Retro: Paper memories of store
David Cliffe • Published 7 Oct 2010 15:30
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I CAN remember this scene from the day I first set eyes on Reading in the 1960s, shortly after arriving at Reading Station.
I was invited to an interview in the office of the Chief Librarian, Stanley Horrocks, in the old Central Library in Blagrave Street. At the time, there were many fine examples of early 20th Century commercial architecture in Blagrave Street, much of it now demolished and replaced with the anodyne office building called Aldwych House.
Round the curving corner, partly in Blagrave Street and partly in Forbury Road, was the large shop and warehouse of John Line and Sons, which sold wallpaper and home decorating supplies, wholesale and retail. It struck me as rather a “classy” shop, and I’m sorry now I never ventured in there, but at the time I was living in rented accommodation. This recently acquired photograph, taken in 1973, shows part of the premises, just after the firm had closed down.
It was not until I came to do a bit of research prior to cataloguing that I discovered to my surprise the firm had actually started in Reading.
John Line was a cabinet maker in Bath, and in 1874 he bought a furniture shop in Reading, to be run by his sons. By about 1880, the direction of the firm had changed completely, and they were selling wallpaper. Soon they would be manufacturing wallpaper as well as selling it.
Their premises were in Broad Street in those days, and their advertising read: “High class art sanitary wall papers, frieze and dado decorations by the best designers, wholesale and export”.
I wonder what “sanitary wall paper” was! The move to Blagrave Street came about in 1900.
In the firm’s early days, one of their chief designers was Arthur Silver, who founded The Silver Studio. He was a Reading man - his father had been Mayor in 1877-8. Other notable artists who worked for John Line and Sons included Christopher Dresser, and CFA Voysey. The Victoria and Albert Museum holds some of the pattern books, and many examples of John Line designs appear on the V&A website.
Alas, the firm gradually lost its identity, merging with Shand Kydd in 1958 to form KL Holdings, which in turn became part of The Wall Paper Manufacturers Limited.
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