House of Reeves is an independent family-run furniture store in

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...

, southern Greater London, England, founded in 1867. It is located in the Old Town area, and gives its name to Reeves Corner, a road intersection between Church Street and Roman Way, and so to Reeves Corner tram stop. The company came to widespread national public attention in August 2011, when one of its two adjacent buildings was destroyed in an arson attack during the

2011 England riots The 2011 England riots, more widely known as the London riots, were a series of riots between 6 and 11 August 2011. Thousands of people rioted in cities and towns across England, which saw looting, arson, as well as mass deployment of police ...

. Images of the furniture store on fire, with firefighters unable to tackle the blaze because police could not protect them, became symbolic of the violence that spread across the country during several days of rioting and looting. Despite this setback, the company is still trading.

History

The store was founded in 1867 as ''Ye Olde Curiositie Shoppe'' on Church Street – in the Old Town area of Croydon, next to the Elis David Almshouses, and close to Croydon Parish Church – by Edwin Reeves, a cooper from

Sherborne Sherborne is a market town and civil parish in north west Dorset, in South West England. It is sited on the River Yeo, on the edge of the Blackmore Vale, east of Yeovil. The parish includes the hamlets of Nether Coombe and Lower Clatcombe. ...

, Dorset.McInnes and Sparkes 1991, p. 35. He subsequently extended his business to include the sale of

ironmongery Ironmongery originally referred, first, to the manufacture of iron goods and, second, to the place of sale of such items for domestic rather than industrial use. In both contexts, the term has expanded to include items made of steel, aluminium ...

, and later furniture. In 1913, he passed the business to his son, William. William expanded the store from the original premises, 120 Church Street, into neighbouring properties, acquiring 114–18 Church Street in 1915, and a lease of the Old Victory Coffee Tavern in 1916. The upper part of the tavern (formerly a lodging house) was converted to auction rooms, and the lower part to second-hand furniture showrooms. In 1921, he acquired the Dome Picture Palace; and at later dates 110 and 112 Church Street. In 1967 the store was threatened by a

redevelopment Redevelopment is any new construction on a site that has pre-existing uses. It represents a process of land development uses to revitalize the physical, economic and social fabric of urban space. Description Variations on redevelopment include: ...

scheme for Old Town, but was saved after the Church Street Traders' Association protested that "the future prosperity of the lower part of Church Street materially depends on the preservation of the business of Messrs E. Reeves Ltd, at or near the present site". By 1970, now occupying ten shops in four streets, the business could be described as "one of the town's shopping landmarks".Huitson and Gent 1988, p. 26. The firm's last furniture auction on the site was held in 1985. The firm became a

limited company In a limited company, the liability of members or subscribers of the company is limited to what they have invested or guaranteed to the company. Limited companies may be limited by shares or by guarantee. In a company limited by shares, the lia ...

in 1947, trading as E. Reeves Ltd. In the 1980s it began trading as House of Reeves. It continued to be run as a family business, passing in turn from William Reeves Sr. to William Jr., and then to Maurice Reeves, the company chairman as of 2011. The Croydon business is run by Maurice's sons, Trevor and Graham. Another of Edwin Reeves' great-great-grandsons is Marc Reeves, former editor of the '' Birmingham Post''. In 1919, William Reeves Sr. visited his brother in Sherborne, who subsequently opened a shop there, which became a branch of the Croydon store; and in 1929 a second branch was opened at

Caterham Caterham () is a town in the Tandridge District of Surrey, England. The town is administratively divided into two: Caterham on the Hill, and Caterham Valley, which includes the main town centre in the middle of a dry valley but rises to equal ...

Reeves furniture emporium, Reeves Corner - geograph

Premises

The complex of properties that make up the House of Reeves formerly lay on two principal sites, respectively to the north and south of Elis David Road (now Reeves Corner). Those to the south, which survive, lie within the Croydon Minster Conservation Area. They include a three-storey early eighteenth-century house at 120 Church Street (Edwin Reeves' original premises), which is Grade II listed, and a two-storey nineteenth-century building at 114–18 Church Street. The properties on the northern side of Reeves Corner lay within the Church Street Conservation Area, and included a striking

Edwardian The Edwardian era or Edwardian period of British history spanned the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910 and is sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 marked the end of the Victori ...

Arts and Crafts building. These properties were destroyed in the 2011 arson attack.

