Frederick Sage & Company
Encyclopedia
Frederick Sage & Company was a British shop fitting
company based in London with an extensive practice in Europe, South Africa, and South America. During both world wars it built and designed aircraft, and after the Second World War it executed much of the woodwork for the rebuilt House of Commons.
, a small village near Ipswich
in Suffolk, the son of the village carpenter. Following his father's profession, he showed great ingenuity when young, for instance designing a velocipede
to make it easier to sell small items of joinery he had made around the neighbourhood. After working for local firms of builders, his ambition took him to London in 1851 where for three years he continued working for builders, studying in evening schools to rememdy his lack of education. Having married, and finding work hard to come by, he started his own shopfitting business in 1860 in Hatton Garden
.
By 1870 Frederick Sage owned buildings in Gray's Inn Road
, including show rooms and “steam works” nearby in Portpool street. In 1876 he received an award along with many other British firms at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia for an exhibit of “air-tight showcases &c.” In 1879 he was offering to warehouse showcases from the Paris Exhibition
for the forthcoming one in Sydney.
in Knightsbridge
, London. There was for a time a branch in Manchester which closed in 1910. More large scale work was done in London at other department stores, D. H. Evans
in Oxford Street
, between 1907 and 1909, and Selfridges
. Sage’s also worked on hotels, restaurants, even interiors of many of the great liners for Cunard
and P&O
.
Jesse Hawes’ great triumph was the expansion of Sage’s around the world. He had been at the Philadelphia exhibition in 1876, and in South Africa and various European countries before Frederick Sage’s death. He recommended an office in Cape Town and a factory followed there in 1901. Eventually the business moved to Johannesburg, and a great deal of high class work was done in South Africa before the business became a subsidiary firm based there in 1947. From the Berlin branch contracts were secured in Finland and around the old Austro-Hungarian Empire which was to break up at the end of the Great War – in Vienna, Budapest, and Belgrade. After World War I a factory was opened in Paris where much work was done: Au Printemps
, La Maison Barclay, The Louvre, and so on, and in French provincial cities too, and contracts managed from Paris in Algeria, Egypt, Romania, and Turkey.
factory which had been acquired in 1910, conveniently by the Great Northern
main line railway, with sidings, also used its woodworking skills to build cabins for non-rigid airships. The company also went on to build large numbers of Avro 504K
trainer in a factory at Holborn in London, with a total of at least 408 completed.Orders were also placed for 130 Sopwith Camel
s, but this was cancelled due to the end of the war.
Not content with building aircraft on sub-contract the company also set up an aircraft design team which from 1916 included the aviator and aircraft designer Eric Gordon England
.
With the end of the war and the availability of surplus former-military aircraft the company closed the design department and returned to wood working and shop fitting.
It became involved in aircraft production again during the Second World War, building forward fuselages for Airspeed Horsa
gliders.
in Regent Street
was thought a spectacular triumph for the firm, and other work was done in connection with the controversial rebuilding of that prestigious shopping street. In 1926 the Peterborough temporary building was rebuilt and branches were opened in Leeds and Glasgow. Belfast eventually had a branch too. But the Great Depression
of 1929 onwards, which spread rapidly around the world, caused a severe jolt to the firm. The Argentina operation, already suffering from a strike in which the local director was stabbed in the back, was particularly badly hit. Sage’s were so affected by the depression that they made losses for four years running and did not pay a dividend again until 1936.
was secured, needing expensive jigs for assembly, it was decided that Central London was becoming too risky, the Blitz
having started. Sage’s leased a building in the western suburbs, at Harlesden
. On the morning of 17 April 1941 Sage’s main factory and office premises in Gray’s Inn Road were bombed and entirely destroyed by fire just before the employees arrived for work. The draughtsmen and planning department and all the key factory employees were sent to the Harlesden factory. A shopfitting competitor, a former Sage’s employee, offered his factory at Ilford
, and a section of a factory at Enfield was requisitioned for the firm by the Ministry of Aircraft Production. And so the firm carried on through the war, its efforts eventually entirely devoted to the war effort.
There was work for shops, ships, churches, museums, but the most prestigious and the one that will last longest must be their post-war work in the Palace of Westminster
following the bombing of the House of Commons.
The firm began to show strains in the early 1960s when they began a difficult “reorganisation”. They still did much work, including buying a firm making scenery and exhibition stands, City Display organisation, and even had a television scenery contract when the medium was still quite new. In 1965 they had difficulty in completing contracts and this continued. In 1968, “unobtrusively” as The Times
put it, Sage’s became a subsidiary of British Electric Traction
, remained in name for a while longer but eventually disappeared.
