Source: Graham Gadd Archive (NMS).