Designed for the Essex and Suffolk Equitable Insurance company, Capel House, New Broad Street, London, E.C.2. The client who commissioned the work from Voysey on the Company’s behalf was S.C. Turner, for whom Voysey had designed The Homestead in Second Avenue at Frinton-on-Sea, Essex in 1905. The contractor for the work was F. Muntzer, a friend and pupil of Voysey. A perspective design view of the Board Room in the V&A Museum London shows the set of board-room chairs of which a third is in the V&A. Voysey described the scheme in ‘The Builder’, 1909: “We put in new windows, doors, fireplaces and floors and furnished the offices; everything being designed by me, even the calendars, ink-stands, pen tray etc. The principle we worked on was to have everything durable, and minimise the cleaning as much as possible. Thus the upkeep is reduced to a minimum. All the woodwork and furniture is in oak, left in its natural colour…” The present dark stain was added subsequently.