Shop fitting
Shop fitting is the trade of fitting out retail and service shops and stores with equipment, fixtures and fittings. The trade applies to all kinds of outlets from a small corner shop to hypermarkets. A shop fitter executes planning, design of shop layout and installs equipment and services...
company based in London with an extensive practice in Europe, South Africa, and South America. During both world wars it built and designed aircraft, and after the Second World War it executed much of the woodwork for the rebuilt House of Commons.
Origins
The founder, Frederick Sage (1830–1898) was born at FrestonFreston, Suffolk
Freston is a village and a civil parish in the Babergh District, in the English county of Suffolk.-History:Freston is notable as the location of the last outbreak of bubonic plague in England. The centre of the outbreak was Latimer Cottages, where it is thought plague-bearing rats may have come...
, a small village near Ipswich
Ipswich
Ipswich is a large town and a non-metropolitan district. It is the county town of Suffolk, England. Ipswich is located on the estuary of the River Orwell...
in Suffolk, the son of the village carpenter. Following his father's profession, he showed great ingenuity when young, for instance designing a velocipede
Velocipede
Velocipede is an umbrella term for any human-powered land vehicle with one or more wheels. The most common type of velocipede today is the bicycle....
to make it easier to sell small items of joinery he had made around the neighbourhood. After working for local firms of builders, his ambition took him to London in 1851 where for three years he continued working for builders, studying in evening schools to rememdy his lack of education. Having married, and finding work hard to come by, he started his own shopfitting business in 1860 in Hatton Garden
Hatton Garden
Hatton Garden is a street and area near Holborn in London, England. It is most famous for being London’s jewellery quarter and centre of the UK diamond trade, but the area is also now home to a diverse range of media and creative businesses....
.
By 1870 Frederick Sage owned buildings in Gray's Inn Road
Gray's Inn Road
Gray's Inn Road, formerly Gray's Inn Lane, is a major road in central London, in the London Borough of Camden. It is named after Gray's Inn, one of the main Inns of Court. The road starts in Holborn, near Chancery Lane tube station and the boundaries of the City of London and the London Borough...
, including show rooms and “steam works” nearby in Portpool street. In 1876 he received an award along with many other British firms at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia for an exhibit of “air-tight showcases &c.” In 1879 he was offering to warehouse showcases from the Paris Exhibition
Exposition Universelle (1878)
The third Paris World's Fair, called an Exposition Universelle in French, was held from 1 May through to 10 November 1878. It celebrated the recovery of France after the 1870 Franco-Prussian War.-Construction:...
for the forthcoming one in Sydney.
Development
Frederick Sage took three of his nephews, Frederick, Josiah, and Jesse Hawes into the business and eventually they became partners, along with his son. Jesse Hawes was the principal mover in the firm's development after Frederick Sage's death. In 1905 the firm became a public company with a capital of £300,000. That year marked the end of five years when they had devoted almost all their resources to fitting out HarrodsHarrods
Harrods is an upmarket department store located in Brompton Road in Brompton, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London. The Harrods brand also applies to other enterprises undertaken by the Harrods group of companies including Harrods Bank, Harrods Estates, Harrods Aviation and Air...
in Knightsbridge
Knightsbridge
Knightsbridge is a road which gives its name to an exclusive district lying to the west of central London. The road runs along the south side of Hyde Park, west from Hyde Park Corner, spanning the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea...
, London. There was for a time a branch in Manchester which closed in 1910. More large scale work was done in London at other department stores, D. H. Evans
House of Fraser
House of Fraser is a British department store group with over 60 stores across the United Kingdom and Ireland. It was established in Glasgow, Scotland in 1849 as Arthur and Fraser. By 1891 it was known as Fraser & Sons. The company grew steadily during the early 20th century, but after the Second...
in Oxford Street
Oxford Street
Oxford Street is a major thoroughfare in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, United Kingdom. It is Europe's busiest shopping street, as well as its most dense, and currently has approximately 300 shops. The street was formerly part of the London-Oxford road which began at Newgate,...
, between 1907 and 1909, and Selfridges
Selfridges
Selfridges, AKA Selfridges & Co, is a chain of high end department stores in the United Kingdom. It was founded by Harry Gordon Selfridge. The flagship store in London's Oxford Street is the second largest shop in the UK and was opened on 15 March 1909.More recently, three other stores have been...
