Gordon Russell Design Museum
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1880

1880: William Morris founds the Kelmscott Press

1885

1888: Founding of Guild of Handicraft by C.R. Ashbee

1890

1892: Gordon Russell born in Cricklewood

1895

1895: Guglielmo Marconi sends his first radio signal in Italy

1896: William Morris dies

2nd Boer War

1900

1901: Queen Victoria dies

1903: Wiener Werkstatte founded in Austria

1904: Great Broadway Adventure

Great Broadway Adventure

S.B.Russell buys the Lygon Arms in 1904 and moved family to Broadway. Family portrait c.1904, Gordon bottom left.

1905

1907: Picasso paints Les Demoiselles D’Avignon

1908: Gordon joins the family business

Gordon Russell’s early designs

An English Oak bed c.1911, in Arts and Crafts style. One of Gordon Russell’s earliest designs for the Lygon Arms.

1910

First World War

1914: Gordon joins to fight the war

Gordon joins to fight the war

A drawing from the trenches by Gordon Russell, 1917

1915

1917: October Revolution

1919: Bauhaus founded

1920

1921: Gordon marries Toni Denning

1924: British Empire Exhibition, Wembley

1924: Russell and Sons exhibit at the V&A

Cirencester Dressing Table

Designed by Gordon Russell in early 1920s with a stylistic debt to Ashbee and Gimson and the legacy of the Arts and Crafts Movement.

1925

1925: Gold Award at Paris

The Paris Cabinet

Designed by Gordon Russell in 1924 and exhibited at the 1925 Paris Exhibition where it was awarded a Gold Medal.

1925: Boot Cupboard

Boot Cupboard

Designed by Gordon Russell this simple boot cupboard prefigures many of the geometric concerns of 1950s British design.

1926: John Logie Baird demonstrates Television

1929: Wall Street Crash

1929: London Showroom opens

London Showroom opens

Gordon Russell Ltd first London showroom opens in October 1929 at 28 Wigmore Street, London

1930

1931: Radios for Murphy

Murphy Radio Sets

Designed by Dick Russell. The collaboration with Murphy opened up new vistas for Gordon Russell Limited

1932: First broadcasts by the BBC

1933: Hitler becomes chancellor

1933: Gordon becomes managing director of Gordon Russell Ltd

1933: Marion Peplar joins company

Dick Russell and Marion Peplar

They married in 1933 and played leading roles in taking the company into the vanguard of European modernism with their furniture and textile designs

1934: W.H. ’Curly’ Russell appointed chief designer

Sudley Dining Set c.1937

Designed by W.H. ’Curly’ Russell

1934: Gordon Russell Ltd employs over 400 people

1935

1935: New London Showroom

New showroom 40 Wigmore Street

Opened in 1935 and designed by Geoffrey Jellicoe. The showroom’s modern image included pale blue neon fascia lettering

1935: Factory opens at Park Royal, closes in 1941

Spanish Civil War

1936: Nikolaus Pevsner becomes chief buyer

1938: S.B. Russell, Gordon’s father, dies

Gordon Russell’s father dies

Gordon Russell carving his father’s tombstone in Chipping Campden Cemetery

Second World War

1939: New York’s World Fair, USA

1940

1940: London Showroom closed, work returns to Broadway

1942: Utility Furniture

Utility Furniture

Under the direction of Gordon Russell a range of simple, functional furniture was devised for wartime Britain

1944: Council for Industrial design founded

1945

1946: ‘Britain Can Make It’ Exhibition

Britain Can Make It

Poster designed by Ashley Havinden for the 1946 Britain Can Make It exhibition, in which Gordon Russell played a leading role

Marshall Plan

1947: Gordon Awarded CBE

1947: Appointed Director of the Council of Industrial Design

1949: Launch of CoID’s Design Magazine

Design Magazine 1949

First edition of Design Magazine, which Gordon Russell launched whilst he was Director of the Council of Industrial Design

1950

1950: Rosewood Cabinet

Rosewood Cabinet

Sideboard made in mahogany with patterned rosewood veneered doors. Designed by David Booth in 1950

1951: Festival of Britain

Festival of Britain

The Lion and Unicorn Building designed by Dick Russell and Robert Goodden. Gordon Russell played a key role in the development of the Festival

1952: First commercial jet service, UK

1955: Gordon Russell knighted

1955

1956: Suez Crisis

1956: Design Centre opens in London

Design Centre opens in London

It became the fountainhead of a host of new initiatives and model for many other international design centres. Gordon Russell assumed the role of international ambassador

1958: First IKEA shop opens

1958: Exposition Universelle, Brussels

1960

1960: Dieter Rams appointed Design Director at Braun

1960: Coventry Cathedral Chair

Stacking Chair for Coventry Cathedral

Classic oak chair designed for Coventry Cathedral designed by Dick Russell and made by Gordon Russell Ltd. In 1960. Architect Basil Spence commissioned 2,000 at a cost of six pounds each

1961: Construction of the Berlin Wall

1961: Royal Warrant granted

1962: RSA Gold Medal

RSA Gold Medal for Industrial Design

Gordon Russell receives the Royal Society of Arts Albert Gold Medal for ‘services to industrial design’ from HRH the Duke of Edinburgh

1963: Archigram group and magazine founded

1964: Terence Conran’s first Habitat shop opens

1964: Dining Hall at St Catherine’s College, Oxford

Dining Hall at St Catherine’s College, Oxford

Refectory tables and benches made for St Catherine’s College, Oxford. Designed by Dick Russell in collaboration with the Danish architect Arne Jacobsen

1965

1965: Pop art emerges, UK

Vietnam War

1967: Ray Leigh becomes Design Director

Ray Leigh becomes Design Director

Architect Ray Leigh pointed by Gordon Russell Ltd to revive a sense of design excellence in the company

1968: Arab-Israeli Six-Day War

1969: First moonwalk

1969: Trevor Chinn becomes Chief Designer

High Table, Institute of Certified Accountants

Banqueting tables in English oak for the HQ of the Institute of Certified Accountants. Designed by W H Russell and Trevor Chinn

1970

1971: Ray Leigh becomes Managing Director

Studio 80 Collection

Range of office furniture in Brazilian rosewood with chromed steel leg frames. Designed by Ray Leigh in 1977

1973: International oil crisis

1975

1977: Centre George Pompidou opens

1978: ‘Skill’ address at the Royal Society of Arts

1979: RSA Presidential Award for Design Management

1980

1980: Honorary doctorate from the Royal College of Art

1980: Gordon Russell dies at Kingcombe

Gordon Russell 1892-1980

1985

1990

1995

2000

2005

2010

2015

Gordon Russell Design Museum
15 Russell Square, Broadway
Worcestershire  WR12 7AP
T: 01386 854695
E: info@gordonrussellmuseum.org

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