The Dugdale Brothers building in the centre of Huddersfield (scale model, above) is exactly what you’d hope the headquarters of an old cloth merchant would be like. Four and a half floors of old furniture, worn wooden floorboards and the occasional touch of old branding – such as the White Rose, symbol of Yorkshire and name of Dugdale’s first bunches in 1902.


Despite its many floors – including a cold basement, perfect for settling or ‘shrinking’ cloth – the modern company has almost outgrown Dugdale Towers. It holds a larger number of pieces for each swatch of cloth than most other merchants, and has a reputation on Savile Row for never being out of stock as a result. But that requires a lot of space, and they already have an overspill facility up the road.

Here are a few of the highlights.

 Old cloth stamps

Trimmings

First floor storage

1939 White Rose catalogue

And cloth

The filing system

Basement storage

Outdoor signage

Geoff Wheeler, Dugdale’s (former Lesser’s) agent and Savile Row mainstay

Other pieces in this series on Huddersfield:
Huddersfield’s mills and merchants explained
WT Johnson’s – finishers 

Pictures: Luke Carby
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Anonymous

I want to go there!

LM