Luke Hughes (furniture designer)

Luke Hughes is an English furniture designer specialising in furniture for public buildings including Westminster Abbey.[1]

A man in a work apron stands in front of a woodworking station and facing the camera.
Luke Hughes in the Stukeley Street workshop, c. 1987

Career

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Hughes was temporarily working as a carpenter on London building sites in 1979 when chosen to lead a design project for kitchen shelving, which led further to the refurbishment of the client's home library.[2] This was the first library project that led to a series of bookcase designs and installations for Inns of Court lawyers.[3] He set up his first company, Bloomsbury Joinery, in 1980 in Lamb's Conduit Street, Bloomsbury.[2]

 
Workshop in Stukeley Street, c. 1982

Hughes is the founder and CEO of Luke Hughes and Company Limited,[4] which went out of business in May 2024. Luke Hughes’ early output consisted of furniture for the residential market.[2] The same period also saw Hughes’ short-lived engagement with designing for the retail market. This came in the form of the ill-fated Ovolo line of bedroom furniture, originally manufactured by a Birmingham reproduction furniture company, Juckes, and sold through Heal's, Liberty's and John Lewis.[citation needed] The line's failure to gain a foothold with the consumer forced a change to the targeting of institutional clients.[3] To that end, Hughes brought architect and former managing director of Cotswold Furniture Manufacturers, Gordon Russell, on board.[5]

Selected projects

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References

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  1. ^ "Seats at the wedding". Old Pauline news. 2011. p. 87.
  2. ^ a b c Walker, Aidan (2020). Furniture in Architecture. Thames & Hudson. ISBN 9780500022542.
  3. ^ a b Steiner, Rupert (29 June 1997). "Carpenter carved out success by going against the grain". The Sunday Times.
  4. ^ "Luke Hughes & Company website". lukehughes.co.uk. Retrieved 21 June 2020.
  5. ^ Myerson, Jeremy (1992). Gordon Russell, Designer of Furniture. The Design Council of Great Britain.
  6. ^ "The Famous Cov chair is back". Coventry Telegraph. 1 July 2015.
  7. ^ "1960s Coventry Cathedral chair by Dick Russell goes back into production". Dezeen.com. 28 June 2015.
  8. ^ Newbury, Helen (April 2011). New Holy Table for St Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh. Church Building.
  9. ^ Cottrell, Stephen (24 June 2011). "A new generation raids the vaults". Church Times.
  10. ^ "St Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh". Ecclesiastical Architects and Surveyors Association magazine. 2011.
  11. ^ "RIBA Yorkshire Regional Awards". The Architects' Journal. 1 May 2015.
  12. ^ Miele, Chris (2010). The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. Merrell. ISBN 9781858945071.
  13. ^ Engel, Matthew (20 April 2013). "British Institutions: The Supreme Court". Financial Times.
  14. ^ Mara, Felix (11 October 2012). "Sainsbury Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Stanton Williams". The Architects' Journal.
  15. ^ "Moscow 4: Construction of new offices 1996 – 2002". Room for Diplomacy. 5 March 2014. Retrieved 21 April 2021.

Further reading

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  • ‘Furniture in Architecture: The Work of Luke Hughes’ by Aidan Walker, Thames & Hudson 2020
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