Jim and Sheena, his wife and business co-owner, began the business you see today from humble roots at their kitchen table in 1994. As time passed and orders increased, business outgrew the farm buildings it was housed in. Customers, staff and delivery men struggled daily down a bumpy farm track to find it. Since most of the staff came from the nearby market town of Hadleigh, Jim moved the company there in 2008, taking over an empty bottling factory on the outskirts of town that came with lots of room for workshops, offices and a warehouse.

We’ve shared a tour of the stunning historic Walcot Street, the location of our new showroom, but realise we hadn’t shown you around our first home. Time to give our Suffolk location a little love…

You will find our beautiful Suffolk showroom in the historic market town of Hadleigh where our shop and workshop is located on Lady Lane just off the A1071 Ipswich Road. Our showroom houses our entire range of over 8,000 products. You can see how stunning our lights look in situ and use our displays to find inspiration for your window, door and bathroom accessories. While you are here you could pop into the centre of Hadleigh for a coffee and bite to eat and wander along the old High Street, marvel at its beautiful old buildings and eclectic mix of shops, services, restaurants, cafés and pubs that are known for their individuality, quality and care.

Hadleigh is an ancient market town full of character and history, set in the lush and fertile valley of the River Brett. Once an immensely wealthy wool and cloth town, the manor of Hadleigh was given to the Priory of Canterbury Cathedral in the 13th century meaning it was under direct control of the Archbishop of Canterbury for hundreds of years. These days you will find many attractions such as local treasure Ferguson’s Delicatessen, go-to brunch spot the Jet Lounge and of course the nearby Marquis Hotel & Restaurant, which features many of our Jim Lawrence lights.

If you want to get your teeth into the local shops, there’s no better place to start than Hadleigh’s Old Bakery, now a vintage Emporium, stuffed to the brim with unique and antique finds. Along the highstreet you will find a selection of independent clothing and gift shops to enjoy too. In the tucked away Maiden Way just off the main thoroughfare you will find The Little Grey Bird,  who are stockists of lovely hand-painted furniture. Here you will also find Mung Bean, Hadleigh’s local organic wholefoods store.

If there’s one place you need to pop your head into, it’s the Adnam’s shop. Adnam’s brew amazing beers and spirits from grain-to-glass in the nearby coastal town of Southwold, and their shop is stocked with their finest drinks and barware. You can even pop in for a tasting after visiting our showroom, why not?

If you’ve come by for the history, Hadleigh retains many of the 15th-century brick and timber framed buildings. Suffolk is famous it’s historic architecture, and Hadleigh has no less than 246 listed buildings; four of them Grade 1 – The Guildhall, St Mary’s Church, the Deanery Tower and the Coffee Tavern in the High Street where you can see beautifully detailed 17th century decorative plasterwork or ‘pargeting’. The town lies in the heart of Constable Country, so called because it produced two of our most famous artists – John Constable and Thomas Gainsborough – who were born and lived nearby and whose paintings celebrate the beauty of our big Suffolk skies and idyllic countryside.

As many of our lighting designs are inspired by our Great British heritage, we feel it’s our duty to appreciate the history of our surroundings. You’ll notice that many of our products are named after nearby locations across Suffolk and Norfolk. From hints of the coastline in our Scallop Wall Light and delicate strands of wheat in our Sussex Lights, the surroundings from which we built our brand upon are ever present in our design work.

Whether East or West, we hope you can visit us in one of our beautiful showrooms where we do our utmost to honour the modern country style we know you love.

Come and say hello to at The Ironworks, Lady Lane, Hadleigh, Suffolk, IP7 6BQ. To see a little more of our showroom online and learn a little more about how we operate behind the scenes, read our interview with the showroom team. Feel free to give us a call on 01473 826685 or drop us an email at sales@jim-lawrence.co.uk. We hope to see you soon!

For all of your home inspiration needs, be sure to keep up to date with our Instagram @jimlawrencemade and all of our mood boards on Pinterest. Don’t forget to tag us in all of your interior updates – we love seeing our products in their new homes.

With our Bath showroom sadly having to close its doors again, we thought we could share with you a digital exploration of our second home: beautiful Walcot Street. Packed with period charm, the Georgian buildings sweep and stand tall with their limestone fronts, the grey flagstone pavements gently warped with footsteps of curious shoppers over the years.

The shop itself, 114-116 Walcot Street, is a grade II listed building built in the 1700’s.  Famous for its curved frontage, this was designed to allow horse drawn carriages to turn around in the street. Bath has long been a fashionable destination for city folk seeking a more relaxed pace of life, and it has built up a reputation as the second home of interior design outside London, so where better to locate our latest showroom?

A suburb of Bath, Walcot is located at the North-East of the city centre. Famous for its ‘Paragon’, a street of listed stoned buildings leading out of the city, this area grew around what is believed to be an original roman road.

