About Ernest Race

Ernest Race was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1913 and after graduating in interior design from London’s Bartlett School of Architecture, he joined the lighting firm Troughton & Young as a draughtsman. After visiting a weaving village in India in 1937, he returned to London and opened a shop in Knightsbridge to sell textiles and carpets. Race did not start designing furniture until just after World War II when he answered an advertisement from engineer, J.W. Noel Jordan. His skill was to use ingenious manufacturing processes to create contemporary furniture from improvised or recycled materials. Ernest Race went on to win many awards for his iconic designs and he became a key figure in early twentieth-century British design. His work is celebrated to this day in various exhibits.