Construction Wave

In 1897, Edward Wates set up the first Wates Company. Three years later, Edward, aged just 27, and his brother Arthur became the proprietors of a furniture shop down Mitcham Lane in Streatham, South London.

From humble beginnings, the Ipswich-born son of a carpenter and joiner, Edward and family would often move several times throughout the course of his father William’s career, before finally settling Mitcham Lane.