B081 Maples

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B081 - Edition 1,500

Maples

Sir John Blundell Maple was born in 1845. His father, John Maple, had come from Horley, Surrey, where he had been apprenticed before opening a small shop there. John Maple senior moved to London, working first as a shop assistant, and then moving to Tottenham Court Road where he set up in business with James Cook. Within a few years the partnership had split and John Maple decided to run the business on his own. Business was so good that he was able to afford a good education for his son, John Blundell Maple (Blundell was his wife's maiden name).
At the age of 16, John Blundell Maple joined the business, which began to take off in ways never before imagined. John Blundell Maple had exceptional business skills and while still a young man was running the company. The British Empire was spreading round the world and Maples seized the opportunity - by the 1880s it was the largest furniture store in the world and importantly they manufactured their own luxury furniture in a factory so vast that by the 1880s it occupied an area where once stood 200 houses. Maples' market was for the middle class and upwards - anyone who had money. They furnished palaces all over the world, hotels, town house, country homes and embassies.He owned a large racing stud winning many horse races and soon entered public life becoming a Conservative MP for Dulwich in 1887 and was knighted five years later becoming a baronet in 1897. He was a generous public benefactor, providing St Albans with the fully equipped Sisters Hospital (named after his two daughters who had died in successive years), and Clarence Park, a public park and sports ground. He also enabled the rebuilding of University College Hospital, London.

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