SPOTLIGHT ON
MCM Furniture Designers & Makers
(A work in progress...)
The Times Furniture Company, UK
When this building opened in 1929, it was home to the Times Furnishing Company and promotional material from that time gave it the personna of a pleasure palace for shoppers. The Times company was begun by the entrepreneur John Jacobs and much of its business was based on the "hire-purchase" model that encouraged people to "furnish now and pay later". It was a phenomenon of a time in the late 1920s and 1930s when there was a rapid expansion of owner-occupied housing. Large numbers of working-class people buying new houses and moving out of rented accommodation meant there was a demand for complete re-furnishing.
While the High Holborn store was something of a flagship venue, the company had numerous other outlets as you can see in the image below taken from a contemporary advertisement.
https://manchesterhistory.net/architecture/1920/timesfurniture.html
See more here: https://moda.mdx.ac.uk/object/badda208/