The other main thoroughfare is of course Walcot Street. The area has always been a hub for creatives and trade, and today is full of independent shops, restaurants, galleries, artists and makers. The variety of expertise on the street mean you really can get everything you need for a period home from paints, carpets and antique mirrors, to upholsterers and interior designers.

Also a go-to for local and artisanal produce, the street is dotted with cafes like The Fine Cheese Co, offering the best of British and European cheeses. You will also find our new favourite coffee shop, Café Walcot, alongside the exquisite restaurants and bars such as historical co-operative free house the Bell Inn and the exclusive Walcot House.

We are fortunate to be surrounded by other hand crafted artisans such as Bath Aquaglass, an independent glass production company specialising in beautiful and lead-free handmade fused glassware. For us, one of the most exciting parts of this new shop is meeting like-minded people also passionate about preserving age-old crafts.

Bath is home to many traditional trades, a lot of them scattered alongside us on Walcot Street. You will also find classic picture framers, jewellers and artists, as well as your favourite contemporary brands such as Farrow & Ball who also cater to the modernised period home. Whatever you need for your interior…Walcot Street will deliver.

“I have always loved the Georgian architecture of Bath. When we were looking for a location to open our first showroom outside Suffolk, we were drawn to Bath as it is such a natural fit with our lighting designs. Walcot Street, in Bath’s artisan quarter, has a fantastic variety of independent shops with a passion for interiors and we are thrilled to be joining them.” – Jim Lawrence.

Perfectly picturesque and bursting with character, we are so looking forward to getting back into action in this lovely location and being a part of this wonderful community. We are looking forward to the day we can greet you in store once more and enjoy everything this lovey city has to offer.

Find us at 114 – 116 Walcot Street, Bath, BA1 5BG. Access wise, there is a small lip to step over into the shop but the interior is all on one level. The nearest car park is the Cattle Market Car Park at the bottom of Walcot Street. Come and say hello, and be sure to pop into the other delightful businesses along the way when you can.

To stay up to date with all our Bath and Suffolk news, follow us Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Don’t forget to tag your Bath visits and purchases – we love seeing our products in their new homes!

We’ve shared some teasers with you in the past few weeks, but are thrilled to finally be able to reveal more about our stunning new shop location. We have officially completed, got the keys, and are beavering away to renovate this elegant building as we speak. There’s a fair bit to do (as you can see!) but we hope Jim Lawrence Lighting & Home in Bath will be up and running early autumn. The adventure starts here…

Opening our first regional shop right in the middle of Bath like this is only possible thanks to everyone’s amazing work and commitment, helping grow the company to where it is today. This includes you, our lovely customers. There’s nothing more rewarding than meeting you face to face at shows and in our Suffolk showroom and headquarters, so we’re very much looking forward to meeting our dedicated audience in the West!

We love getting stuck into a project, particularly when it involves decorating a unique period setting with all of our lights and home furnishings. We promise to keep you up to date with the progress, but first we want to walk you through the history of this beautiful space. A grade II listed building built in the 1700’s, the new shop is located in Walcot Street, the traditional artisan quarter of Bath.

Walcot Street has always been a hub for creatives, and today is full of independent shops, restaurants, galleries, artists and makers. The amazing selection of interior shops and expertise on the street mean you really can get everything you need for a period home here from paints, carpets and antique mirrors, to upholsterers and interior designers. There is also a fab flea market on Saturdays, so if you love vintage interiors style there’s plenty to explore after popping in and saying hello to us!

The unique curve of the shop front is what initially drew us to this spot. Reputedly it was built as such to make space for the coaches turning from the Bell Coaching Inn opposite. We were also excited to learn that we would be following in historic footsteps at 114 – 116 Walcot Street. Previously owned by much loved Richard Hathaway Lighting, we are pleased to be carrying on the tradition for showcasing beautiful lighting in this iconic location.

Looking back a little further, we couldn’t help but share these remarkable shots from the 1930s – its hardly changed a bit! We are honoured to be taking charge of this listed building to continue to celebrate and preserve its historical and cultural significance to the area. We just can’t wait to get all our classic lighting and home furnishing designs on display in this beautiful space soon.

We look forward to opening our doors this autumn, so please stay tuned for more exterior and interior updates as we restore this beautiful building into our first shop in the West. We will be sharing regular posts under the Walcot Street category, as well as on our social media platforms.

Would you like to be part of the adventure? We are on the lookout for a team with a passion for retail, period homes and high quality artisanal British design to help us launch our unique brand in the West country. Find out more online at jim-lawrence.co.uk/career-opportunities. Good luck!

If you live in the Bath area and can’t wait until later in the year, why not get a taste for our brand and browse our online shop? In the meantime, you can sign up to our newsletter here, and follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest