Founding

Established in 1898 by Albert James Rowley and his wife Emma at 6 High Road, Silver Street, Kensington. (In 1909 Silver Street was renamed and whilst remaining in the same premises their new address became 140 Kensington Church Street.) Albert grew up in nearby Hammersmith, the son of James Rowley, an ecclesiastical carver and muralist. Emma grew up in Kensington and was the daughter of a local builder. The Rowley Gallery was founded in the same year that the couple married, as a small business specialising in picture framing, mounting, restoration, carving, gilding and exhibitions of paintings.

Albert had been a pupil at St Paul's School and his friendship with the artist Frank Brangwyn seems to date from this period through his association with Hammersmith's artistic community. Brangwyn worked for a while for William Morris who lived at Upper Mall in Hammersmith from 1878 until his death in 1896, and Albert was undoubtedly inspired by the legacy of the Arts and Crafts Movement established by Morris. Before very long The Rowley Gallery was also producing inlaid wood panels and furniture. Designs for panels were at first adapted from paintings by artists such as John Everett Millais, James McNeill Whistler and Lord Leighton, but then A J Rowley began to commission artists to make designs specifically for them. One of the first and most prolific of these artists was William Chase, who as well as creating many designs for inlay panels was also responsible for the distinctive Pan label used by The Rowley Gallery from 1912.

Church Street

By this time The Rowley Gallery premises had expanded and its address was now 140-142 Church Street, Kensington. Along with Chase, other artists included Henry Butler, Horace Mann-Livens, Robert Anning Bell and most notably Sir Frank Brangwyn. In the 1920s Rowley lived in the village of Ditchling, East Sussex at Hillway House, which had been designed by Arthur Joseph Penty and built on land acquired from Brangwyn, who lived in the neighbouring house, known as The Jointure. The working relationship between Rowley and Brangwyn was long standing. The Studio Yearbook in 1916 noted an exhibition at The Rowley Gallery of "panels executed in stained wood from pictures by Mr Brangwyn, Mr Chase and others. These panels were the result of a series of experiments carried out by Mr A J Rowley, and it must be admitted that they possess real decorative value and promise interesting developments". Over the years Brangwyn contributed numerous designs for panels which proved to be increasingly popular. Hollyhocks is in the collection of the William Morris Gallery and The Galleon can be found at the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery. Rowley Gallery artefacts can also be found in the collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum and Brighton Museum & Art Gallery.

Rowley's son Laurence joined the firm in the mid-1920s bringing his enthusiasm for furniture design. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s The Rowley Gallery became renowned for its inlay wood panels, mirrors and screens as well as for its silver leaf furniture and interiors. They had workshops in Campden Street, Kensington Place and Addison Bridge Place. According to Dennis Gale,^[1] workshop manager at Addison Bridge Place for several years during the 1930s, and husband of Rowley's daughter Betty, there were six cabinet makers, three French polishers, five workers in the paint shop and five seamstresses making curtains. Carpets were also designed and manufactured at these premises. There were two wood mills, and although some use of machinery was inevitable, dove-tailing was still done by hand. He remembered there to be a staff of around fifteen at Campden Street and about four or five porters at the main shop in Church Street.

Several well-known artists are recorded as having their work framed by The Rowley Gallery. Among those in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery are paintings by Harold Speed, Edward Wadsworth and Gluck (Hannah Gluckstein). By 1933 such was the success of the business that the premises at 140-142 Church Street were rebuilt in Portland stone, featuring a frieze designed by Brangwyn of three life-size carved wooden panels depicting sawyers, painters and carpenters. The interior decoration of the galleries featured walls "panelled in Japanese golden senwood with burnished silver fittings and black floors" (The Studio, 1933).