. Sage’s also worked on hotels, restaurants, even interiors of many of the great liners for Cunard
Cunard
Cunard may refer to:* Grace Cunard , American silent film actress* Nancy Cunard , English writer, editor, and publisher* Samuel Cunard , British shipping magnate-Other:...
and P&O
P&O Cruises
P&O Cruises is a British-American owned cruise line based at Carnival House in Southampton, England, and operated by Carnival UK. Originally a constituent of the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company, P&O Cruises is the oldest cruise line in the world, having operated the world's first...
.
Jesse Hawes’ great triumph was the expansion of Sage’s around the world. He had been at the Philadelphia exhibition in 1876, and in South Africa and various European countries before Frederick Sage’s death. He recommended an office in Cape Town and a factory followed there in 1901. Eventually the business moved to Johannesburg, and a great deal of high class work was done in South Africa before the business became a subsidiary firm based there in 1947. From the Berlin branch contracts were secured in Finland and around the old Austro-Hungarian Empire which was to break up at the end of the Great War – in Vienna, Budapest, and Belgrade. After World War I a factory was opened in Paris where much work was done: Au Printemps
Printemps
Printemps is a French department store .The flagship Printemps store is located on Boulevard Haussmann in the IXe arrondissement of Paris along with other well-known department stores like Galeries Lafayette. There are other Printemps stores in Paris and throughout France...
, La Maison Barclay, The Louvre, and so on, and in French provincial cities too, and contracts managed from Paris in Algeria, Egypt, Romania, and Turkey.
Aircraft production
To meet the wartime need for seaplanes in 1915 the company was one of six selected by the Admiralty to build the Short 184 under sub-contract. Originally 12 aircraft were ordered but the company went on to build more than 80 Short 184s. The PeterboroughPeterborough
Peterborough is a cathedral city and unitary authority area in the East of England, with an estimated population of in June 2007. For ceremonial purposes it is in the county of Cambridgeshire. Situated north of London, the city stands on the River Nene which flows into the North Sea...
factory which had been acquired in 1910, conveniently by the Great Northern
Great Northern Railway (Great Britain)
The Great Northern Railway was a British railway company established by the Great Northern Railway Act of 1846. On 1 January 1923 the company lost its identity as a constituent of the newly formed London and North Eastern Railway....
main line railway, with sidings, also used its woodworking skills to build cabins for non-rigid airships. The company also went on to build large numbers of Avro 504K
Avro 504
The Avro 504 was a World War I biplane aircraft made by the Avro aircraft company and under licence by others. Production during the War totalled 8,970 and continued for almost 20 years, making it the most-produced aircraft of any kind that served in World War I, in any military capacity, during...
trainer in a factory at Holborn in London, with a total of at least 408 completed.Orders were also placed for 130 Sopwith Camel
Sopwith Camel
The Sopwith Camel was a British First World War single-seat biplane fighter introduced on the Western Front in 1917. Manufactured by Sopwith Aviation Company, it had a short-coupled fuselage, heavy, powerful rotary engine, and concentrated fire from twin synchronized machine guns. Though difficult...
s, but this was cancelled due to the end of the war.
Not content with building aircraft on sub-contract the company also set up an aircraft design team which from 1916 included the aviator and aircraft designer Eric Gordon England
Eric Gordon England
Eric Cecil Gordon England was a British aviator, racing driver and engineer. E.C. Gordon England was one of the early pioneers of gliding, and his glider flight in 1909 is considered to be the birth of the sport of soaring....
.
- Sage Type 1 was a design for a twin-engined bomber that was not built.
- Sage Type 2Sage Type 2|-See also:-References:*"". Flight, 24 July 1919. pp.971—975.*Bruce, J.M. British Aeroplanes 1914-18. London:Putnam, 1957.*Bruce, J.M. War Planes of the First World War: Volume Two Fighters. London:Macdonald, 1968. ISBN 0 356 01473 8....
was a biplane-fighter with an enclosed cabin, the Admiralty ordered six but only one was built. - Sage Type 3Sage Type 3|-See also:-References:*Bruce, J.M. British Aeroplanes 1914-18. London:Putnam, 1957.*"". Flight, 24 July 1919. pp.971—975.*Uppendaun, Bob. "Sage-Like Thoughts:The Products of Frederick Sage & Co". Air Enthusiast, No.110, March/April 2004. pp.68-69....
was a biplane-trainer also known as the Sage N3 School, 30 ordered but only two built. - Sage Type 4 was a seaplane trainer also known as the Sage N4 School, two built.
