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HISTORY
The Bechstein association has been absent from Wigmore Street since 1916, but the 21st century seems to demand a new approach. With the restoration of this historic recital venue, complete with all mod cons, Wigmore Street acquires a little sister to its famous hall and restores at long last the historic link between this delectable location and the firm of Bechstein itself.
In 1889, Carl Bechstein’s piano firm from Berlin chose 40 Wigmore Street as the site for its London operations. They followed their London success by establishing in 1901 a concert hall at no. 36, originally known as Bechstein Hall. However, in 1916, during the surge of anti-German sentiment that accompanied the ongoing First World War, the property was confiscated and sold to Debenham’s for £56,500. The venue reopened the following year under a new name: Wigmore Hall.
18-22 Wigmore Street
return to London
1836
18-22 Wigmore Street as we see it today was redeveloped in 1892 by Holloway Brothers to designs by the architect Leonard Hunt, specifically to meet the needs of the flourishing Brinsmead company. Formerly a shepherd and carpenter, John Brinsmead had established his piano company as early as 1836, originally in Charlotte Street.
1870
1870
company’s name changed to John Brinsmead and Sons
It was a family firm; Brinsmead himself, a larger-than-life character, at first was in business with his brothers, one of whom was his chief technician, and in 1870 the company’s name changed to John Brinsmead and Sons, of whom there were four.
John remained at the helm until he was 90, ruling his employees, related or otherwise, with a will of iron and walking each day between his home near Regent’s Park, the piano workshop in Kentish Town and the salesroom in Wigmore Street. His longevity and good health has often been credited to that rigorous regime.
1890
1890
2,000 pianos annually
return to London
The sales side of the Brinsmead business first moved to what is now 18 Wigmore Street (it was then no. 4) in 1863 and subsequently expanded into nos. 20 and 22. They needed the space: by the mid 1890s, the company was producing around 2,000 pianos annually.
These would be displayed to tempt purchasers in the snazziest of surroundings: six rooms in all, typically displaying several hundred pianos, ‘ranging in price from the sound and popular drawing-room piano at forty guineas to the most exquisite and elaborately finished model at the plutocratic cost of three hundred and fifty guineas’ (as one puff-piece declared in 1893).
In 1894 Brinsmead added a 130-seat recital hall
return to London
1894
1894
Sporting elegant mahogany panelling and leaded glass windows, the showrooms were described as ‘one of the sights of fashionable London’, with ‘few rivals as regards their general attractiveness’. The display space took up the ground floor and the basement, the former with rooms on either side of the hallway. In 1894 Brinsmead added a 130-seat recital hall at the back of the lower floor, boasting windows on two sides, mirrored columns and tiled walls.
1914
1914
1917
1917
In 1914 almost 100 of the men from the Brinsmead workforce were recruited into active service and in spring of 1917 the firm was forced to make parts for aircraft. This caused an obvious, and intense, pressure on the business until finally in spring 1921 John Brinsmead and Sons was declared insolvent.
Jessica Duchen