Nestled away next to the railway arches of Manchester’s Oxford Road Station is a 1920s warehouse.  It is five storeys high but it is overshadowed by neighbouring glass and steel skyscrapers. At the front of the building is a beautiful, colourful tiled entrance bearing the name ‘J & J Shaw, 1924’. To many modern Mancunians it is just another passing reference to the past, but historically J. & J. Shaw’s Furniture Dealers and Carpet Factors, more commonly known as Shaw’s, was an institution in its own right.

Shops and businesses come and go all the time, especially in the city. Some, however, stay around long enough to become part of the landscape. Shaw’s graced Oxford Street and New Wakefield Street for the best part of eight decades before it became just a name above a doorway. Here is the story of a family business which furnished Manchester.

Above: The doorway of Shaw’s former warehouse on New Wakefield Street, which caught my eye. (Source: Thomas McGrath, 2022)

The Shaw Family

Before we delve into Shaw’s as a business, we need to find out more about the people behind it. The story starts with Alexander Shaw (1840-1923) who was born in Manchester and baptised at Collegiate Church of St Mary, St Denys and St George (now Manchester Cathedral). His father, Joshua was a coach smith. Joshua, his wife Frances and their children Mary, Alexander and William were squeezed into a small house with seven other relatives on Gregson Street in the shadow of a tannery and lead works.

Alexander was nine years old when his father died. His mother, a widow at just 29, found herself the head of the household and the family fell onto hard times. Frances and Mary went out to work and she also looked after her mother-in-law and took in three lodgers to boost her income. By 1851 the family had moved to even grimier living conditions in back-to-back terraces off Deansgate. Frances later married James Cropper, one of the lodgers who had lived with them for six years.

In 1863 Alexander as back at Manchester Cathedral where he married Agnes Stockman (1840-1917). Alexander’s occupation was recorded as a coach smith, like his father had been. This was a blacksmith who specialised in coaches and carriages. By 1871 Alexander was still recorded as a coach smith, but he had also expanded into working as a furniture broker. Perhaps business was slow and he needed the extra income? Nonetheless, he had started a family business which would last just over a century. Though there is some discrepancy here with Shaw’s later advertising. In the 1930s they were stating that the business had been founded in 1820, which would suggest that an earlier ancestor of Alexander was dealing in furniture before him.

All Kinds of Furniture

By 1878 Alexander had taken premises for his new-and-second-hand furniture business at 5 Great Ancoats Street. Whilst he had not quite cracked the city centre businesses, he found a regular customer base on this working-class fringe of the town. The whole family, including Agnes and their three children; James (1868), William John (1871-1938) and Sarah Ann (1874) worked in the business and by the 1890s the family were able to rent a respectable terraced house on Stockton Street in Moss Side. This move to the suburbs south of the city meant they were now commuters, and therefore a step above other family businesses who may have still lived above the shop.

Business was booming for the Shaws. By 1893 they were not only selling furniture but they were making it too; everything from chairs to bedroom suites. They occupied both 5 and 7 Great Ancoats Street and 1 Luna Street, no doubt one of the buildings housed a workshop where customers could choose the fabric to have their furniture upholstered. Nor were they catering solely to a working-class market anymore. Their skills appealed to the Manchester elites. A seven-piece dining room set in solid oak and Moroccan leather would set you back £19/9s. (about £2356 in 2023 prices).

Around 1896 Alexander stepped back from the business. It is likely that he retired as he was about 66 years old at the time. There also appears to have been some family trouble as well. In the 1901 census both Alexander and Agnes were still recorded as being married, but they lived separately. Alexander lived with his daughter and son-in-law, and Agnes lived with her sons. As far as official documents show the couple never again lived with each other.

J. & J. Shaw – Brothers in Business

The furniture and upholstery business was left in the capable hands of James and William John (who went by his middle name), and so J. & J. Shaw’s was created around 1897. They continued to operate from Great Ancoats Street until about 1905, when they moved to ‘Oxford House’ at 70 Oxford Street.

Above: An illustration of Shaw’s at Oxford House, 70 Oxford Street, (Source: Manchester Evening News, 1955)

This large building still stands on the corner of Oxford Street and Whitworth Street (it doesn’t technically become Oxford Road until you pass over the River Medlock). It is an impressive seven storey angular building which takes up the whole corner. Although this wasn’t situated in the heart of the shopping districts around Deansgate or Tib Street, it was a clever location for the Shaw’s business. They were right outside the entrance to Oxford Road Station, opposite The Palace Theatre and opposite the former site of St Mary’s Hospital. This meant a constant stream of visitors browsing the shop windows or popping in. There would’ve been lots of wealthy customers passing by, as well as many ordinary houses to furnish on the terraced streets of nearby Chorlton-on-Medlock and Hulme. The building was initially owned by the Manchester South Junction & Altrincham Railway Company but the Shaws later purchased it in 1926.

In 1924 the brothers had a new warehouse and workshop built on New Wakefield Street, just on the other side of the railway viaduct. This building boasts an impressive glazed tile doorway and leaded rectangular fanlight. The tiles are brightly coloured and reflect the optimism and fashions of the era. It contains swags of flowers and fruit, possibly grapes. I think you can clearly see both Art Nouveau influences as well as a little bit of 1920s ‘Egyptomania’ in the design as well. They later expanded and had a shop at Exchange Street, right at the heart of Manchester. They would’ve employed a very large workforce of cabinet makers, carpet fitters, sales assistants, secretaries and delivery men.