Reeves Corner

The area of Croydon in which the shops were located (the junction of Church Street and Church Road) gradually acquired the informal name of "Reeves Corner", and in the late 1970s this name was formally assigned to part of a realigned street system (incorporating, and replacing the name of, Elis David Road). In 2000, the name was also given to the nearby Reeves Corner tram stop (in Cairo New Road) on the new

Tramlink London Trams, previously Tramlink and Croydon Tramlink, is a light rail tram system serving Croydon and surrounding areas in South London, England. It began operation in 2000, the first tram system in the London region since 1952. It is manage ...

service.

A plaque formerly on 110 Church Street (part of the House of Reeves), erected in 1977 by the Croydon

Rotary Clubs Rotary International is one of the largest service organizations in the world. Its stated mission is to "provide service to others, promote integrity, and advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through hefellowship of business, prof ...

, commemorated the fact that Reeves Corner marked the location of the

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

and early modern Hand Cross. This was one of Croydon's " four crosses",

boundary marker A boundary marker, border marker, boundary stone, or border stone is a robust physical marker that identifies the start of a land boundary or the change in a boundary, especially a change in direction of a boundary. There are several other ty ...

s that defined the limits of the town, and within which the inhabitants enjoyed privileges including a degree of

self-government __NOTOC__ Self-governance, self-government, or self-rule is the ability of a person or group to exercise all necessary functions of regulation without intervention from an external authority. It may refer to personal conduct or to any form of ...

and a form of free tenure of property. Another plaque was erected by the Croydon Society in 2001 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the establishment of the pioneering

Surrey Iron Railway The Surrey Iron Railway (SIR) was a horse-drawn plateway that linked Wandsworth and Croydon via Mitcham, all then in Surrey but now suburbs of south London, in England. It was established by Act of Parliament in 1801, and opened partly in 1802 ...

(a horse-drawn

plateway A plateway is an early kind of railway, tramway or wagonway, where the rails are made from cast iron. They were mainly used for about 50 years up to 1830, though some continued later. Plateways consisted of "L"-shaped rails, where the flange ...

), of which the Pitlake terminus was close by. The buildings on which both these plaques were mounted were destroyed in the 2011 arson attack. The Surrey Iron Railway plaque was recovered from the rubble and subsequently re-erected on 114–16 Church Street; the Hand Cross plaque has never been found.

Arson attack

One of the company's properties (to the north of Reeves Corner thoroughfare) was razed to the ground by an arson attack on 8 August 2011 during the

. Firefighters arrived too late to save the buildings because police had been unable to guarantee their safety from attack by rioters. ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

'' magazine reported that the destruction of House of Reeves came to symbolize the violence that spread across England during the three days of rioting. Trevor Reeves said that the company, which employs 15 people, would remain in business. *For number of employees, see A group was set up on the Internet offering donations to help the store rebuild. Police arrested a 21-year-old man two days after the fire on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life, and later a 15-year-old and another 25-year-old male. On 13 August Gordon Thompson, aged 33, was arrested in Surrey Street after he was recognised from his picture on the front page of the ''

Croydon Advertiser ''The Croydon Advertiser'' (with locally branded editions) is a paid-for weekly newspaper with five editions covering the London Boroughs of Croydon, Sutton and two neighbouring towns and with a free up-to-the-minute maintained web presence. Ci ...

''. He was charged on 14 August. During his trial in February 2012, he changed his plea to guilty at the end of the case for the prosecution. At the Old Bailey on 11 April 2012, Judge Peter Thornton sentenced Thompson to eleven-and-a-half years in prison. The surviving (southern) property was subsequently refurbished, and was the location of the company's 150th anniversary celebrations on 16 December 2017. File:Reeves furniture store burnt out.jpg, The burned-out store in August 2011 File:Croydon Riots - four days later.jpg, Tram near the ruins of the House of Reeves, four days after the fire

References

Sources

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External links

*
"Croydon's House of Reeves furniture store demolished"
footage of the fire and subsequent demolition, BBC News, 10 August 2011. {{Coord, 51.373701, -0.105623, type:landmark_region:GB-LON, display=title 1867 establishments in England 1867 in England 2011 England riots Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Croydon Companies based in the London Borough of Croydon Grade II listed buildings in the London Borough of Croydon History of the London Borough of Croydon Shops in London Furniture retailers of the United Kingdom