Barker & Stonehouse is proud to celebrate over sixty years of success as one of the UK's leading furniture experts.. 

 

Founded in 1946

Memories of the second world war were still fresh in the minds of Charles Barker and Alex Stonehouse when the two, ex RAF men set up Barker & Stonehouse in 1946 securing the Michelsons business in Bishopton's Lane, Stockton as the site of their very first store. The re-building of post-war Britain saw the furniture market boom and the Stockton store was so successful that a second, in Middlesbrough, was added the following year. And this was just the start of the Barker & Stonehouse success story.

Further stores followed at Darlington (1954) and Bishop Auckland (1977) with expansion to a larger Darlington premises at Feethams in 1979. In 1983 the famous Joel's Galleries was acquired in Newgate Street, Newcastle and in 1988 Middlesbrough moved to its current home in Cannon Park. We now have stores in Knaresborough, Gateshead, Newcastle, Leeds, Hull and the latest addition in Nottingham

 

 

 1940's - 1950's

As the memories of the Second World War receded new businesses began to spring up throughout Britain as the country set about the long and arduous task of rebuilding itself.

So great was the success of the first store in Stockton that a second outlet in Middlesbrough was opened. To ensure that the company continued to be a family firm Charles Barker's brother, Frank, was invited to join the business.

Frank was an expert in the field of advertising and to publicise the opening of the second store he devised a series of "teaser" advertisements in the local press which depicted famous crossings of the past including Hannibal crossing the Alps and Alcock and Brown crossing the Atlantic. Within days this series had thousands speculating about what was being advertised - until the last one in the series showed the company's three directors crossing the Tees in a small boat!

After a further 7 years' success the partners had the opportunity to acquire Laybournes business in Skinnergate and Barker and Stonehouse made its move to Darlington

 

 

1960's - 1980's

As the economy boomed in the 60's, so did Barker and Stonehouse. In 1961 the redcar store opened. Richard Barker, son of founder Charles, was brought in to manage it and today, 35 years later, Richard is the company's Managing Director. Before joining the family firm he had gained invaluable experience by working for other major furniture retailers in Newcastle and Teesside.

An opportunity arose in Bishop Auckland to purchase the long-established business of W.E Gill and Sons. This store was a great success until the early 80's when the town centre was dramatically changed and it was decided to amalgamate the business with new, larger premises in Darlington. This had become possible with the acquisition in 1979, of Fred Robinson's store in Feethams, together with adjoining land onto which the store later expanded.

The company was most fortunate to acquire the famous Joel's Galleries in Newgate Street, Newcastle - premises which were ideal for the purpose.

By this time it had become obvious that the company's situation in Linthorpe Road, Middlesbrough was no longer practical due to the lack of parking spaces and the Council's policy of road access. Fortunately a site was found in Cannon Park. The premises, which had been Hill's Bakery, were converted in the space of a few months and opened early in 1988, complete with substantial warehouse facilities.

 

 

1980's - 2000

The 1980's were a major time of change for Barker and Stonehouse. Rapidly growing out of its store in Middlesbrough's Linthorpe Road the company found an opportunity for expansion in the town's new retail development, Cannon Park. The new site, which was previously home to Hill's Bakery, gave Barker and Stonehouse a massive 40,000ft of floor space and when it opened in 1988 it made the company the biggest furniture store in the North.

Because of the new store in Middlesbrough was able to offer such a huge range of exciting new furniture designs it was decided that two of its smaller stores in Redcar and Hartlepool would merge with Middlesbrough. In the early 1990's those stores closed and the staff were transferred to the new site.

In the early 90's a familiar face returned to the store. James Barker, Richard's son, became the third generation of the family to work with the company. This wasn't james' first stint of work at the company - as a teenager he worked on the delivery vans! That seems like a very long time ago as James has now been managing Director since 2002. James brought with him a wealth of experience from his work with advertising giants Saatchi & Saatchi and Londons flagship store, Harrods.

In the mid 90's the company introduced a new financial director, Peter Soakell, to the company. Peter's input to the overall running of the company and his tireless efforts to upgrade the IT system made an invaluable difference to the company's overall efficiency, ensuring the new systems were devised to give customers the best service ppossible.

