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Luke Hughes (furniture designer)

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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

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

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]

A two-story brick building on a street corner with red doors.
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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