As part of their 50th anniversary celebrations this year, Gallery Direct has donated 50 hand-upholstered chairs to Rochester Cathedral, which is currently displaying a ‘Table for the Nation’, a 43-foot-long table, which was crafted from a gigantic 5000-year-old Fenland Black Oak in honour of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. Click here.
In addition to giving the public the opportunity to view and learn about the table, the Cathedral and trustees of the Fenland Black Oak Charitable Trust want the table, which can seat up to 50 people, to be used.
With this in mind, Gallery Direct, which is based less than 20 miles from Rochester, offered to donate 50 chairs to the Cathedral. “We are celebrating our 50th anniversary this year, and when we heard the Jubilee Table was going to reside at Rochester Cathedral for a year, we felt there was a synergy to giving them 50 chairs to use with the table, as well as elsewhere in the Cathedral,” explains Peter Delaney, director, Gallery Direct. “With the excitement around King Charles III’s Coronation, we wanted to offer seating fit for a ‘King’s banquet’.”
In liaison with the Cathedral, it was decided that the chairs would be Hinks with bronze legs, upholstered in Enzo Carbon, Crib 5, fabric, to complement the ancient black oak table. The 50 chairs were hand-upholstered at Gallery’s Wiltshire manufacturing site at Westbury, and delivered to the Cathedral last month.
The historic table will be displayed in Rochester Cathedral until 1 March 2024.
Visit www.rochestercathedral.org/fenland-black-oak-table www.thefenlandblackoakproject.co.uk/
Top: The Fenland Black Oak table is shown with the 50 chairs donated by Gallery. (Image with the kind permission of the Fenland Black Oak CIO).
