ASTON MATTHEWS

This year Aston Matthews is celebrating its 200th anniversary and its showroom on London’s Essex Road – where it has traded since 1823 – has been refurbished to reflect the extensive range of bathroom fittings available from this family business

The company stocks the largest range of new cast iron baths in the UK and these are well represented with plain and painted roll top baths featured in three of the four showroom windows.

Last year the freestanding bath offering was expanded to encompass copper and composite models and these now feature in displays inside alongside a selection of basins, WCs, furniture, heating and brassware.

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Showrooms

“We are particularly proud of our range of brassware,” said Director Howard Birch. “We’ve worked hard to curate collections of chrome, brass, black and bronze taps, shower fittings and accessories so that customers can source all the items for their bathroom in a matching finish. If we can’t find the right piece to complete the collection we have it made.”

Throughout the showroom there is a mix of both traditional and contemporary pieces, from pedestal to concrete basins, wall hung sanitaryware to high level WCs and the wallpapers and tiles used in the displays are for sale too.

Aston Matthews says its customers, who range from individual consumers to interior designers, are confident shoppers who like to mix and match elements from across the showroom to create their own look, so the design of the space is intentionally fluid to avoid being too prescriptive.

Birch added: “It’s all a far cry from when I joined the family business in 1978 when it was more of a builder’s merchant. Then my father put a bathroom suite in the window and it took off.

“Our USP was colour. We stocked complete bathroom suites in 23 colours, the most popular were Penthouse Red and Penthouse Blue. We didn’t have displays as we do now, there wasn’t a single bath lying down, instead they all stood against the wall with the basin in front and the WC to the side.”

Matthews

Essex Road, Islington, London N1 2SN / astonmatthews.co.uk