What was on offer?

Now for the fun bit – what could you buy from Shaw’s? Whilst no catalogues appear to have survived there are plenty of advertisements, and because the business functioned from the 1890s-1980s, we can see almost a century’s worth on interior design trends. We know that they had 40 ‘model rooms’ on display in 70 Oxford Street and another 80 ‘model rooms’ at New Wakefield Street, so the indecisive customer would definitely had plenty of choice and inspiration.

In 1902 the business offered massive annual sales and a 10 year guarantee on their furniture. They also offered free delivery and storage of purchased goods. Furniture on offer at this time was typical of turn of the twentieth century; lots of mahogany and oak, pianos, sideboards, velvet drawing room suites and reproduction ‘Chippendale’ furniture.

Above: An advertisement for dining room furniture (Source: Manchester Evening News, 1923)

By the 1920s they were selling a large variety of carpets; Axminster, Wilton, Turkey and Indian. These were also delivered and fitted for free, but it should be noted though that these were not ‘fitted carpets’ in the modern sense, so they did not go wall-to-wall but instead looked like large rug. The largest size 15ft x 12ft cost £18/8s. (or around £1116 in modern currency).

Whilst we might thing of the inter-war years now as being at the height of the ‘art deco’ movement, where everything was very sleek and angular it appears that it was only later in the 1930s that Shaw’s started to advertise these sorts of furniture. For the post part, we can clearly see the British public’s taste in furniture at this time was still for heavy, solid wooden reproduction furniture, mainly ‘Tudorbethan’ styles with carved doors and ornate bulbous legs.

Above: The same standard dining room suite of table, chairs and sideboard but in a much more contemporary design in 1939. (Source: Manchester Evening News, 1939)

Contemporary designs were coming in, in the 1950s. They still produced reproduction styles but the modern styles of furniture were slimmer and plainer in design. They appeared to have offered cheaper suites of furniture which had a veneer of walnut, for example, to suit the pockets of the post-war generation. Fitted carpets were also coming in. They also offered a furniture restoration service and introduced a ‘tick’ payment scheme for the first time. For example you could get £100 worth of furniture, with an initial payment of £12/10s and then 24 monthly payments of £4/1s./3d.

By the 1960s and 1970s G-plan, built-in furniture and self-assembly furniture were the orders of the day. As Shaw’s described “It’s new! It saves money! It looks good!” Teak furniture was the most popular choice and you could get your three-piece suite in green or gold draylon. They cost between £125 and £199 (or £1755 and £2793 in modern currency) which reflect the high-end stock they sold, especially when you consider that a carpet salesman’s job at Shaw’s was advertised at £20 per week plus commission (around £280 a week in modern currency).

Above: An advertisement for bedroom furniture. Notice how the font used in the branding of Shaw’s changes over each era too. (Source: Manchester Evening News, 1966)

The business was still trading in the early 1980s but had closed by 1983. By February 1984 plans were in place by Greater Manchester Arts Centre (later Greater Manchester Visual Arts Trust) to spend £945,000 to turn 70 Oxford Road and the former Tatler Cinema Club into ‘Britain’s new visual arts, film and design centre’. The plans were for two cinemas, three exhibition galleries, education facilities, a wine bar, bistro and a coffee bar. So well-known was Shaw’s that it had become a local landmark, and articles about the new arts centre referred back to Shaw’s quite often to give a sense of location. The warehouse on New Wakefield Street was eventually converted for commercial and residential uses, most notably as The Font.

The new centre opened in September 1985 and many of us will fondly remember it and the Cornerhouse Cinema. This was a hub of arts and culture for thirty years until it closed and moved to a new site at HOME in 2015. Manchester Metropolitan University subsequently acquired the building and I even taught classes in there myself a few years ago, without realising the rich history of Shaw’s which had come before or that many generations had also browsed those same rooms.

Finally, do you remember Shaw’s? Did you or a family member ever shop there, or work there? If so, please share your memories in comments below!

Researched & Written by Dr Thomas McGrath

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Sources:

  • 1873 Post Office Directory
  • Census records & Church record – Ancestry & Find My Past
  • Manchester Evening News, 11 April 1878, p.1
  • Manchester Evening News, 24 November 1893, p.4
  • Manchester Evening News, 18 January 1897, p. 4
  • Manchester City News, 26 April 1902, p.7
  • Manchester Evening News, 2 January 1923, p.3
  • Manchester Evening News, 5 October 1923, p.4
  • Manchester Evening News, 8 January 1932, p.3
  • Manchester Evening News, 26 May 1933, p.10
  • Manchester Evening News, 12 March 1938, p.5
  • Manchester Evening News, 21 April 1939, p.9
  • Manchester Evening News, 18 November 1949, p.3
  • Manchester Evening News, 25 November 1955, p.8
  • Manchester Evening News, 9 September 1955, p.8
  • The Manchester Guardian, 24 October 1955, p.2
  • Manchester Evening News, 7 October 1966, p.6
  • Manchester Evening News, 11 December 1970, p.23
  • Manchester Evening News, 14 July 1972, p.12
  • Manchester Evening News, 2 February 1984, p.29
  • Manchester Evening News, 17 August 1984, p.36
  • Cornerhouse – HOME (homemcr.org)