With the end of the war and the availability of surplus former-military aircraft the company closed the design department and returned to wood working and shop fitting.
It became involved in aircraft production again during the Second World War, building forward fuselages for Airspeed Horsa
Airspeed Horsa
The Airspeed AS.51 Horsa was a British World War II troop-carrying glider built by Airspeed Limited and subcontractors and used for air assault by British and Allied armed forces...
gliders.
1920s
In 1921 the Galeries LafayetteGaleries Lafayette
- History :In 1893 Théophile Bader and his cousin Alphonse Kahn opened a fashion store in a small haberdasher's shop at the corner of rue La Fayette and the Chaussée d'Antin, Paris. In 1896, the company purchased the entire building at n°1 rue La Fayette and in 1905 the buildings at n°38, 40 et...
in Regent Street
Regent Street
Regent Street is one of the major shopping streets in London's West End, well known to tourists and Londoners alike, and famous for its Christmas illuminations...
was thought a spectacular triumph for the firm, and other work was done in connection with the controversial rebuilding of that prestigious shopping street. In 1926 the Peterborough temporary building was rebuilt and branches were opened in Leeds and Glasgow. Belfast eventually had a branch too. But the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
of 1929 onwards, which spread rapidly around the world, caused a severe jolt to the firm. The Argentina operation, already suffering from a strike in which the local director was stabbed in the back, was particularly badly hit. Sage’s were so affected by the depression that they made losses for four years running and did not pay a dividend again until 1936.
Second World War
At the beginning of the war normal commercial work dried up and it was not easy to find work for the factories until hard work secured government contracts back in the aeroplane business. When the contract for wings for the AlbemarleArmstrong Whitworth Albemarle
The Armstrong Whitworth A.W.41 Albemarle was a British twin-engine transport aircraft that entered service during the Second World War.Originally designed as a medium bomber that could be built by non-aviation companies without using light alloys, the Albemarle never served in that role, instead...
was secured, needing expensive jigs for assembly, it was decided that Central London was becoming too risky, the Blitz
The Blitz
The Blitz was the sustained strategic bombing of Britain by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941, during the Second World War. The city of London was bombed by the Luftwaffe for 76 consecutive nights and many towns and cities across the country followed...
having started. Sage’s leased a building in the western suburbs, at Harlesden
Harlesden
Harlesden is an area in the London Borough of Brent, northwest London, UK. Its main focal point is the Jubilee Clock which commemorates Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee....
. On the morning of 17 April 1941 Sage’s main factory and office premises in Gray’s Inn Road were bombed and entirely destroyed by fire just before the employees arrived for work. The draughtsmen and planning department and all the key factory employees were sent to the Harlesden factory. A shopfitting competitor, a former Sage’s employee, offered his factory at Ilford
Ilford
Ilford is a large cosmopolitan town in East London, England and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Redbridge. It is located northeast of Charing Cross and is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. It forms a significant commercial and retail...
, and a section of a factory at Enfield was requisitioned for the firm by the Ministry of Aircraft Production. And so the firm carried on through the war, its efforts eventually entirely devoted to the war effort.
Last years
Starting again after the second world war was even more difficult than after the first, because of the many restrictions and the centralised control which the new Labour government thought necessary. But new display rooms and offices were built in central London, in Verulam street near the old premises. New factories were acquired in the north London suburbs – Harringay, South Tottenham, Dalston. There was even a factory at Mountain Ash in the Cynon Valley of South Wales for manufacturing sheet metal and architectural metalwork.There was work for shops, ships, churches, museums, but the most prestigious and the one that will last longest must be their post-war work in the Palace of Westminster
Palace of Westminster
The Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament or Westminster Palace, is the meeting place of the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom—the House of Lords and the House of Commons...
following the bombing of the House of Commons.
The firm began to show strains in the early 1960s when they began a difficult “reorganisation”. They still did much work, including buying a firm making scenery and exhibition stands, City Display organisation, and even had a television scenery contract when the medium was still quite new. In 1965 they had difficulty in completing contracts and this continued. In 1968, “unobtrusively” as The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
put it, Sage’s became a subsidiary of British Electric Traction
British Electric Traction
British Electric Traction Company Limited, renamed BET plc in 1985, was a large British industrial conglomerate. It was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but was acquired by Rentokil in 1996, and the merged company is now known as Rentokil Initial.- Early history :The company was founded as...
, remained in name for a while longer but eventually disappeared.