During the 2020 lockdown, we had the opportunity to clear a large quantity of vintage furniture from Lordswood School for Boys in Birmingham. With both vintage stock and materials becoming increasingly difficult to source during the pandemic, it proved to be an unexpected opportunity to rescue a number of pieces that might otherwise have been lost.

Among the furniture were several sets of old school lockers, many of which had suffered decades of hard use. This particular set was in an especially poor state. Most of its doors were missing completely, while the few that remained were extensively damaged and beyond practical repair.

Using the surviving doors as our reference, we set about reconstructing what had been lost. New Sapele was sourced and machined in the workshop to create the rails and stiles for six new panelled doors, following the proportions and construction of the originals as closely as possible.

Suitable hinges and handles were sourced, the doors individually fitted and roller catches installed. The original numbered locker plates were retained and refitted, preserving an important detail from the piece’s life at Lordswood.

The carcass itself required extensive structural repairs before the whole piece could be fully refinished. Care was taken throughout to ensure that the newly made elements sat naturally alongside the surviving timber, rather than making the lockers appear newly manufactured.

Although much of what you see today had to be made again, the intention was never to redesign the lockers, but to restore the integrity of the original design. What arrived with us as a heavily damaged and incomplete piece of school furniture was returned to something close to its original form — functional once again, while retaining a tangible connection to its past.