Chair Arch, 1877
High Wycombe is known for chair making, especially Windsor chairs.
Chair making was the town’s main trade in the Victorian era, and the people who lived here wanted to show off the local industry and their pride in it. Ceremonial arches were made in many place, but in High Wycombe, they began constructing chair arches for celebratory occasions in 1877. In that year, as many as 4,700 chairs were made in High Wycombe every day! Many of the chairs that was used to build the arch are Windsor chairs, which is what the area is known for.
1877 – The First Chair Arch
The first chair arch was built in High Wycombe to celebrate Queen Victoria’s visit in 1877. She was visiting Benjamin Disraeli at Hughenden Manor and passed along the High Street, through the arch.
Local people had only one day’s notice to prepare for the Queen’s visit, but chair factory owners made sure this arch was put up overnight.
The idea originated with the local Council, who deputised one of its members, Walter Skull – also a local furniture maker – to organise it through the Chair Manufacturers’ Association.
Skull assembled a committee which included some of the town’s most notable chair master, including Benjamin Howland and Thomas Glenister.
‘At the bottom were common windsor and cane-seated chairs, rising with the ascent of the arch through drawing-room, lounge, library, reading, rocking and other seats, to the State chair of the Mayor, covered with red velvet and bearing the gilded crest of the Borough… This arch attracted great admiration from Her Majesty as she returned from Hughenden, and had the coach stopped to enable her carefully to examine it’
From The Cabinet Maker & Complete House Furnisher, Nov 6, 1915
1884 – The Great Chair Arch
Perhaps the most famous of the chair arches, known as the Great Chair Arch, was erected across the road at the Guildhall to celebrate the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) to the town. The Prince and Princess of Wales came to Wycombe to visit Wycombe Abbey. Now a boarding school, Wycombe Abbey was then the home of Lord Carrington.
The 1884 arch consisted of over 400 chairs – there were so many that the structure the arch was built on was completely hidden by chairs.
The royal visitors must have been impressed by the arches, because when King Edward VII became king in 1902 High Wycombe factories made seats for guests at his Coronation.
1889 Chair Arch
In 1889 the chairmakers of West Wycombe built a chair arch next to the George & Dragon pub on West Wycombe High Street. This was to celebrate Sir Edwin Dashwood’s return to the village from New Zealand. The arch was hung with furniture made at Benjamin North’s chair factory, also on West Wycombe High Street.
1962 Chair Arch
In April 1962 Queen Elizabeth II visited High Wycombe and the chair arch tradition was revived in honour of the occasion. An indoor arch was built in the Town Hall.
Most of the chairs used to construct the arch came from G-Plan and Ercol.
Also in the Town Hall was an display of chairs and a model bodger’s hut. The Queen was shown around the displays by the then-Curator and Librarian John Mayes, seen in the photograph.
While on this visit to the town, the Queen also visitied the Royal Grammar School to formally open their new extension.
© Image High Wycombe Library
Queen Elizabeth II with Museum Curator John Mayes
Millennium Chair Arch at dusk on Wycombe High Street
The Millennium Chair Arch
In May 2000, a Millennium Chair arch was constructed to celebrate the new millennium – health & safety was in full swing at this point and the chairs was stacked on scaffolding rather than directly on each other.
One of the chairs included in the Millennium Chair Arch – a fireside chair made by Teal of Stokenchurch – was included in the museum’s 2020 digital exhibition Me & My Chair. You can see the chair & exhibition here.
Modern Chair Arches
2015 Chair Arch – ‘The Last Chair Arch’
The Last Chair Arch was an art commission led by public works for the Wye Dene housing development in High Wycombe. The project drew from the town’s history as a centre of furniture manufacturing in the UK by constructing a custom-designed chair arch. The artwork, made up of 166 chair units, was collectively produced and assembled with the help of local residents, students and industry specialists from in and around High Wycombe. After the project was completed, the individual wooden chairs were gifted to the participants involved.
Taken from the Public Works Projects Page
Chair Arch 2018
In December of 2018, a small chair arch was erected at Hughenden Manor, in their gardens as part of the Victorian Christmas celebrations. Constructed around a metal arch support, it contained around 20 chairs.
2015 Wye Dean Chair Arch © Image Public Works
2018 Hughenden Manor Arch © Image National Trust, photo Nick Charon
Other Commemorative Arches
1878 Arch
In 1878, Lord and Lady Carrington’s wedding was celebrated with three arches built across the High Street.
1890 Arch
Lord & Lady Carrington returned to High Wycombe from Australia, and an arch was built on Crendon Street to welcome them home.
1901 Arches
An arch was erected in St Mary Street outside the Red Lion Pub in 1901 to welcome home Lord Chesham and the Bucks Yeomanry from the Boer War. One side read ‘Bucks welcomes home Lawson and his men’ with the reverse reading ‘Long life to Lord Chesham’. Another arch was constructed at the railway station for the troops.
1878 arch for Lord & Lady Carrington’s wedding
1890 arch for Lord & Lady Carrington’s return from AustraliaÂ
1901 arch at Railway Place
Search Our Chair Collection
Search through a selection of the museum’s chair collection database, which has never previously been publicly available.
Chair of the Month
Every month in collaboration with the Regional Furniture Society, Wycombe Museum shines the spotlight on one of our wonderful chairs.
