Frank Tyler and Utility Furniture

Following on from the enquiry I received, I looked again at the "Bought of" list to see if I remembered any of the items and whether any of them might still be around. The first entry appears to begin with the abbreviation "Ut." which I presume stands for "Utility". Utility furniture was very much a feature of Britain in the 1940s and early 1950s - try a Google search if you want to know more.

Many of the items sounded like the furniture I grew up with - we had a sideboard, dining table and four chairs and a desk which could be the same thing as the "writing table" in the list. By the time I was born, grandfather Albert was dead and grandmother Ada was no longer living at Red Hill, Chislehurst. So it is always possible that some or all of this furniture could have passed on to my parents. Below is a photo of a dining table, chairs and desk which appear identical to those I remember. I do not recognise the location. It is not Basildon Road, Abbey Wood where I grew up, so perhaps it is Red Hill. If you look carefully at the right hand corner of the table top, you will notice a slight indentation on the edge. Beneath the table top itself were retractable leaves which could be pulled out to extend the surface.

Most of the furniture has now gone the way of all things, but I still have one of the dining chairs.