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W.W.TURNER - Theatre Furnishers - Station Road, Northfield

sospiri

sospiri

GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
Here's a name that I haven't come across before, and I am indebted to James McCarraher's Salisbury City Hall: Through the Looking Glass for the advertisement. Sorry about the picture quality.
WWTurner.jpg

A copy of Cinema News & Property Gazette Technical Supplement at archive.org provided the following with other links to Birmingham:-

W. W. TURNER'S BIG JOBS.

The City Cinema, Leicester's newest and most pre-
tentious super-cinema, is nearing completion, and W.
W. Turner and Co., Limited, who are doing the whole
of the seating, expect to be setting the chairs in the
course cf the next week or so. This firm are also
busy on the Gaiety, Birmingham — due to open very
shortly now; and, in addition, they have in hand the
Victoria Cinema, Aston, Birmingham, and a new super
picture theatre at Whitstable.

Turner's were also responsible for the seating of the new (in 1933) Astoria Theatre in Brighton, which was eventually closed and, despite a Grade II listing, was demolished in 2018.
Astoria_Brighton.jpg
That is the extent of my information at the moment, unless, of course, you know better.

Maurice :cool:
 
The firm moved to Northfield between the 1933 a
nd 1936 Kellys. It is now a car spray business:
goo.gl

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.
goo.gl goo.gl
Before that hey were at 30A York Road, Kings Heath (which seems to be a private house, possibly the office) and 1A Institute Road, which must have been the factory, and was where Kwik Fit is now. I hope their service was better than KwikFit's!
 
Thanks Mike & Pedro,

I hadn't started searching the directories yet, though no liquidation is showing in the London Gazette & they could have been taken over and had a name change. I have the feeling that there wasn't a lot of manufacturing done, just assembly with most of the parts bought in. So probably a relatively small outfit, after all cinemas and theatres are not exactly like field of cabbages! I think I only ever used KwikFit once and got the feeling that there wasn't much trust between firm & customer.

Maurice :cool:
 
mikejee said:
The firm moved to Northfield between the 1933 a
nd 1936 Kellys. It is now a car spray business:
goo.gl

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.
goo.gl goo.gl
Before that hey were at 30A York Road, Kings Heath (which seems to be a private house, possibly the office) and 1A Institute Road, which must have been the factory, and was where Kwik Fit is now. I hope their service was better than KwikFit's!
Click to expand...
The Northfield site is now a housing development, the factory was opposite the Station Road entrance to Northfield Station.
My father worked there from as far back as I can remember until the company closed in the early 70`s. I have many and happy memories of going into work with him on a Saturday morning ( no other workers on site ) and using the premises as a large adventure playground I also have a small red booklet dated March 1950 in which are detailed a list of theaters, their location and the details of the works done. Happy to chat more about Turners if required.
Keith Vaughan
 
Hello!
I’m interested to see if anyone can help shed some light on where these old seats started their life, I recently acquired them from the Little Theatre in Donnington, Telford. I started to take them apart and found this card in the back of the seat, they also have ‘GB’ on the legs, any info much appreciated. Thanks Lisa.
 

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It’s a lovely little theatre, I was in the auditorium a few days ago, they thought the seats came from Wolverhampton originally, but because of the card I found with W. W. Turner’s address, I’m now wondering if they came from the Gaiety Birmingham?
 
It’s an ex military hut, previously a gym and shooting range (part of the COD military complex) that was built during the Second World War, May 1940, don’t think it was a theatre until the early 50’s.
 
akawass said:
Hello!
I’m interested to see if anyone can help shed some light on where these old seats started their life, I recently acquired them from the Little Theatre in Donnington, Telford. I started to take them apart and found this card in the back of the seat, they also have ‘GB’ on the legs, any info much appreciated. Thanks Lisa.
Click to expand...
The only reference I can find of Turner`s working on a theatre in Donnington is at the Palace theatre in 1929 when they repaired or more likely replaced the chairs. Is this the same theatre or the right Donnington? as for Telford I don`t think the town was known by this name when my information was printed. Any idea what the town name was in 1950? ( the date of my info.)
 
Vaughan27 said:
The only reference I can find of Turner`s working on a theatre in Donnington is at the Palace theatre in 1929 when they repaired or more likely replaced the chairs. Is this the same theatre or the right Donnington? as for Telford I don`t think the town was known by this name when my information was printed. Any idea what the town name was in 1950? ( the date of my info.)
Click to expand...
Hi Vaughan27, the Little Theatre is in Donnington in Shropshire, they acquired the seating (secondhand) from another theatre, I was wondering whether they possibly came from the Gaiety in Birmingham because of the initials ‘GB’ on the legs, they’re exactly the same seats that appear on the advert at the beginning of the thread. Thank you.
 
Here’s a picture of their seats...
 

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akawass said:
Hi Vaughan27, the Little Theatre is in Donnington in Shropshire, they acquired the seating (secondhand) from another theatre, I was wondering whether they possibly came from the Gaiety in Birmingham because of the initials ‘GB’ on the legs, they’re exactly the same seats that appear on the advert at the beginning of the thread. Thank you.
Click to expand...
Giving this further thought, I doubt the seat castings were made specifically for the "Gaiety" in Birmingham as there was no casting or fettling facilities at Turners in Northfield rather they bought in castings from outside. From memory my understanding would be they spray painted the castings, upholstered the seat, then assembled and fitted the seating on site. this seems to be their method of working. They had a sewing room for curtain making they also did carpet fitting thus complete theatre furnishing.
Vaughan27
 
Thank you Vaughan27, that makes perfect sense, I did wonder afterwards whether it could be a general casting and possibly ‘GB’ could just stand for Great Britain or something similar and have no reference to the ‘Gaiety’. It’s great to know a little bit of their history with Turners, thank you for your help. Lisa
 
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