The furniture designer Thomas Sheraton was highly influential in Europe and America in the 19th century. Sheraton lodged at 163 Wardour Street in Soho from 1793 until 1795.

THE CABINET MAKER

Originally from County Durham, Sheraton moved to London in about 1790. The following year he began to publish his first important work, The Cabinet Maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing-Book, in weekly parts. Intended as an aid to craftsmen, the book explained proportion, perspective and geometry, and also included a number of Sheraton’s own designs.

Typically less English in inspiration than those of Thomas Chippendale, these designs were to become widely influential, both in Europe and America. But Sheraton did not enjoy the rewards during his lifetime. He struggled to make a living as a draughtsman, author, publisher and teacher of drawing – work which he carried out alongside his career as a Baptist minister – and died in poverty.

LONDON ADDRESSES

While lodging at 163 (formerly 106) Wardour Street, Sheraton published the second edition of his Drawing-Book (1794), and also produced Scriptural Subjection to Civil Government in an Exhortation to Real Christians (1794). From about 1798 to 1800, he and his wife Margaret, née Mitchinson lived at another address in Wardour Street, number 98 (now part of 147). After a spell in County Durham they settled at 8 Broad Street (later 32 Broadwick Street; demolished) and it was there that Sheraton died, three years after publishing a second book, The Cabinet Dictionary, and in the process of completing a third.