“Chairs are like people, they have many different characters and it takes time to get to know them”

The Hornsby Family has been restoring furniture in London for over 30 years. We operate a small team of dedicated crafts people based from our workshops in West London.

Our workforce comprises of mature restorers, skilled in cabinet making, gilding, french polishing and upholstery. Highly skilled and sensitive to the needs of antique furniture, we adopt the view that a period item should be restored sympathetically, to convey its originality as if well cared for and not over restored. This enables us to convey each piece’s history to the present day, preserving its character and the identity it has developed over time.

From re-caning a single chair, to re-moulding and re-gilding the decorative ornamentation on an antique French mirror frame, to stripping down and re-building and re-finishing badly damaged pieces, all jobs are subjected to the often slow, but meticulous and sensitive attention for which we are justly renowned.

Inspection is welcome at our workshops so customers can discuss details and observe progress. And we make the most of new technology, recording each restoration using digital photography, copies of which can be supplied on the conclusion of the project.

Upholstered Chair

History

Hornsby of Old

Kentish Town, 1890 – 1978

Established in 1890 in Kentish Town, Hornsby remains a family business, with generations of experience in interior design and restoration.

Pictured above you can see the Hornsby family posed outside the original store in 1918, celebrating the end of the Great War. A motley crew, perhaps, but the Hornsby association with antiques and furniture was already apparent then, and has stood the test of time.

West Hampstead, 1980 – 1990

South Kensington, 1990 – 2009

Through over a century, while fashions and governments have changed, and at times financial crisis has prevailed, as a small family business we have survived and developed.

And from our current location in the heart of Brompton Road we continue to have the pleasure of serving clients new and old in maintaining and restoring their antiques and fulfilling their modern furnishing requirements.

Old Brompton Road 2009 …

Currently based in Chelsea in London and Arundel in West Sussex. We are now by appointment.

We would like to thank all our clients for their patronage to date.