Fine Garden Bench Made from Teak from HMS Lion in the 1920s by Heals of London

A Fine Garden Bench made from Teak from HMS Lion in the 1920s by Heals of London The bench of slatted rectangular form and in a well know Heal’s of Tottenham Court Road pattern. Other examples of Heal’s furniture made from salvaged ships’ timbers survive but few examples have the name of the ship concerned carved in to the seat rails as on the present example which may well have been designed for use in a garden of remembrance or similar setting, hence having the dates of WWI carved either side of the central inscription. This piece combines ships’ timbers of impeccable provenance with the design associated with one of the premiere furniture designers in Britain at the time which is a rather irresistible combination. This fine and unusual bench is one of a small number of such pieces that were made in c.1924 by Heals of London using timber supplied to them by the shipbreakers Hughes Bolckow Ltd of Northumberland. The contract to break up Lion was one of the most valuable that the breakers ever received. However she was too large to fit in to dry dock at their Northumberland yard at Blyth. As such she was taken to an alternative dry dock, cut in half, and the two halves towed to different yards for breaking. More information on the breaking up of the vessel, including a wonderful photograph showing the vessel being dismantled, may be seen here HMS Lion: One of a small series of battlecruisers known as the “Splendid Cats”, Lion was the lead ship in her class. They were built in direct response to the German battlecruisers of the same period and were a distinct step up from previous British vessels in terms of their specifications and their overall speed. Lion was the flagship of the British fleet throughout WWI and so was a particularly appropriate choice to be used, in 1924, to create a commemorative object.