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
I want to go there!
LM