Traditionally Barker & Stonehouse was a North East based store but in 1997 it took its first steps across the border into neighbouring Yorkshire. Knaresborough was chosen as the location and within only a few months it proved to be the right place at the right time. Up until Barker and Stonehouse's arrival the people in the area had to make long car journeys in order to find a really good selection of furniture but now they could find hundreds of designer and smaller unique ranges right on their doorstep.

The nineties proved to be a busy time for the company because they also decided to move their store at Newgate Street in Newcastle to a bigger site. After scouring the city for its new home, Barker and Stonehouse eventually decided upon a 3 storey building in leazes Park Road, just a stone's throw away from Newcastle United's home ground, St. James' Park. This site would prove to be the company's flagship store offering a huge range of furniture including a vast collection of contemporary ranges from all over the workld including B&B Italia, Ligne Roset and De Sede.

The opening was celebrated with a celebrity launch and to prove that Barker & Stonehouse was firmly on the button with the trends of the day they chose a relatively new team of TV presenters for the job. In a flurry of paint and wallpaper the Changing Rooms team of Linda Barker, Lawrence Llewelyn Bowen and Handy Andy performed room makeovers to a packed out audience. It was the height of the team's popularity and the 2,000 people who turned out at the store to see them do their stuff was testimony to a widespread love of all things interior.

Never a company to shy away from competition, Barker and Stonehouse took full advantage of a site that had become available on Gateshead's Metro Retail Park opposite Swedish furniture giant, IKEA. Again this proved to be a great location and the perfect site for Barker and Stonehouse's more affordable contemporary furniture.

To support the two new Tyneside stores and the growing demand on supply, the company opened a state of the art warehouse in Blaydon to provide streamlined customer service support

 

 

2000 - Present Day

With the new millennium came new beginnings for Barker and Stonehouse

Following the success of the Knaresborough store the company decided it was time to step it up a gear in the Yorkshire region with the opening of the leeds store in 2002.

Situated at Birstall retail Park the store made such an impact selling both traditional and designer furniture that only three years later the store doubled in size. 2005 also saw the opening of a distribution centre just outside Selby in Yorkshire to improve storage and logistics across the stores.

Following the distribution centre came the launch of the company's Hull store. The opening gained huge regional media attention thanks not only to a celebrity opening by Channel 4 interiors guru, Naiomi Cleaver, but also to a fun regional model competition.

Barker and Stonehouse wanted to appeal directly to the people of the area and prior to opening launched a 'Pop Idol' style competition called 'Hull's Model Citizens'. The company held open auditions looking for 'real life' models to advertise the store's opening.

This exciting build up combined with an amazing range of designer furniture from around the world, resulted in the highest number of customers at any of the company's previous launch days.

The latest addition is the new Nottingham store situated at Giltbrook Retail Park in Nottingham and easily accessible from the M1. The store was opened in october 2008 by interiors guru's Colin and Justin.

Alongside the new store openings there have been several key staff developments at Barker and Stonehouse.

Richard Parnell who joined the company in 1995 as a manager of the Darlington store took a seat on the board and David Wilkinson, who worked as a salesman at the metro store, then manager of both Middlesbrough and Newcastle stores, was given a position on the main management team as business development manager.

After successfully filling many positions within the company Mark Wilkinson joined the team at Head Office as regional support manager. His position is to ensure that the highest level of customer service is offered to all of the company's customers.

More recently Arianne Mattinson joined as the head of creative having gained experience at Sofa Workshop and MFI. Her role at Barker and Stonehouse encompasses store design, product buying and marketing.

While new faces have appeared throughout the company, Barker and Stonehouse also enjoys something of a tradition of long serving staff. Several key milestones have recently been celebrated by staff throughout the company. Mike Gill celebrated 50 years of service at the Darlington store, while Bob bartley clocked up 35 years in the distribution centre. Two original store managers, Richard English and Terry Farndale, totalled over 40 years each of working with all 3 generations of the family and are still contributing to the success of Barker and Stonehouse.