House of Reeves history

House of Reeves, Croydons’ oldest and largest Furniture Retailer is celebrating 140 years this year. This famous Croydon Land mark in Church Street displays Croydons most comprehensive Suite, Bed, Dining room, Bedroom Furniture and Sofabed collections all in one location.

 140 Years is a significant anniversary, there no other companies in the area who are still run and controlled on a daily basis by the direct line of the original family. Although proud of the tradition it must be run along side and underpin the highly competitive and cut throat nature of business today. With faceless multiple national chains and multi-million pound advertising budgets the size and of this family business allows it to compete and beat these national names. Individual service, competitive prices, fast delivery and above all fantastic value are all part of the make up. 

Founded in 1867 By Edwin Reeves, from Sherborne in Dorset, on a site opposite the Croydon Parish Church in Church Street,  the west country Cooper traded with his wife brothers and son, introducing ironmongery, furniture and a secondhand department. Edwins son, William Arthur, expanded the company opening braches in Caterham and the original home town of Sherbourne. In 1947 William ceased to be a sole trader and the company became a private limited company. William T Reeves became the Managing Director and ruled the company until his death in 1982, when his son Maurice succeeded him. Now retired, Maurice leaves the running of the Company to his 2 sons, Trevor and Graham and the third director David Barnes.  

Over the years the company has seen many changes. From the expansion in the 50’s and 60’s harder times came with Croydons redevelopment in the 70’s. The company contracted back to its Croydon base. During those times the company still flourised, famed for its Auction Rooms (3388 sales in total), its specialized Valuation service and secondhand department, the company made a major transition in the mid 1980’s to purely new furniture and beds for the modern household.  

 This change heralded a big challenge for the company and from this, it has developed into the company you see today where the company offers a fantastic range of furniture in all styles, an excellent delivery service as well as same day delivery on many products. What’s more if your furniture needs assembling there are the services available to do this for you. And to complete the job if you want your old furniture removed that can be done as well, just sit back and its all done for you. 

With nearly 140 years and 5 generations of trading experience the Reeves family know what the customer wants. As one of the few Independent Furniture retailers left in the south east they offer service, professionalism and reliability the national chains can only dream about. Try it for yourself and see.